Vocational Rehabilitation/TEACCH

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In my opinion Asperger's syndrome is one of the worst neurological disorders anyone could have. I feel if I would have manifested in the 21 century rather than the 20th century, I definitely would have received an earlier diagnoses, and above all treatment as a child. Instead I've gone through most of my adult life having AS, and not even knowing. It's kind of like my father having ALS, and so many doctors did not know what he had until he had had it after a few years. It is so frustrating how doctors still don't know much about Asperger's syndrome. When I was at the voc rehab in Charlotte, NC I noticed a worker in a wheelchair, and I thought wow, I wished I had a physical disability rather than a neurological disorder, and then I could be gainfully employed, and be independent. I've never been able to stay employed very long. I think the longest was about four months. I was able to get through college, but it was difficult, and I did have some help, and I liked what I was studying. I enjoyed the history of social work, but I could never work as a social worker especially with AS. I called the voc rehab several days ago asking if anyone knew of some support groups for people with AS. They said they did not know, and transferred me to someone else, but all I got was a voice message, and I didn't leave a message. I know the TEACCH Autism Program mainly works with children, but I do hope they work with adults. Still I can't believe in Charlotte at the TEACCH program someone over the phone had suggested that I may not have Asperger's syndrome anymore because I am an adult even though I was diagnosed as an adult.

My university social psych professor told me my "spells" probably included temporal lobe epilepsy, and further research verified it was probably included with my neurological disorders.

Failure at getting gainful employment after my second university degree was the main impetus for my verifying impairments as meeting the Rehabilitations Act's protection against discrimination and eligibility for many Rehab services and advantages. At first, Rehab try to tell my impairments were too minor for services reserved for people with more severe impairments, while I also received the Catch-22 warning that epilepsy was too complex of an impairment and I had better "choose a better impairment".

Rehab tried to force me to continue to drive and to try for dangerous sporadic part-time jobs (some like cleaning out the bottoms of large petroleum tanks from the inside). The jobs involving discrimination complaints were mainly "bean counting" jobs involving accounting, banking, taxes, etc., and were "physically safe" with the set of my impairments; I ranked very well with the jobs that matched my recent major, and I made it into "outstanding scholar" preferences, with additional legal protection with the MSPB.

Rehab demanded transcripts straight from the university (as if my copies were fakes), and it demanded many vocational related tests. I wasn't smart enough to fake stupid on an abridged IQ test, and I was subjected to the "too smart to be a cop" Catch-22, while then being told that my perfect score precluded any chance of improvement with rehabilitation for my impairments. Rehab soon issued a formal determination that my impairments were too severe and too complex to be benefited by any feasible Rehab services, which I appealed, and finally filed federal lawsuits against their denial of services because of my impairments.

My federal lawsuits were before the ADA and the ADAAA, and were limited under the Rehab Act. While I was determined as disabled by Social Security standards, the federal courts held my impairments were not proven for discrimination protection with federal employers, while the federal courts also held that my impairments were sufficiently severe and evident to disqualify me from challenging Rehab's determination that Rehab services would not be feasible with such complex and severe impairments. (During "administrative remedies", federal employers also argued that my being found disabled by SS meant that I couldn't meet the standards for being "otherwise qualified" for the jobs (this Catch-22 wasn't overturned by the Supreme Court until CLEVELAND v. PMSC:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/97-1008P.ZO ).

I could frequently hide the epilepsy aspects of my neurological impairments, but informal oral job interviews revealed a noticeable degree of Asperger's, putting employers on alert to attempt to disqualify me with any legally safe technicality.

While I was always getting "that boy's not quite right" judgments, I always also got the shallow advice that other people always had bigger hurdles and that I should take them to be inspirational to sad-sack pity-pot me, so, one of my favorite cartoons is Callahan's disgruntled role-model subjected to "People like you are a real inspiration to me!":
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/ ... nimgC.html

The obit is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/arts/ ... lahan.html

Tadzio