Month: November 2012

‘Adam’: A Movie About Someone With Asperger’s

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‘Adam’ is an award-winning movie about a young man with Asperger’s (played by Hugh Dancey) who has to fend for himself, and his romantic relationship with a neurotypical neighbor (Rose Byrne). Rent or buy it here.

“I cried during a lot of this movie….my young son has Asperger Disorder, and this is the most accurate depiction of a person on the Autism Spectrum that I’ve ever seen. I cried tears of joy that someone finally “got it,” and will make others aware of the challenges and gifts of persons affected by Asperger’s.” [Amazon customer review]

Is Your Spouse Autistic?

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Does your spouse seem absent-minded, insensitive, distant, antisocial, and just plain awkward? Does he or she have trouble relating to people, tends to rub others the wrong way, can’t seem to hold  a decent conversation,  is a little too forthright with personal opinions, constantly gets lost, is awfully disorganised, clumsy, often late and makes a mess? You could be married to someone with an autistic spectrum disorder (though not everything above applies to everyone with ASD). This article (courtesy of Margery D. Rosen at lhj.com) gives useful first-hand accounts by both spouses (and their counselor) in a marriage with a husband who has Asperger’s Syndrome.

Neil seems to live in his own world. I take care of everything from finances to repairs since he can’t be trusted to do anything. He can’t even keep a job. He’s always butting heads with bosses and coworkers. No surprise, really: Neil has never been able to deal with people. If we go to dinner with friends he won’t even look at them. If anyone asks him a question, he starts on an endless rant. I’m working two jobs now but he seems totally unconcerned about how drained I am.

A Little Taste of What It’s Like to be Autistic

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This is a video by Willow Marsden that kind of simulates a bit of what it’s like to be autistic (of course, symptoms and severity vary from person to person). Autistics have a hard time filtering out background thoughts, sounds, sights and sensations; so it’s like being in a television store with every TV blaring out a different channel. BTW she has Asperger’s and is a gifted artist, photographer and graphic designer. Do browse her online store, or contact her if you’d like any graphic design work done. There’s one of her photos below the video, and you can buy prints from her store.

Below is another video simulation of a first-person experience of autism, starring Carly Fleischmann. She has an oral motor condition that prevents her from speaking, but is able to think verbally (and communicate through a keyboard, which is not used in this video). Again, her condition is not typical of all autistics, everyone is different. Having said that, the sensory overload depicted in the video is a common feature of autism.

There are a couple more first-person simulations here and here, both well-worth watching.

Redesigning for Peak Oil

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A little reminder that design isn’t just about good looks. The world is facing a future of depleted oil reserves, which (baring the discovery of a viable alternative fuel, still nowhere in sight) means the end of the petroleum-based paradigm of infinite economic growth driven by frenzied mass-consumerism. The alternative we face is the ‘3S economy’ geared towards (if we’re lucky) Survival, Subsistence and Sustainability.

The only rational response to the end of the cheap oil is to redesign all aspects of our lives [Bulent Gokay, Professor of International Relations, Keele University]

No more flying mangoes halfway round the world to satisfy the tropical fruit cravings of Norway, or assembling cars in Mexico to be sold in Singapore from parts made in China. Globalization was premised on cheap oil, the future is Local (or at most ‘Glocal’, where information crosses borders via the Internet, but anything physical stays at home). The future is also likely to use less plastic, because most plastics are petroleum-based and energy-intensive, and will cost a lot more. Designers will have to think harder about how products are made, what they’re made of, and how much (of what kind of) energy they consume. In others words, designs will have to survive the demands and rigours of the 3S Economy. More about that in this article, Past Peak Oil: Life After Cheap Fossil Fuels by Bulent Gokay. For the audio-visually inclined, here’s a video [courtesy of incubate pictures, I’d take the title with a pinch of salt]. There’s also a nice flash presentation on the topic here by the Club of Rome, in the larger context of global resource depletion.

The Asperger’s/Autism Toolbox by ‘Monkey Pliers’

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The Asperger’s/Autism Toolbox is a website by someone with Asperger’s, with useful links to resources on Autism Spectrum Disorders. He uses the screen name Monkey Pliers (nope, I dunno why either). The text is a little hard to read (blue, green and purple fonts on a black background? Really?), but the site does have a certain aesthetic appeal (check it out, and you’ll see what I mean). The resources are really useful, though. The design has a lot of character, and I like the way it looks, kind of like a work of art.

Top Ten Signs You’re in a Cult

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Since many autistics suffer from loneliness (and have trouble detecting hidden agendas) they run the risk of ending up in cults, which provide instant fellowship at the price of unconditional obedience. Not all cults are religious groups (and not all religious groups are cults). In fact many cults are secular, offering quasi-scientific psychological therapies or other forms of ‘life improvement’. Inspired by my previous post, here (in no particular order) are the Top Ten Signs You’re in a Cult:

1. Leaders demand unquestioning and unconditional obedience from members.

2. Leaders are not accountable to anyone else, their deliberations are secret.

Ž3. The same leader has been running the group since it started, or leadership has passed to confidants.

 4. Members who leave are harassed, or emotionally blackmailed.

 5. Members are discouraged from forming relationships outside the group.

‘ 6. Non-members are regarded with suspicion, hostility, or merely as potential recruits.

7. Recruiting new members is a mandatory activity.

“ 8. Members are required to spend most of their time on group activities.

”9.  Members have to consult group leaders on even minor decisions.

•10. Members have to give a high proportion of their income to the group.

[Excerpt from The DIY Prison: Why Cults Work, read the book for free below]

To find out more about staying cult-free, simply read this free online cult-awareness handbook from the Cult-Free Campus Campaign. Don’t forget to share!

Get Paid $100 for a Top Ten List

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Listverse is a fascinating site that pretty much does one thing, it publishes cool ‘Top Ten’ lists. Everything from Top Ten Everyday Things We Forget to Ten Creepiest Spiders in Movies. And they pay for submissions: $100 per list to be exact.

It works like this: you write your list (1,000 words minimum – 10 items minimum), you send it in, we reply and say “great – we’ll publish it” and send you $100 by paypal (don’t have an account?  just make one – it’s easy), or we reply and say “sorry – it isn’t the sort of thing our readers will love – give it an other shot”. [From the website]

Listverse gets about 15 million visitors a month. If you have a blog, Twitter account or book you’d like to promote, they’ll even stick the info at the bottom of your post if it’s accepted. Time to make money from that fascination with ‘useless’ trivia!

Designing Autism-Friendly Schools

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A brief but informative article on designing schools for autistic children. Some argue that design accommodations should not be made for autistics, because they ought to learn to adapt to ‘normal’ environments. I would suggest that most ‘normal’ environments are badly designed even for ‘normal’ users, and designs specifically for autistics would benefit non-autistics as well. Read the following tips from the article and ask yourself, ‘wouldn’t these be good for any school, with or without autistic students?’:

…a simple and easily understood route for getting from A to B

…bright light and glare should be avoided

…calm and non-stimulating colours, unfussy and non-reflective finishes

Article first published in SEN Magazine issue 46: May/June 2010. The author Christopher Beaver is a partner in GA Architects: www.autism-architects.com, which specialises in architecture for autistic users.