Aspies For Freedom

Taping has begun for a film about high-functioning autistic individuals that's aimed to help young adults cope with the condition.

"Differently Abled" is a one-hour film designed to promote self-understanding, self-confidence and self-advocacy skills by giving viewers information about their diagnosis and focusing on four students between the ages of 12 and 17 with autism or Asperger's Syndrome.

"This video will be something that you can show to a child to explain what Asperger's is," said Dr. Jane Nofer, clinical director of The Center for Diagnosis and Consultation Services in Kingston and a national expert on supporting students with As-perger's Syndrome in public school settings.

"They can see other kids that face the same challenges and who have overcome these challenges," Nofer said.

Asperger's Syndrome, a developmental disorder, is a mild form of Autism. Individuals are challenged by social and communication problems. Many have average or above-average intelligence and are able to remain in regular education settings and earn advanced higher education degrees.

Producing and appearing in the film will be Jamey Wolff, program director for the Children's Annex school in Kingston, a not-for-profit day school serving more than 200 children with autism spectrum disorders from 55 school districts in the Hudson Valley.

"The idea came to me three years ago," she said. "Videos are great learning tools for this population."

Visual learning strong

Individuals with this type of autism are strong visual learners and constructional videos are used in daily instruction at the Children's Annex school. Wolff believes a video for and about their condition would greatly help these young adults understand and cope with it.

Wolff wants to preview the film in one year at a local theater. Admission will be free.

The Children's Annex serves children between the ages of pre-school and 15. The students then return to a less- restrictive educational environment in their communities.

The video is targeted for young adults because they are more apt for depression and poor self-esteem during middle school and high school, Wolfe said.

"Adolescence is hard for everyone, but especially for those with autism," Wolfe said.
By Leigh Ann Vanscoy
For The Poughkeepsie Journal

i'm a bit skepitc in saying that autism makes everything harder.  i had an easier time in acedemic work, for example.  and to say that autism makes everything more challenging, i belive is saying that being normal is the best way to deal with life, which normal i belive is boring.

Funny, I've related more to the challenges of cartoon characters, than some NT arranged consideration of what "they" think is challenging for High-Functioning Autistics.

The fact that its titled dDifferently Abled and that the article notes that individuals thend to be strong visual learners would suggest otherwise. It says nowhere or implies that autism makes everything harder. It does note that adolescence is harder on autistics than on NTs because of additional challenges-- frankly an NT would prob take offense at this more than an autistic, because it implies life is always easier for Nts, which is not neccesarily true since everyon ehas their own problems.

warning: this post is prety much one long rant.

The Autism "Experts" at my High School are working on a documentary, that is suposed to help students understand autism.   They don't have it all done yet, but they showed a clip at the school board meeting that I saw on our school info channel.  the entire clip made me angry :evil: ,  I "wanted to"(as in partly did)  smash a shoe into her stupid head.  Absolutely everything se said I considerd prety grr.  

They profiled two students one highschooler (juinior at time of clip) and one who will be at hte high school by the time that documentary is compleated. the Highschooler, tries so much to act like an NT. but he realy, truly ends up looking like a freak to kids and he is considerd to be an odd kid but nobody realy cares much because a lot of people know that he is difernt, unfortunately they usualy say like  not right mentaly, or realy disabled.  There was an article in hte nwespaper about him last year, so a lot of kids know.  After the documentary evryone will know,  not that peopole knowing is a problem, but the fact that pepole make fun of him all the time is, it will just increase, even if he dosen't know it.   He also has an NT sister a year younger(in my year), and though most people arn't mean about it that I know of,  she is in band which has about 250 students, which will probly cause some problems for her.  

The other kid who will be comeing into a school with closet to 3.5 thousand students, all who will know he is "difernt" mentaly, and will be treated as such.  

The lady(who I was requierd to see last year duing my (unneaded) study hall)  kept saying in the clip that all autistic kids want is to be accepted, to be part of the group.  

I do want to be accepted, but I could nto give a darn about being part of a sadistic, superficial society of shallow people.  I do not want to be accepted because those people who helped the disabled kids said that they want you to like them, and they figure3 they'll be nice to you because you are disabled.  I want people to accept me for who I am.  My "nt-ish" friends accept me.  They don't know I have AS, (well tried to say so once but...)  but for some reason(unbenowest to me) they like me.  Growing up in today's society, we discuss topics around us,  when autism comes up, yeah i feal weird, but if they knew I had autism, I can't imagine how weird I would feel.  Even though they don't know I have trouble(or at least why) with social things, or why I act a certain way, they have never had a problem explaining things to me.  If  they knew, it might seem like a burdon to them.

when they have video of the kids walking around the school, and talking about autism (almoste positively writen by the "experts" for them to say)  It is in shades of blue which sugjests sadness.

I hate to critizize them, because they are trying to do what I want, to have people understand autism, but how can they have others understnad when they do not truly understand?  

If I have to watch that video in class, I don't know how to respond. I wish we had seen it this school year in my latin class( I've only met one teacher/staff who seems to understand what it is like to be autistic, and it was my latin teacher last year, and two years from now.)  My teachers will know I have AS, and if the video dose not give an acurate representatin, that is still what they will have in their minds.  

So teribly sorry about that rant.

As for the diferntly abled video, I can't judge unless I see, but I am somewhat skeptical.