Aspies For Freedom

Hello out there,

If you know a "Asperger friendly" place to live or work, post it!

I am wondering about real Asperger friendly places in this world. For my part, I once lived in a very small and international residential college where I was really happy. That is just an example.

But why don't we share our experiences of "Asperger friendly" places and how they were good for us? Would it not be nice if we come up with a network of places that are good for us?

Please post your real-world recommendation of an Asperger friendy place!

That so? I would have thought most astronauts work in close co-operation with their co-workers. Yuri Gagarin flew solo, but that was then. Today's space shuttles carry around seven astronauts.

When I was at uni I went to a talk by someone from the British Antarctic Survey (http://www.antarctica.ac.uk). He said that when he was interviewing applicants and he asked the inevitable question "Why do you want to go to Antarctica?" there'd often be someone who'd say, "Because I love solitude", and he'd be quick to disabuse them.

Has anyone here applied for an Antarctic posting? I gather that applicants have to undergo rigorous personality vetting, particularly if the posting involves staying over the winter.

I don't know of any good places to work since I'm not of working age yet, but I do know one place which is probably perfect for Auties.
The East Village and the Lower East Side! (The West Village is horribly gentrified and as a result NTfied.) However, you have to avoid yuppie and punk rock mofos who ARE assholes. I detest punk and goth teenagers because they sometimes throw stuff at people and spray graffiti. But if there's any spot in the world that is blissfully non-NT, it's Greenwich Village, NYC.

So are average rents / property prices low enough for all Aspies to be able to afford a place of their own in this area?

On the matter of places to work, the late Marc Segar (at http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~alistair.../jobs.html) made these recommendations:

And conversely...

If Marc's list of non-Aspie-friendly occupations is anything to go by, I don't think a non-NT area would be so blissful - no police officers, doctors, dentists or teachers; perhaps not even any bus- or train drivers. :roll:

I hope you're not going to let yourself be limited by such lists.  We are all individuals with widely differing interests and abilities.  My Aspie family includes a small business owner/manager with excellent sales skills, a nurse, a lawyer, and a marketing professional with a graduate degree in management. My grandfather was an airline captain.  Good thing none of us ever heard of lists like that when we chose our careers.   :roll:

Lists are a generalisation, granted, but without a definition of what is or isn't Aspie-friendly the term is meaningless. As witness the response to Attention-Tunnel's "personal Aspie criteria" thread and Wolfy's thread about chess: everyone passes off all their character traits as symptoms of the syndrome.

Aside ... "We are all individuals" was the headline on the July issue of Asperger United. I can't be the only one who was reminded of a certain scene in Life of Brian. :wink:

I was thinking of the one just after the nude scene, when Brian addresses the crowd from his bedroom window.

Brian: You don't need to follow anyone. You are all individuals!
Crowd: Yes, we are all individuals!
Bloke at back of crowd: I'm not!

I thought Attention-tunnel was referring to unprejudiced employers, colleges, and others with a positive attitude toward neurodiversity.

Making lists of suitable jobs for Aspies is, in my opinion, no more appropriate than making lists of suitable jobs for blacks or Jews.

I sent an e-mail to "Mission Possible" recently in which I commented on some of the "suitable jobs" language on their site.  Of course, they didn't bother to respond.

I had a look at Mission Possible's infamous website. While I don't have the rate of exchange of the Canadian dollar to hand, the fees they charge for matching people to mundane jobs strike me as extortionate. :shock:

Has anyone found Roger Meyer's Asperger Syndrome Employment Workbook of any use? I've never got around to completing the exercises.

On another Aspie forum I frequent / haunt, there is an schoolgirl whose careers advisor suggested she work with blind people, because that way there wouldn't be any problems with eye contact. :?

Here's Temple Grandin on "Choosing the right job for people with autism or Asperger's syndrome":
http://www.autism.org/temple/jobs.html

Yes, I've seen some of those bitter ex-wives' rant sites.  And they have the nerve to claim aspies are the ones who are dysfunctional and obsessive... sheesh.  They need to look in the mirror, and then they need to get a life!

True... the rant sites seem to be full of ex-wives though.

Re:  "suitable" vs. "unsuitable"

I think our reactions to those lists are going to depend partly on how much of a challenge each person likes.  I personally don't WANT to learn lots of extra interpersonal skills to adapt to a job, so I think it's kind of useful to think of what situations are comfortable for aspies.  Other people relish a challenge or find it good practice to learn different behaviours for different situations.  Like you guys said about individuals, I guess.

Autie friendly places:
Jamaica, New York. It's where I'm from, and it kicks butt! You'll find tons of interesting folks here. The only drawback is NT gangsters/drug dealers who wander around at night. Just stay to the north of Jamaica Ave. and you'll be fine. You can also get food from any culture, cheap merchandise, and hang out at the big library on the Ave. Flushing is good too. You can also get cultural food there.

Autie UN-friendly places:
Greenwich Village, or anywhere in Manhattan. The whole borough's full of snobs and disgusting NTs, and even Brooklyn is turning that way.
Anywhere in L.A.
Inner cities in China.
Anywhere on LI's North Shore <===SUCK<===RICH SNOBS!!!

Funny that - earlier you said Greenwich Village was "blissfully non-NT". But you didn't answer my question about whether average rents or property prices were low enough for all Aspies to be able to afford a place of their own. So what about Jamaica?

Pity the poor Aspies living in inner-city China. Not only are their neighbourhoods autie-unfriendly, but they're barred from joining any Aspergia community unless they happen to be fluent in English or Spanish.
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...2&start=15

BTW I was intending to link to the thread "What happened to the Aspergia movement?" in the Aspergian Ideas forum.