Autism is My Prism Not My Prison    

I found it very amazing to listen to the story of Barb and how by using the facilitated communication devices have allowed her to not only communicate but to write her own book on autism.  I do feel that with every disability there is an unspoken gold standard that the world feels like they must play by those rules, but when they have such an outstanding individual like Barb they really need to re-analyze their thinking.  I have read several articles over the controversial views on facilitated communication devices and have watched the movie Autism is a World.  After watching Barb and her “smiling shrink” work together I can see how some people view the output from the FC device as not truly being what the person with autism has to say but some influence from their communicator.  I found it very empowering when they expressed how important it is to let them have the chance to schedule their schedule allowing time to be lost within their autism.  You cannot structure the autism out of the individual but you can structure that individual through and around their autism.  I greatly agree with the use of Dolly Pardon’s quote “Find out who you are and do it on purpose”.  I view everyone as a snowflake; each individual is different in their own way which helps to structure the world into a better place.  If we were all the same then this world would be such a boring place and we need our unique snowflakes to brighten up our days!