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A Day in the Life of...

When an Image isn't an Icon

December 2005
by Deborah Lipsky

As a person with autism I am working hard to bring awareness to the public about autism and to challenge stereotypes. I have read in book after book particularly on Asperger's Syndrome that there is this tendency to characterize AS individuals as sci-fi  fans who are computer whizzes. While the DMS-IV doesn't include these two traits in its diagnostic criteria, the stereotypical image seems to be prevalent. I am here to challenge that notion.

Last week I decided to buy my first computer the only way one should: impulsively, on the spur of the moment 10 minutes before the store closed on a Friday afternoon. Since I don't like choices I bought the first one I saw. You should also know that I am computer illiterate and didn't even know how to turn the computer on. I wasn't worried though, because since I read Asperger’s people are computer geniuses I figured I too must have a latent genetic predisposition for computer mastery. I figured it would just come to me naturally like "riding a bike".

Let me share with you what I learned in the first 24 hours of owning my computer.

  1. attachments are more than accessories that come with a vacuum cleaner
  2. spam isn't a processed luncheon meat
  3. pop ups don't go into your toaster
  4. computer "cookies" aren't edible
  5. shouting is more than screaming out loud when your computer "eats your homework"
and never ever under any circumstance blanket brush pet hair off the top keys while connected to the internet as that rockets what you were working on into cyber space.

I was determined not to get discouraged and by day two I had figured out how to send emails. I was "happy as a clam" [tell me how do you determine if a clam is happy or sad? they are an invertebrate and don't even have heads]. I eagerly emailed my friend and told her I bought a laptop. She emailed me back, "Is your laptop a notebook?" I replied, "No it's a computer". She emailed me again saying, "I meant is your laptop considered a notebook?", and again my reply was, "No it's considered an electronic appliance."

I didn't have time to go nowhere with this conversation so I began to email another friend. We began to exchange emails without incident until he asked me if I was familiar with emoticons. He is really intelligent but I thought he was just a poor speller and meant to say emotions.  I  replied back, "Of course I am familiar with emotions" and I was irritated that he even would insinuate otherwise. Some time later he realized that I misunderstood him and replied telling me about little icons you can insert into emails. That is what he meant.  I was really embarrassed.

And then it happened.... While I was typing out a lengthy homework assignment as an email [I hadn't learned about drafts yet] and I was just about finished after an hour and a half of typing my hand got tired and my palm rested on a whole bunch of keys. In the blink of an instant my entire hard work and effort disappeared into a computer black hole. I began to shout all sorts of obscenities to the computer convinced it was powered by little green  gremlins who prey on innocent  computer rookies like me. I wanted at that moment to fulfill this computer's other destiny......to become a boat anchor!
I can tell you I cried, I begged, I even bartered with the darn thing to give me back my lost work. "This isn't fair" I yelled. How could this be? After all, Aspies are all computer  whizzes so why was I having such trouble? Then it dawned on me why. I don't have Asperger's Syndrome,
I have High Functioning Autism. Only  AS individuals are supposed to be computer masters. With that realization I  was  very relieved that this wasn't as easy as a "Dick and Jane" reading book. I decided to "log off", take a break, and relax by watching my Star Wars trilogy DVD's,  followed by the "Alien" series.
BTW....by the way
LOL....lots of laughs
CYA L8TR.....see you later.

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