... OR, ‘Why Title III Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Must Be Amended To Authorize Money Damages Against Businesses That Bully, Abuse, & Financially Exploit Adults With Autism’
Since my Horrible experience of last week with my Autism being bullied and discriminated-against by PayPal (and e-Bay and my bank more peripherally), I learned through my research about them the following -- and I am writing this update because these businesses are Vital for severely Autistic adults if we are to achieve our community-based living promise of Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999) & implementing Exec. Order viewable here: http://www.freedomclearinghouse.com/olmstead/olmstead&w_061801.htm, to be enabled to navigate the essentials to support ourselves independently in the communities in which we live.
It turns out, as I discovered after my initial post on this Autism access subject, that PayPal was sued in a class action in the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, captioned In re PayPal Litigation, N.D.Cal. Case No. CV-02-01227-JF/PVT. Despite my being a class member, apparently (news to me, because adults with Autism were never contacted and distributed our share of damages in that lawsuit as a consequence of the California Bar attorneys involved in the case failing to give Autism language-communication access as required by Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust, 339 U.S. 339 U.S. 306 (1950) to notify us in Autism-accessible formats that we were class members and entitled to a share in the damages), this past week was the first I heard of that case spelling out PayPal's pattern and practice of exploitation.
Among the allegations against PayPal in that lawsuit included that it took and held funds deposited in customers’ PayPal accounts for sometimes months on end with no meaningful recourse for the account holders to access them. E-Bay is a National commercial Internet marketplace and business. When I initially posted an item for sale on e-Bay that led to my initial post about the Autism bullying and discrimination I endured at the hands of PayPal (that e-Bay facilitated and allowed), I noticed that e-Bay failed to post a conspicuous warning NOT to use PayPal as a civil rights measure to satisfy it's duty to protect vulnerable adults with Autism from having PayPal take funds upon which adults with Autism depend in the face of an overwhelming lack of adult Autism funding and services in this Country.
Quite the opposite ! What I saw was a statement on e-Bay that induced adults with Autism to check the PayPal box to send a deposit or all of the sales proceeds for items we would sell on e-Bay to PayPal, and a misleading statement that disparaged the safety protections adults with Autism normally take to prevent others from stealing our money, i.e., direct wire transfer into our own bank accounts or cash. E-Bay actually posted as means to induce vulnerable adults with Autism to entrust our necessary funds with PayPal a statement informing potential buyers that a seller who requests direct bank account wire or cash is ‘a scam’ and should be viewed as ‘a scam’ if the seller does not use PayPal. This had a strongly negative disparate impact on vulnerable adults with Autism.
As almost EVERY parent of a vulnerable adult with Autism and adults with Autism living in the community can attest, when we as a vulnerable population with more than $3.2-$5 million lifetime cost needs to care for, treat, support, and tend our Autism (See e.g., "Autism Has High Costs to U.S. Society," Harvard School of Public Health, http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2006-releases/press04252006.html, have our funds withheld from us by PayPal’s unfair trade and business practices and Autism discrimination preventing severely vulnerable adults with Autism from accessing funds sent to us for items we have sold IMMEDIATELY, this can have DIRE life and safety threatening consequences for the vulnerable adult with Autism. In fact, in Florida, Florida Statutes, Sec. 415.1111 authorizes statutory damages against such vulnerable adult disabled Autism people by those such as PayPal who financially exploit us, and even authorizes a mechanism to request leave for treble punitive damages. PayPal purposefully avails itself of the state of Florida in terms of personal jurisdiction over it here.
I spent several days suffering the insult and indignities of having to have my Husband, who has conductive hearing loss, have to call e-Bay to get the un-publicized number for PayPal, only for PayPal employees who never heard of Autism to be screaming at him, triggering his epilepsy, causing the two people on the phone to be screaming so loud it triggered my temporal lobe epilepsy Autism sensory overload to the point of meltdown and infliction of physical epigenetic damage on me.
PayPal was unremorseful and claimed they did not have to obey Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act to make their services accessible to the millions of disabled Americans in this Country, and especially not to adults with Autism living in the community – but instead that PayPal had the ‘right’ to dupe us into handing over our funds so PayPal could keep them for months if not forever (indicative of PayPal's obvious intent to game such wrongly withheld funds belonging to disabled people to capture interest on those funds it feeds into its reported 'business profits').
Notably, I did discover in the news recently, that the e-Bay – PayPal restraint of trade tie-in scheme of Autism bullying and discrimination to fleece us into handing over our funds, so PayPal could hold them, keep them, and loot interest investments from them, had produced a ‘business profit.’ A ‘profit’ predicated on the financial exploitation of disabled Americans and severely vulnerable adults with Autism.
Worse, the bidder on e-Bay joined in PayPal’s Autism bullying and abuse by mocking my vulnerable adult Autism severe language communication disabilities (buyer was a Title III Americans With Disabilities Act business themselves), saying ‘it is your fault you cannot navigate PayPal.’
'My fault' I cannot navigate Neuro-typical business social communication structures – because I am a vulnerable adult with Autism, severely non-verbal with “markedly limited verbal abilities” and require Americans With Disabilities Act accommodations ?
'My fault' I cannot navigate Neuro-typical business social communication structures – because PayPal abusively coerces the use of Neuro-typical social phones and paper print communication modes without providing PECs, i-Pad, or Internet AAC Autism communication access (and has NO specifically Autism trained person to assist) ?
Parents, adults with Autism just now embarking on navigating in the community, BEWARE of getting tangled in the web of Autism bullying and discrimination that currently exists, unbridled, at PayPal and e-Bay and losing Autism support funds upon which you DEPEND. Pls. Never say someone who has been there didn't warn you !
Is THIS the society we want for the most vulnerable of all – adults with severe Autism ?
As an adult with Autism, I say No !!! But I cannot change the access problems pervading this Country that plague families with Autism by myself. Every parent should say No !!! Every adult with Autism should say No !!!
We adults with Autism have a civil and consumer right for PayPal and e-Bay not to exclude us from one of this Country’s most vital marketplaces because of our disabilities and PayPal’s refusal to obey Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act to make their services accessible to us.
I just wanted to write this update, because I would not want any other adult with Autism to be abused and financially exploited as I was by PayPal (and e-Bay for allowing it). E-Bay and PayPal even retaliated in violation of the plain prohibition of the ADA’s retaliation provision, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12203, by not removing negative feedback directed to my Autism communication and navigation disabilities from my account – put there because I needed Autism communication accommodations for access PayPal refused to give me.
If THIS is the “American model of business,” No thanks !!! People with Autism have a community-based living right to enjoy and access America’s business services, too. Indeed, we DEPEND upon it.
It is no longer acceptable for American business to be “for Neuro-typicals only."
THAT is the message of Autism access we as members of the Autism community should be sending every American business.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Blatant Autism Discrimination At e-Bay and PayPal, Joint Cause of the National 96 % Adult Autism Unemployment Rate
My apologies to my readers for not writing for so long. I not only have markedly limited verbal abilities, but a Jan. 2008 brain injury for which my medical care was cut off, aggravating the extent of my brain damage.
I do intend to resume with the posts I promised, but in the meantime I feel the need to bring an important issue to the attention of the Autism community regarding an example of lack of Autism access, and this will not be my last post as I do think there is a need to start calling out the Autism access barriers where they exist in an endeavor to see if we as an Autism community can ask society to remedy them.
This post is a Greatly needed post on just ONE MORE REASON adults with Autism continue to suffer a Devastating appx. 96 % National unemployment rate, resulting in our parents, families, and the American taxpayer having to pay to warehouse us when "but for" the Blatant Autism discrimination at e-Bay and PayPal and MANY U.S. banks and other American businesses, we could support ourselves.
I not only have severe Autism with limited verbal abilities, but also temporal lobe epilepsy triggered by loud speech sounds including speech on telephones and cell phones. This is not an unknown disability as it has been documented on the www.omim.org database, #600512: "Michelucci et al. (2007) reported a 36-year-old woman with lateral temporal lobe epilepsy manifest as telephone-induced seizures. She had an 11-year history of recurrent partial complex and secondarily generalized seizures evoked almost exclusively by answering the telephone. Other auditory stimuli could also elicit seizures. The seizures were accompanied by distortion or attenuation of sound, inability to understand language, and inability to speak appropriately, all consistent with lateral temporal lobe involvement."
Here is my Oddysey through the INSANE completely inaccessible, un-navigable method e-Bay and PayPal and MY bank (Regions Bank - Florida) use for the Nation's vulnerable developmentally disabled adults with Autism:
To contact PayPal, the adult with Autism with the epilepsy is REQUIRED to find another person to use a telephone and call e-Bay to get "transfered" to PayPal -- apparently, PayPal has NO telephone number, NO TTY, NO Internet access, NO PECS, NO iPad access or anything to accommodate the TIDAL WAVE of adults with Autism in this Country as REQUIRED (a federal civil right) under Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 12181-12188 et sec. (See, also Meyers v. City of Jacksonville, Fla., 754 So.2d 198 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000) (violation of the ADA access statutes or regulations also constitutes per se negligence and subjects the business to money damages)).
I have had a PayPal account since appx. 2000-2001, and had a "verified" "confirmed" bank account with them. Without providing me ANY Autism accessible visual notice whatsoever, PayPal "unconfirmed" and "unverified" my bank account sometime last fall, unknown to me. They then told me I had to go through the "confirm" and "verify" bank account process AGAIN.
When I atttempted to do an "Instant Confirmation" of my PayPal bank account, I could not coordinate my fingers fast enough to enter the numbers and PayPal timed-out my Autism AAC computer device without letting me use my three attempts, and then took the posture that they had NO program in place to assist people with Autism and vaccine injuries who have motor neuron dexterity impairments to do an "Instant Confirmation" and that they "didn't have to" and that there was NO one I could have my phone interpreter talk to about it. This is COMPLETELY CONTRARY to the civil rights DUTIES these businesses OWE to disabled adults with Autism and other dexterity disabled Americans and one CAN ONLY WONDER WHERE THEIR LEGAL DEPARTMENTS PASSED THEIR BAR EXAMS !!!
The fact disabled plaintiffs in Rendon v. Valleycrest Productions, Ltd., No. 01-11197 (11th Cir. 2002), for example, were screened out by an automated telephone system, rather than by an admission policy administered at the studio door, was of no consequence under the Americans With Disabilities Act statute; “eligibility criteria are frequently implemented off site-for example, through the mail or over the telephone. Indeed, Congress specifically noted in the ADA’s ‘findings of fact’ that ‘individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including outright intentional exclusion, the discriminatory effects of architectural, transportation, and communication barriers,’ the very sorts of discrimination the statute seeks to redress. 42 U.S.C. § 12101(a)(5) (emphasis added),” Id. (citing Ferguson v. City of Phoenix, 157 F.3d 668 (9th Cir. 1998) (discriminatory 9-1-1 emergency response system))/
Oblivious to their DUTIES under the Americans With Disabilities Act, PayPal droned on and told me I would have to "wait 2-3 days" for PayPal to send a small deposit to my bank, and then I would have to get that small deposit amount and enter it into PayPal to "confirm" and "verify" my bank account the 'Non-Instant way.'
I DID do that, more than 7 days ago, and my bank informed me they STILL have received NO deposit from PayPal. Note: PayPay falsely advertises the turn-around time is 2-3 days, but admitted it can take up to 5 days and in my case it is now 7 days of attempting to navigate this same Autism lack of access issue.
My bank also refuses to provide any Autism AAC access accommodations and has taken the posture that a person who cannot use a telephone like a "normal" Neuro-typical person "must have a guardian," and they say they 'never heard' of the Americans With Disabilities Act and do not have to obey its disability civil rights access provisions. Ultimately, 7 days later, my bank told me it can do nothing to help me navigate as an adult with Autism, that PayPal must do it, and that my deposit money from my e-Bay sale can be held hostage and not given to me.
PayPal refuses whatsoever to do ANYTHING to make the process accessible, says 2-3 day time periods can just keep occurring indefinitely (in an endless loop), and that PayPal has NO legal duty under Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act to make its process of "confirming" and "verifying" a bank account accessible to a severely disabled adult with Autism, and there is NOTHING I can do about it.
e-Bay has been MORE helpful than PayPal or my bank, but nevertheless e-Bay lacks pictogram signage adults with Autism can follow to navigate around e-Bay and MORE ESPECIALLY fails to write its information on 'how to navigate different selling methods' and its 'rules' in a way to remove the social-English people with Autism cannot understand and put it in simple language and pictogram terms adults with Autism can understand and navigate. It's no different than when blind people do not have braille or screen reader accessibility to assist in navigating such a website, and analogous to the blind Americans lawsuit against the Target Stores website.
Finally, I managed to make a significant sale on e-Bay that I was FORCED to make because Nationwide Insurance company has withheld in bad faith (without objections in any way to my medical bills) the payment they are required to pay under their uninsured motorist policy for almost $100,000 in medical bills I have already incurred that they signed for for over 3 years; and also because Social Security has delayed my SSDI and SSI Autism disability claims for over 9 years since April 2002 all because they inform me they have NO guidelines to properly assess the severity of Autism. Because of this withholding of money I should be getting TIMELY as adult Autism support and for medical coverage, as a result of this type of repeated abusive failure to timely pay adults with Autism funds upon which we DEPEND, I was not only cut off from my medical care for my Autism and brain injuries and suffered additional injuries, but NOW I was forced to sell a trailer my adult Autism horse business required to operate profitably that cost more than $30,000, for $12,100.
If that is not a systematic rip-off of the supports and self-support assets adults with Autism NEED, it's bad enough. But the buyer made a deposit to my PayPal account, and PayPal took the posture of REFUSING to let me access my own money to pay for my Autism needs, including my housing. While claiming PayPal "security" can completely override Americans With Disabilities Act Autism access civil rights, PayPal hung up on my Autism interpreter (other person I had to find to ask to call them because I cannot use telephones and they REFUSE to have alternative Autism accessible communication channels available) at least 3-4 times. PayPal told me I can just keep going in 2-3 day cycles, endlessly, and they have NO obligation to assist my Autism to help me receive my money I have been paid but can hold my money hostage indefinitely -- even if it puts my adult Autism home into default !!! (Notably, PayPal paid THEMSELVES their own cut right away !)
Adults with Autism fall off a Cliff when we age out of childhood Autism supports and services, as everyone in the Autism community KNOWS. People with Autism frequently have implicit learning disabilities, and we cannot do any employment or self-employment that we have not been EXPLICITLY and painstakingly trained to perform. I have only been explicitly trained to (1.) be a lawyer, or (2.) train jumping horses, ponies, and riders; however, most who know about my story know that I have been denied my attorney license in California for 21 years, and Florida for 9 years because they have NO Autism-specific attorney licensing programs and do not require the bar admission officials to undergo specific-Autism education and training -- so I cannot work as a lawyer. That is out. That leaves me, as a 55 year old adult with Autism, with being COMPELLED to earn my ability to support myself from my horse business Social Security told me I had to 'do for work' -- for which a horse trailer to pickup and deliver sales horses and ponies, and take horses and ponies to horse shows and other events where buyers can see them, is an Essential business asset.
Did e-Bay, and ESPECIALLY PayPal, or my bank care whatsoever about my needs as an adult with Autism ? Emphatically, No !
The ENTIRE scenario I was put through by e-Bay, PayPal, and my bank is INSANE, and BLATANTLY discriminatory to the type of access adults with Autism REQUIRE if we are to be able to create and innovate products, sell items, or operate our own Autism business in order to become self-suppporting, independent, and earn our own living to SUPPORT OURSELVES.
A very good Question in all of this is: WHERE is the U.S. DOJ ? WHY would the U.S. DOJ civil rights division NOT be bringing an Autism access enforcement action against e-Bay, PayPal, and numerous banks to ensure ALL adults with Autism of every severity have meaningful access ? NOT everybody can use a telephone to communicate ! MANY disabled Americans CANNOT !!! To PENALIZE a disabled American -- especially an VULNERABLE adult with AUTISM with the extra burdens of delay upon delay and forcing another person to speak for us to the point we lose our HOMES and our business (that support us), is NOT acceptable.
Note: Florida just initiated a mortgate "rescue" program to refinance and assist with mortgages and keeping Floridians in our homes, but made it intentionally target the exclusion of adults with Autism by refusing Autistics who can only buy a home through seller-financing (because the Autism inaccessible BANKS also refuse to give mortgages to adults with Autism and make their mortgage processes Autism accessible) meaningful participation.
I would URGE Every parent of a person with Autism, every family, every carer, and every single other taxpayer sick and tired of being taxed to pay for adults with Autism who can SUPPORT OURSELVES WITH THE AUTISM ACCESS WE NEED to WRITE to U.S. DOJ, e-Bay, PayPal, and every bank you can think of and DEMAND they comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act to give blind, deaf, and people with Autism ACCESS NOW !!! NOT 21 years after the Americans With Disabilities Act became the law of this Land. Or, let your WALLET do business elsewhere - just like the World sent the economic message to South Africa that Apartheid was WRONG.
For anyone who doesn't stand up for Autism access and take some initiative to do something about voicing the concern that a commercial exchange as Huge as e-Bay and PayPal to the American economy is NOT Autism accessible -- YOU have nothing to complain about when your taxes are raised to warehouse all the adults with Autism PREVENTED from working (a lifetime appx. $3.2-5 million cost for each Autistic), and the U.S. cannot pull out of this economic tailspin it's in because it is weighed down by the Autism TIDAL WAVE albatross.
Adults with Autism CAN earn a living WITH Autism access !!! If not NOW, WHEN ??? ! What are YOU going to do to tell e-Bay, PayPal, American banks, other similar businesses, and the U.S. DOJ to fix this broken system and give MEANINGFUL ACCESS to adults with Autism living in the community under the Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999) mandates - just like you ?
I do intend to resume with the posts I promised, but in the meantime I feel the need to bring an important issue to the attention of the Autism community regarding an example of lack of Autism access, and this will not be my last post as I do think there is a need to start calling out the Autism access barriers where they exist in an endeavor to see if we as an Autism community can ask society to remedy them.
This post is a Greatly needed post on just ONE MORE REASON adults with Autism continue to suffer a Devastating appx. 96 % National unemployment rate, resulting in our parents, families, and the American taxpayer having to pay to warehouse us when "but for" the Blatant Autism discrimination at e-Bay and PayPal and MANY U.S. banks and other American businesses, we could support ourselves.
I not only have severe Autism with limited verbal abilities, but also temporal lobe epilepsy triggered by loud speech sounds including speech on telephones and cell phones. This is not an unknown disability as it has been documented on the www.omim.org database, #600512: "Michelucci et al. (2007) reported a 36-year-old woman with lateral temporal lobe epilepsy manifest as telephone-induced seizures. She had an 11-year history of recurrent partial complex and secondarily generalized seizures evoked almost exclusively by answering the telephone. Other auditory stimuli could also elicit seizures. The seizures were accompanied by distortion or attenuation of sound, inability to understand language, and inability to speak appropriately, all consistent with lateral temporal lobe involvement."
Here is my Oddysey through the INSANE completely inaccessible, un-navigable method e-Bay and PayPal and MY bank (Regions Bank - Florida) use for the Nation's vulnerable developmentally disabled adults with Autism:
To contact PayPal, the adult with Autism with the epilepsy is REQUIRED to find another person to use a telephone and call e-Bay to get "transfered" to PayPal -- apparently, PayPal has NO telephone number, NO TTY, NO Internet access, NO PECS, NO iPad access or anything to accommodate the TIDAL WAVE of adults with Autism in this Country as REQUIRED (a federal civil right) under Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 12181-12188 et sec. (See, also Meyers v. City of Jacksonville, Fla., 754 So.2d 198 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000) (violation of the ADA access statutes or regulations also constitutes per se negligence and subjects the business to money damages)).
I have had a PayPal account since appx. 2000-2001, and had a "verified" "confirmed" bank account with them. Without providing me ANY Autism accessible visual notice whatsoever, PayPal "unconfirmed" and "unverified" my bank account sometime last fall, unknown to me. They then told me I had to go through the "confirm" and "verify" bank account process AGAIN.
When I atttempted to do an "Instant Confirmation" of my PayPal bank account, I could not coordinate my fingers fast enough to enter the numbers and PayPal timed-out my Autism AAC computer device without letting me use my three attempts, and then took the posture that they had NO program in place to assist people with Autism and vaccine injuries who have motor neuron dexterity impairments to do an "Instant Confirmation" and that they "didn't have to" and that there was NO one I could have my phone interpreter talk to about it. This is COMPLETELY CONTRARY to the civil rights DUTIES these businesses OWE to disabled adults with Autism and other dexterity disabled Americans and one CAN ONLY WONDER WHERE THEIR LEGAL DEPARTMENTS PASSED THEIR BAR EXAMS !!!
The fact disabled plaintiffs in Rendon v. Valleycrest Productions, Ltd., No. 01-11197 (11th Cir. 2002), for example, were screened out by an automated telephone system, rather than by an admission policy administered at the studio door, was of no consequence under the Americans With Disabilities Act statute; “eligibility criteria are frequently implemented off site-for example, through the mail or over the telephone. Indeed, Congress specifically noted in the ADA’s ‘findings of fact’ that ‘individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including outright intentional exclusion, the discriminatory effects of architectural, transportation, and communication barriers,’ the very sorts of discrimination the statute seeks to redress. 42 U.S.C. § 12101(a)(5) (emphasis added),” Id. (citing Ferguson v. City of Phoenix, 157 F.3d 668 (9th Cir. 1998) (discriminatory 9-1-1 emergency response system))/
Oblivious to their DUTIES under the Americans With Disabilities Act, PayPal droned on and told me I would have to "wait 2-3 days" for PayPal to send a small deposit to my bank, and then I would have to get that small deposit amount and enter it into PayPal to "confirm" and "verify" my bank account the 'Non-Instant way.'
I DID do that, more than 7 days ago, and my bank informed me they STILL have received NO deposit from PayPal. Note: PayPay falsely advertises the turn-around time is 2-3 days, but admitted it can take up to 5 days and in my case it is now 7 days of attempting to navigate this same Autism lack of access issue.
My bank also refuses to provide any Autism AAC access accommodations and has taken the posture that a person who cannot use a telephone like a "normal" Neuro-typical person "must have a guardian," and they say they 'never heard' of the Americans With Disabilities Act and do not have to obey its disability civil rights access provisions. Ultimately, 7 days later, my bank told me it can do nothing to help me navigate as an adult with Autism, that PayPal must do it, and that my deposit money from my e-Bay sale can be held hostage and not given to me.
PayPal refuses whatsoever to do ANYTHING to make the process accessible, says 2-3 day time periods can just keep occurring indefinitely (in an endless loop), and that PayPal has NO legal duty under Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act to make its process of "confirming" and "verifying" a bank account accessible to a severely disabled adult with Autism, and there is NOTHING I can do about it.
e-Bay has been MORE helpful than PayPal or my bank, but nevertheless e-Bay lacks pictogram signage adults with Autism can follow to navigate around e-Bay and MORE ESPECIALLY fails to write its information on 'how to navigate different selling methods' and its 'rules' in a way to remove the social-English people with Autism cannot understand and put it in simple language and pictogram terms adults with Autism can understand and navigate. It's no different than when blind people do not have braille or screen reader accessibility to assist in navigating such a website, and analogous to the blind Americans lawsuit against the Target Stores website.
Finally, I managed to make a significant sale on e-Bay that I was FORCED to make because Nationwide Insurance company has withheld in bad faith (without objections in any way to my medical bills) the payment they are required to pay under their uninsured motorist policy for almost $100,000 in medical bills I have already incurred that they signed for for over 3 years; and also because Social Security has delayed my SSDI and SSI Autism disability claims for over 9 years since April 2002 all because they inform me they have NO guidelines to properly assess the severity of Autism. Because of this withholding of money I should be getting TIMELY as adult Autism support and for medical coverage, as a result of this type of repeated abusive failure to timely pay adults with Autism funds upon which we DEPEND, I was not only cut off from my medical care for my Autism and brain injuries and suffered additional injuries, but NOW I was forced to sell a trailer my adult Autism horse business required to operate profitably that cost more than $30,000, for $12,100.
If that is not a systematic rip-off of the supports and self-support assets adults with Autism NEED, it's bad enough. But the buyer made a deposit to my PayPal account, and PayPal took the posture of REFUSING to let me access my own money to pay for my Autism needs, including my housing. While claiming PayPal "security" can completely override Americans With Disabilities Act Autism access civil rights, PayPal hung up on my Autism interpreter (other person I had to find to ask to call them because I cannot use telephones and they REFUSE to have alternative Autism accessible communication channels available) at least 3-4 times. PayPal told me I can just keep going in 2-3 day cycles, endlessly, and they have NO obligation to assist my Autism to help me receive my money I have been paid but can hold my money hostage indefinitely -- even if it puts my adult Autism home into default !!! (Notably, PayPal paid THEMSELVES their own cut right away !)
Adults with Autism fall off a Cliff when we age out of childhood Autism supports and services, as everyone in the Autism community KNOWS. People with Autism frequently have implicit learning disabilities, and we cannot do any employment or self-employment that we have not been EXPLICITLY and painstakingly trained to perform. I have only been explicitly trained to (1.) be a lawyer, or (2.) train jumping horses, ponies, and riders; however, most who know about my story know that I have been denied my attorney license in California for 21 years, and Florida for 9 years because they have NO Autism-specific attorney licensing programs and do not require the bar admission officials to undergo specific-Autism education and training -- so I cannot work as a lawyer. That is out. That leaves me, as a 55 year old adult with Autism, with being COMPELLED to earn my ability to support myself from my horse business Social Security told me I had to 'do for work' -- for which a horse trailer to pickup and deliver sales horses and ponies, and take horses and ponies to horse shows and other events where buyers can see them, is an Essential business asset.
Did e-Bay, and ESPECIALLY PayPal, or my bank care whatsoever about my needs as an adult with Autism ? Emphatically, No !
The ENTIRE scenario I was put through by e-Bay, PayPal, and my bank is INSANE, and BLATANTLY discriminatory to the type of access adults with Autism REQUIRE if we are to be able to create and innovate products, sell items, or operate our own Autism business in order to become self-suppporting, independent, and earn our own living to SUPPORT OURSELVES.
A very good Question in all of this is: WHERE is the U.S. DOJ ? WHY would the U.S. DOJ civil rights division NOT be bringing an Autism access enforcement action against e-Bay, PayPal, and numerous banks to ensure ALL adults with Autism of every severity have meaningful access ? NOT everybody can use a telephone to communicate ! MANY disabled Americans CANNOT !!! To PENALIZE a disabled American -- especially an VULNERABLE adult with AUTISM with the extra burdens of delay upon delay and forcing another person to speak for us to the point we lose our HOMES and our business (that support us), is NOT acceptable.
Note: Florida just initiated a mortgate "rescue" program to refinance and assist with mortgages and keeping Floridians in our homes, but made it intentionally target the exclusion of adults with Autism by refusing Autistics who can only buy a home through seller-financing (because the Autism inaccessible BANKS also refuse to give mortgages to adults with Autism and make their mortgage processes Autism accessible) meaningful participation.
I would URGE Every parent of a person with Autism, every family, every carer, and every single other taxpayer sick and tired of being taxed to pay for adults with Autism who can SUPPORT OURSELVES WITH THE AUTISM ACCESS WE NEED to WRITE to U.S. DOJ, e-Bay, PayPal, and every bank you can think of and DEMAND they comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act to give blind, deaf, and people with Autism ACCESS NOW !!! NOT 21 years after the Americans With Disabilities Act became the law of this Land. Or, let your WALLET do business elsewhere - just like the World sent the economic message to South Africa that Apartheid was WRONG.
For anyone who doesn't stand up for Autism access and take some initiative to do something about voicing the concern that a commercial exchange as Huge as e-Bay and PayPal to the American economy is NOT Autism accessible -- YOU have nothing to complain about when your taxes are raised to warehouse all the adults with Autism PREVENTED from working (a lifetime appx. $3.2-5 million cost for each Autistic), and the U.S. cannot pull out of this economic tailspin it's in because it is weighed down by the Autism TIDAL WAVE albatross.
Adults with Autism CAN earn a living WITH Autism access !!! If not NOW, WHEN ??? ! What are YOU going to do to tell e-Bay, PayPal, American banks, other similar businesses, and the U.S. DOJ to fix this broken system and give MEANINGFUL ACCESS to adults with Autism living in the community under the Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999) mandates - just like you ?
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Ramifications For How An Autistic Savant Experiences The "Separate But Not Equal" World - Part I
As an adult on the Autism spectrum, I have experienced how the many different balkanized brain conditions that make up the Autism spectrum "disability" might have strikingly different results when they occur in contexts and settings outside that zone or personal "curtilage" self-controlled by the Autistic person. (The need for humans to control their own neurological environment is as indisputable and essential to survival as a Gulf of Mexico Pelican's or seabird's).
Moreover, the Autism spectrum is part of a far broader and enormous group of people known as "The Neurologically Different."
The "Neurologically Different" (hereafter called the "Umbrella Neurological Class"), is a "disability" class that includes but may not be limited to, people with an Autism spectrum condition, FOXP2 genes, spinal bifida genes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, stroke, epilepsy / TLE in its various forms, Huntington's, fibroymyalgia, traumatic brain injuries, coma-recovered people, Lou Gerig's (ALS), Frontotemporal dementia, down syndrome, Alzheimer's, Type diabetes, metabolic syndromes, sensory processing disorder, Tourette's, dyslexia, Specific Language Impairment, dyspraxia, aphasia, hyperacusia, certain types of vision loss or blindness, Lyme disease, lead poisoning, pesticide poisoning, mercury poisoning, bi-phenol poisoning in daily household products, fetal tobacco smoking increasing testosterone, Chiari malformations, and other such neurological conditions.
Many problems occur when Autism Spectrum and Neurologically Different people go outside their zones and curtilage of personally self-controlled neurological environments - for one, and the most primary and important, Autistics and the Neurologically Different inevitably encounter "The 'Separate But Not Equal' synaptic communication gap."
Non-Autistic people, who are also commonly called "Neurotypicals" in Worldwide Autism community, have extreme difficulty with Autism Spectrum and most Neurologically Different people in understanding, anticipating, "reading" the verbal and non-verbal language of, spotting the involuntary and automatic neurological-biological genetic and/or epigenetically constructed brain and body systems of, how lacking or having differences in one or more of the five-Neurotypical human senses changes a person's perception, and/or how the brain neurology differences actually change the meaning and understanding of the symbols being communicated (in a combinations and permutations manner across a grid of the range of "effectiveness" of thought tranfer between Neurologically Different people and Neurotypicals required for there to be "effective" "communication").
It is pretty much irrefutable that the state-of-the art for brain science has radically changed how we understand the Neurologically Different in the past several years.
In response to the advancing state-of-art brain science, to provide an illustration of the problem, the Head administrator of Florida's state court system, backing up a Pinellas County "human resources manager" assigned to evaluate the Neurological Differences of the above class, informed me my Neurological Differences had been accommodated under Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act because "we gave you a chair."
Every single other state and federal court, and state and federal agency I have interacted with (or attempted to interact with, but have fallen short on the shoals and rocks of Neurological Barriers), have simple informed me "that's how we do it" (translation: 'same way as always,' which can in many cases date back to the beginnings of this Republic or the state's joining the Union -- or even ELIZABETHAN LAW), and "we gave you due process" -- without explaining and matching how the Neurologically Different person's communication differences have a coupling-unit to causally link each sub-componenet of the "due process" with a bridge-unit to cross the synaptic communication divide.
The communication gap in the Neurologically Different occurs in most people at the synapse.
The synaptic communication gap is the Gulf of Mexico Oil Abyss that physically (organically) prevents the Neurologically Different person and the Neurotypical from understanding each other, because nothing can live in the synaptic gap -- just as surely as a Spaniard is not going to understand American Cherokee or Egyptian Heiroglyphics because there is no living synaptic bridge between the languages without some type of "explicit Communicative Primitive Human-Animal Translation Training" (a type of pre-lingual Thinking in Pictures / Sensory language) - or a foreign language interpreter. This is also no different than any other human<->dolphin, human<->African Grey parrot, human<->horse, human<->dog, Neanderthal descendant<->Cro Magnan descendant, or the need for other like communication process, sign language, PECs, tactile, or other "non-conventional" method that can be explicitly worked with and trained to function with the Autistic and/or Neurologically Different the same as English as a Second Language (ESL).
No matter what language is spoken or written, NONE of them can cross a non-living synaptic gap any more than humans can bring one back to life from the non-living. It doesn't matter how Neurotypicals characterize it, it does not change the laws of Nature of a Synaptic gap.
Some of the recent state-of-the art brain science research has begun to answer the age-old unsolved mathematical theorem itself: "What is a foreign language ?"
A foreign language is the software that runs on a particular evolutionarily bio-engineered brain hardware, and for each of these different types of foreign languages (otherwise known as "biological foreign language computer models"), they come with culture, race, genes, and brain gender-type already automatically installed.
Thusly, consistent with this latest state of the art brain science affecting the neurological brain science Training obligations of officials, employees, and staff by Government entities and the Neurologically Different accommodations duties of Government officials under Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act and Sec. 504 & 508, of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, recent scientific research has now demonstrated that different foreign languages reside and travel out-and-about on different brain roadways on the brain Highway system. No different than completely different locations on a Map.
And, everyone KNOWS that when people communicate in completely different foreign brain languages, a foreign language interpreter has traditionally been required to cross and bridge the synaptic gap to ensure accurate communications, mutual meanings and understandings, and "due process." Yet, somehow, Autism and Neurologically Different Spectrum language disabilities have fallen through the cracks in a broken language system.
Specific different "biological foreign language computer models" exist in almost all Neurologically Different "disabilities," the same way the different computer brands (the hardware plus the software making up the whole of the machine) are displayed at Best Buy or Circuit City or Comp USA.
This is important because (to re-interate) recent scientific research has now demonstrated that different foreign languages reside and travel out-and-about on different brain roadways on the brain Highway system. If a Neurotypical is foxhunting on off-road brain paths, while the Neurologically Different person is driving a Ferarri brain on the Autobahn, then the Neurotypical and the Neurologically Different person are traveling out-and-about on different brain roadways on the brain Highway system.
Humans cannot be one foxhunting in California and the other driving a Ferarri brain on the Autobahn (clear across Oceans, and Gulfs away from each other), while claiming with a straight-face that there is not a "communication gap." It is INCONSISTENT (as well as Impossible as against the Laws of Evolutionary Nature).
The Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Bircoll v. Miami-Dade County, 480 F.3d 1072, 1086 (11th Cir. 2007), "found that the communication with Bircoll [a deaf disabled American], 'was not so ineffective that an oral interpreter was necessary to guarantee that Bircoll was on equal footing with hearing individuals.'” The Eleventh Circuit implied that the way to know if the communication is Constitutionally "effective" so there is "equal footing" is to give it the "able to understand" Test. id. Constitutional effectiveness of speech is a First Amendment, Due Process, and Equal Protection concern since synaptic Prior Restraints and Censorshop are Constitutionally prohibited, the Government cannot Establish one temporal lobe Neurologically Different brain religion-type over others, and Neurologically Different disabled Americans cannot meet the "able to understand" test when a communication gap exists at the synapse ! As I shall show (Parts I, II, III).
"We gave you a chair" or "you can just talk" or "you did just fine" has never been scientifically proven in a Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (DC Cir. 1923) or Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589 (1993) / Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999) manner to constitute a neurologically-proven way to accommodate the foreign language synaptic gap in Neurologically Different "disabilities."
Those vague standards do not meet the "able to understand" Test of how to connect the synaptic gap between Neurotypicals whose communication is foxhunting in California, while the Neurologically Different are driving a Ferarri brain on the Autobahn clear across Oceans and Gulfs away from each other -- without some added type of new road and neuro-building construction.
In such circumstances, where the road connector is not constructed, "able to understand" levels of communication would defy the physics laws of nature due to impossibility.
Communication, by definition, means two humans' ability to transfer thought units having the same identical meaning between each other so they can understand, be understood, and achieve a joint mutual understanding. When there is a synaptic Gulf of Mexico Abyss-gap, no living communication can transfer biologically two ways as required for operational living computer circuits, making it impossible for communication to exist.
However, Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act goes EVEN FARTHER than merely "communication;" the ADA requires more - it requires "effective communication." Even the vessels roaming the Gulf of Mexico oil booms (inanimate objects) get more effective "personified" communication access to Government buildings and entities than the Neurologically Different people (living animate humans) who have synaptic communication gaps and are not being provided an accessible "lowering of the Draw-bridge" route to cross the synaptic communication Moat. Why is that ?
The long and short answer is because the Government building and entity "inclusion party invitations" only allow g-Intelligence people to cross the synaptic divide.
The Neurologically Different are racially, genetically, epigenetically, culturally, ethnically, evolutionarily multiple-Intelligence Indigenous people, and because of this characteristic cannot swim a Moat and need to have the Draw-bridge lowered.
Why aren't our Autistic savant and Neurologically Different "biological foreign language computer model" (brain language hardware and software Brand) being allowed to cross the Moat of the synaptic communication divide ?
Besides simply observing that Men have been Warring for all of Humanity and different strains of humans have gone to War over their Differences, I will describe in Part II (to follow) how it is for myself when there is no existing adult Autism savant / Neurologically Different brain road and neuro-building construction funded for the communication-sensory people. As the World, UK, and US Autism communities are quite aware, the "other answer" is that there is an Epidemic lack of funding for adult Autism supports and services no different than the lack of regulatory oversight over Wall Street, the Housing Meltdown, or the Deep Horizons Oil Well.
Recalling that "explicit Communicative Primitive Human-Animal Translation Training," no different than sign language, PECs, tactile, or English as a Second Language (ESL) Training, has (in lieu of an Autism foreign langage interpreter) been proven to meet the type of brain road and neuro-building construction required to overcome the synaptic "biological foreign language computer" gap experienced by most of the Neurologically Different, I hope my description of what it is like for me (Part II) to navigate the "Separate But Equal" Neurotypical World - like Odysseus, will help through enlightenment and education to bring critically needed relief to all on the Autism Neurologically Different Spectrum
I hope it will help to achieve that vital new synaptic gap communication road and building construction for all Neurologically Different people who think the existing NeuroDiversity g-Intelligence "Separate But Equal" doctrine is not Bio-Diversity multiple Intelligences "Equal." "Separate But Equal" will NEVER be "Equal" for the cortically deaf, mute, and social-English language-blind Neurologically Different.
When a Neurologically Different person with a multiple Intelligences "foreign language computer model" brain is forced by encountering the synaptic Moat to retreat back to the old ways of segregation, left to exist "Alone In Their Own World" in the "effective communication" synaptic integration process, that Autism Spectrum and/or Neurologically Different person is "Separate But Not Equal."
They are "Separate" because the synaptic gap communication road and neuro-building construction has not been funded or achieved.
Because the Autism Spectrum / Neurologically Different people are "Separate," therefore, by definition, they are not "Equal."
"We gave you a chair" and "that's how we do it," "you can just talk" and "you did just fine" enforce the "Separate But Equal" doctrine, and require synaptic bussing to remove the Apartheid.
Being "Neuro-Separate" is NEVER "Equal."
"Living alone 'in their own Autistic World'" is, indeed, "Separate" but it is NEVER "Equal."
~EquiisSavant
Coming, Part II (An Autistic Savant Personally Encounters The Synaptic Communication Gap - Don't Punish A Status), Part III (What New Synaptic Road and Building Construction Do Government Entities And Others Need To Add To Overcome the Neurologically Different "Separate But Not Equal" Synaptic Gap ?), Part IV (Isn't "Curing" Autism Spectrum People Without "Informed Consent" Genocide ?), and Part V (The Fundamental Right To Cognitive Freedom And Enjoyment Of The Talents And Abilities Of Multiple Intelligences).
Moreover, the Autism spectrum is part of a far broader and enormous group of people known as "The Neurologically Different."
The "Neurologically Different" (hereafter called the "Umbrella Neurological Class"), is a "disability" class that includes but may not be limited to, people with an Autism spectrum condition, FOXP2 genes, spinal bifida genes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, stroke, epilepsy / TLE in its various forms, Huntington's, fibroymyalgia, traumatic brain injuries, coma-recovered people, Lou Gerig's (ALS), Frontotemporal dementia, down syndrome, Alzheimer's, Type diabetes, metabolic syndromes, sensory processing disorder, Tourette's, dyslexia, Specific Language Impairment, dyspraxia, aphasia, hyperacusia, certain types of vision loss or blindness, Lyme disease, lead poisoning, pesticide poisoning, mercury poisoning, bi-phenol poisoning in daily household products, fetal tobacco smoking increasing testosterone, Chiari malformations, and other such neurological conditions.
Many problems occur when Autism Spectrum and Neurologically Different people go outside their zones and curtilage of personally self-controlled neurological environments - for one, and the most primary and important, Autistics and the Neurologically Different inevitably encounter "The 'Separate But Not Equal' synaptic communication gap."
Non-Autistic people, who are also commonly called "Neurotypicals" in Worldwide Autism community, have extreme difficulty with Autism Spectrum and most Neurologically Different people in understanding, anticipating, "reading" the verbal and non-verbal language of, spotting the involuntary and automatic neurological-biological genetic and/or epigenetically constructed brain and body systems of, how lacking or having differences in one or more of the five-Neurotypical human senses changes a person's perception, and/or how the brain neurology differences actually change the meaning and understanding of the symbols being communicated (in a combinations and permutations manner across a grid of the range of "effectiveness" of thought tranfer between Neurologically Different people and Neurotypicals required for there to be "effective" "communication").
It is pretty much irrefutable that the state-of-the art for brain science has radically changed how we understand the Neurologically Different in the past several years.
In response to the advancing state-of-art brain science, to provide an illustration of the problem, the Head administrator of Florida's state court system, backing up a Pinellas County "human resources manager" assigned to evaluate the Neurological Differences of the above class, informed me my Neurological Differences had been accommodated under Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act because "we gave you a chair."
Every single other state and federal court, and state and federal agency I have interacted with (or attempted to interact with, but have fallen short on the shoals and rocks of Neurological Barriers), have simple informed me "that's how we do it" (translation: 'same way as always,' which can in many cases date back to the beginnings of this Republic or the state's joining the Union -- or even ELIZABETHAN LAW), and "we gave you due process" -- without explaining and matching how the Neurologically Different person's communication differences have a coupling-unit to causally link each sub-componenet of the "due process" with a bridge-unit to cross the synaptic communication divide.
The communication gap in the Neurologically Different occurs in most people at the synapse.
The synaptic communication gap is the Gulf of Mexico Oil Abyss that physically (organically) prevents the Neurologically Different person and the Neurotypical from understanding each other, because nothing can live in the synaptic gap -- just as surely as a Spaniard is not going to understand American Cherokee or Egyptian Heiroglyphics because there is no living synaptic bridge between the languages without some type of "explicit Communicative Primitive Human-Animal Translation Training" (a type of pre-lingual Thinking in Pictures / Sensory language) - or a foreign language interpreter. This is also no different than any other human<->dolphin, human<->African Grey parrot, human<->horse, human<->dog, Neanderthal descendant<->Cro Magnan descendant, or the need for other like communication process, sign language, PECs, tactile, or other "non-conventional" method that can be explicitly worked with and trained to function with the Autistic and/or Neurologically Different the same as English as a Second Language (ESL).
No matter what language is spoken or written, NONE of them can cross a non-living synaptic gap any more than humans can bring one back to life from the non-living. It doesn't matter how Neurotypicals characterize it, it does not change the laws of Nature of a Synaptic gap.
Some of the recent state-of-the art brain science research has begun to answer the age-old unsolved mathematical theorem itself: "What is a foreign language ?"
A foreign language is the software that runs on a particular evolutionarily bio-engineered brain hardware, and for each of these different types of foreign languages (otherwise known as "biological foreign language computer models"), they come with culture, race, genes, and brain gender-type already automatically installed.
Thusly, consistent with this latest state of the art brain science affecting the neurological brain science Training obligations of officials, employees, and staff by Government entities and the Neurologically Different accommodations duties of Government officials under Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act and Sec. 504 & 508, of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, recent scientific research has now demonstrated that different foreign languages reside and travel out-and-about on different brain roadways on the brain Highway system. No different than completely different locations on a Map.
And, everyone KNOWS that when people communicate in completely different foreign brain languages, a foreign language interpreter has traditionally been required to cross and bridge the synaptic gap to ensure accurate communications, mutual meanings and understandings, and "due process." Yet, somehow, Autism and Neurologically Different Spectrum language disabilities have fallen through the cracks in a broken language system.
Specific different "biological foreign language computer models" exist in almost all Neurologically Different "disabilities," the same way the different computer brands (the hardware plus the software making up the whole of the machine) are displayed at Best Buy or Circuit City or Comp USA.
This is important because (to re-interate) recent scientific research has now demonstrated that different foreign languages reside and travel out-and-about on different brain roadways on the brain Highway system. If a Neurotypical is foxhunting on off-road brain paths, while the Neurologically Different person is driving a Ferarri brain on the Autobahn, then the Neurotypical and the Neurologically Different person are traveling out-and-about on different brain roadways on the brain Highway system.
Humans cannot be one foxhunting in California and the other driving a Ferarri brain on the Autobahn (clear across Oceans, and Gulfs away from each other), while claiming with a straight-face that there is not a "communication gap." It is INCONSISTENT (as well as Impossible as against the Laws of Evolutionary Nature).
The Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Bircoll v. Miami-Dade County, 480 F.3d 1072, 1086 (11th Cir. 2007), "found that the communication with Bircoll [a deaf disabled American], 'was not so ineffective that an oral interpreter was necessary to guarantee that Bircoll was on equal footing with hearing individuals.'” The Eleventh Circuit implied that the way to know if the communication is Constitutionally "effective" so there is "equal footing" is to give it the "able to understand" Test. id. Constitutional effectiveness of speech is a First Amendment, Due Process, and Equal Protection concern since synaptic Prior Restraints and Censorshop are Constitutionally prohibited, the Government cannot Establish one temporal lobe Neurologically Different brain religion-type over others, and Neurologically Different disabled Americans cannot meet the "able to understand" test when a communication gap exists at the synapse ! As I shall show (Parts I, II, III).
"We gave you a chair" or "you can just talk" or "you did just fine" has never been scientifically proven in a Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (DC Cir. 1923) or Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589 (1993) / Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999) manner to constitute a neurologically-proven way to accommodate the foreign language synaptic gap in Neurologically Different "disabilities."
Those vague standards do not meet the "able to understand" Test of how to connect the synaptic gap between Neurotypicals whose communication is foxhunting in California, while the Neurologically Different are driving a Ferarri brain on the Autobahn clear across Oceans and Gulfs away from each other -- without some added type of new road and neuro-building construction.
In such circumstances, where the road connector is not constructed, "able to understand" levels of communication would defy the physics laws of nature due to impossibility.
Communication, by definition, means two humans' ability to transfer thought units having the same identical meaning between each other so they can understand, be understood, and achieve a joint mutual understanding. When there is a synaptic Gulf of Mexico Abyss-gap, no living communication can transfer biologically two ways as required for operational living computer circuits, making it impossible for communication to exist.
However, Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act goes EVEN FARTHER than merely "communication;" the ADA requires more - it requires "effective communication." Even the vessels roaming the Gulf of Mexico oil booms (inanimate objects) get more effective "personified" communication access to Government buildings and entities than the Neurologically Different people (living animate humans) who have synaptic communication gaps and are not being provided an accessible "lowering of the Draw-bridge" route to cross the synaptic communication Moat. Why is that ?
The long and short answer is because the Government building and entity "inclusion party invitations" only allow g-Intelligence people to cross the synaptic divide.
The Neurologically Different are racially, genetically, epigenetically, culturally, ethnically, evolutionarily multiple-Intelligence Indigenous people, and because of this characteristic cannot swim a Moat and need to have the Draw-bridge lowered.
Why aren't our Autistic savant and Neurologically Different "biological foreign language computer model" (brain language hardware and software Brand) being allowed to cross the Moat of the synaptic communication divide ?
Besides simply observing that Men have been Warring for all of Humanity and different strains of humans have gone to War over their Differences, I will describe in Part II (to follow) how it is for myself when there is no existing adult Autism savant / Neurologically Different brain road and neuro-building construction funded for the communication-sensory people. As the World, UK, and US Autism communities are quite aware, the "other answer" is that there is an Epidemic lack of funding for adult Autism supports and services no different than the lack of regulatory oversight over Wall Street, the Housing Meltdown, or the Deep Horizons Oil Well.
Recalling that "explicit Communicative Primitive Human-Animal Translation Training," no different than sign language, PECs, tactile, or English as a Second Language (ESL) Training, has (in lieu of an Autism foreign langage interpreter) been proven to meet the type of brain road and neuro-building construction required to overcome the synaptic "biological foreign language computer" gap experienced by most of the Neurologically Different, I hope my description of what it is like for me (Part II) to navigate the "Separate But Equal" Neurotypical World - like Odysseus, will help through enlightenment and education to bring critically needed relief to all on the Autism Neurologically Different Spectrum
I hope it will help to achieve that vital new synaptic gap communication road and building construction for all Neurologically Different people who think the existing NeuroDiversity g-Intelligence "Separate But Equal" doctrine is not Bio-Diversity multiple Intelligences "Equal." "Separate But Equal" will NEVER be "Equal" for the cortically deaf, mute, and social-English language-blind Neurologically Different.
When a Neurologically Different person with a multiple Intelligences "foreign language computer model" brain is forced by encountering the synaptic Moat to retreat back to the old ways of segregation, left to exist "Alone In Their Own World" in the "effective communication" synaptic integration process, that Autism Spectrum and/or Neurologically Different person is "Separate But Not Equal."
They are "Separate" because the synaptic gap communication road and neuro-building construction has not been funded or achieved.
Because the Autism Spectrum / Neurologically Different people are "Separate," therefore, by definition, they are not "Equal."
"We gave you a chair" and "that's how we do it," "you can just talk" and "you did just fine" enforce the "Separate But Equal" doctrine, and require synaptic bussing to remove the Apartheid.
Being "Neuro-Separate" is NEVER "Equal."
"Living alone 'in their own Autistic World'" is, indeed, "Separate" but it is NEVER "Equal."
~EquiisSavant
Coming, Part II (An Autistic Savant Personally Encounters The Synaptic Communication Gap - Don't Punish A Status), Part III (What New Synaptic Road and Building Construction Do Government Entities And Others Need To Add To Overcome the Neurologically Different "Separate But Not Equal" Synaptic Gap ?), Part IV (Isn't "Curing" Autism Spectrum People Without "Informed Consent" Genocide ?), and Part V (The Fundamental Right To Cognitive Freedom And Enjoyment Of The Talents And Abilities Of Multiple Intelligences).
Monday, April 26, 2010
From The Perspective Of Autism & Other Neurological Disabilities - The Horrible Thing About Being *Different*
The horrible thing about being *different* is you try to behave properly and be kind to everyone you meet, and treat people with respect and be civil, and then - Whamo, out of the clear blue, some group of other people start bullying you, shoving you around, pushing you hard, hitting you, any number of things even worse than that I just won't say in case anyone is having breakfast or dinner right now.
These kind of attacks on us by which others who gang-together to attack us to convey (to us) that we are *different*, started for me as far back as I can remember - on or maybe just before pre-Kindergarden. By third grade, they were so bad, and so vicious, I had to play on the "Boy's Playground" because the girls were ganging and leaving me cuts and abrasions. A principle reason the girls hated me, was because I liked to line up my plastic Breyer horses, and didn't like all the Barbie doll dressy-talkie stuff they liked to play with.
By sixth grade, when I got the privilege of being on "Safety Patrol" (helped kids cross streets), I had to watch out going to and from the school grounds to my posts, because some of the gangs of other girls would (by sixth grade) unite with a couple boys, too and would lie in ambush to jump me and beat me up. Because I was *different* and odd and weird to them, even though I kept trying to be nice.
When I moved to NY, 7th grade, my first day there, the neighborhood kids ganged together and started shouting "Hey retard" at me from a distance. Even my teachers gleefully joined in, parading me constantly in front of the class to make me write or speak and repeat words "for punishment" because I was *different*, with everyone including the teacher acting together with the other kids mocking and laughing at me. Sometimes they also threw wads of paper at me, gum wads, and spitballs while I was ordered by the teacher to undergo the humiliation.
In eighth grade, some teachers ordered me to go outside at recess on the playground, and about 30-40 7th & 8th grade boys gang-jumped me and started hitting me, grabbing my female parts, and ripped off my clothes - tearing a dress my mom made for me because we were so poor due to her scraping all our money for horse riding therapy to try to stop my neurological problems - the imbalances and problems holding pens, tying shoe laces, holding forks, little flailing arms and hand movements, and loss of balance now and then wobbles when I walked, that made others identify and bully me for being weird and *different*. While this happened, I saw another 40-50 kids and teachers watching from upstairs windows - pointing and LAUGHING AT MY PLIGHT.
Then, between 7th & 8th grade, my pony ran me under our porch and hit my head at a gallop, and I got my first TBI on top of the neurological problems I had before. Even before that, I could NOT decipher faces or what the moving eyebrows and mouth shapes meant, or the hand movements, and others always got so angry because I could never seem to stand or be in the right place (body location) in relation to them. Sometimes I got hit, when I have no idea what I did wrong that got them so mad because of where I stood or sat or where my eyes or hands went or movements they made.
The attacks were so bad, I felt like going through a war zone everytime I had to ride the school bus. One day on the way home, I was just walking to my house, when this kid, Billy LeFurgy, who was in 12th grade when I was in 9th, came along, just grabbed me, shoved my head into a snowbank, and tried to hold me there unable to breathe shouting "die." Because I was *different*.
At the horse barns when they learned I could ride, and in University when some learned I was intelligent, they didn't treat me so bad, and actually tried to help me. I worked beyond my neurological abilities and hung on so hard until I got my degrees, so I could have a chance to have independence and a real life. But, the bullying never really goes away. It is everywhere neurologically disabled people turn in all walks of our Society.
One day, when hubby was sick with a high fever, (pre-right foot injury), he asked me to walk down Clearwater Beach about a mile to get him some orange juice. I was just walking there, and came around a corner, and there were 8 girls & two boys about freshman college undergrad age, taking pictures - until they spotted eyesight of me. Then they started shouting "Hey retard, Yeah you - hey you retard, ugly retard, come over here." I tried to walk on by, but they started throwing things at me, and trying to bully and pick a fight. Fortunately, I managed to cross the street, and some bicyclists cut them off, and I managed to mingle into some other elderly pedestrians. Another time, hubby and I were leaving the Hillsborough County Law Library downtown Tampa, and a group of others actually zigged and zagged to walk up to him and say "hi," and crossed the street to avoid me -- just by my neurological looks alone (I had not said one word, and I had never seen them before).
Most of my followers follow my almost daily saga of being bullied and attacked, and I'm just talking about all this - relating this horrible part of my life, because I have even been slapped hard in the face and hit for not being able to handwrite "properly." Form the letters "right" or do it fast enough or control my hand and fingers on the pen I am holding.
Folks out there need to know that bullying AUTISM people and people with ANY kind of neurological disability or, indeed, ANY person with a disability is NOT "Okay."
We start suffering the ABUSE & BULLYING targeting us for being *different* at a very young age - as soon as others who prefer "sameness" and "normality" start noticing we are *different* and go on "kill" - "maim" - "injure" - or "torture" the AUTISM person social-group gang attacks against us for what we sit there bewildered it is we did "wrong."
Adults with Autism and people with other early childhood brain injuries and cerebral palsy and other neurological disabilities need to start "coming out of the closet" and talking about the bullying and abuse attacks on us just for being *different*.
Whether we are a 3 year old who suffered hypoxia during birth, or have AUTISM, or are an elderly American with a stroke, there is NO excuse for a Society that allows these PERVASIVE ABUSE-BULLYING-attacks & persecution to be done to an innocent, severely disabled *different* population of neurologically disabled people, who move *different* / speak *different* / read *different* / write *different* / use *different" tools to do all of those things / use a *different* mix of senses and modalities to perceive and respond to the World and other people / and/or enjoy *different* objects, things, and interests rather than gossiping (wasting employer's time) around the coffee machine.
We are, as a neurologically disabled group of Americans, your child, your mother, your sports instructor, and we write your music, paint your galleries, invent your scientific and mathematical equations, engineer your buildings. Some of us even build cities and remarkable bridges and other engineering feats of science.
We don't deserve this CRIMINAL level of abuse and human rights violations and violations of our right to respect and dignity, equality, independence, and freedom that we have the right to access and enjoy same as everyone else.
We are NOT going to be silent ! We can and WILL speak out about these facts of our existence. Our struggle for a better tomorrow and for acceptance and the right to live free in peace is NOT going away - you can kill a person, but you can't stop an IDEA of Freedom whose Time has arrived on the Autism spectrum and in the World.
These kind of attacks on us by which others who gang-together to attack us to convey (to us) that we are *different*, started for me as far back as I can remember - on or maybe just before pre-Kindergarden. By third grade, they were so bad, and so vicious, I had to play on the "Boy's Playground" because the girls were ganging and leaving me cuts and abrasions. A principle reason the girls hated me, was because I liked to line up my plastic Breyer horses, and didn't like all the Barbie doll dressy-talkie stuff they liked to play with.
By sixth grade, when I got the privilege of being on "Safety Patrol" (helped kids cross streets), I had to watch out going to and from the school grounds to my posts, because some of the gangs of other girls would (by sixth grade) unite with a couple boys, too and would lie in ambush to jump me and beat me up. Because I was *different* and odd and weird to them, even though I kept trying to be nice.
When I moved to NY, 7th grade, my first day there, the neighborhood kids ganged together and started shouting "Hey retard" at me from a distance. Even my teachers gleefully joined in, parading me constantly in front of the class to make me write or speak and repeat words "for punishment" because I was *different*, with everyone including the teacher acting together with the other kids mocking and laughing at me. Sometimes they also threw wads of paper at me, gum wads, and spitballs while I was ordered by the teacher to undergo the humiliation.
In eighth grade, some teachers ordered me to go outside at recess on the playground, and about 30-40 7th & 8th grade boys gang-jumped me and started hitting me, grabbing my female parts, and ripped off my clothes - tearing a dress my mom made for me because we were so poor due to her scraping all our money for horse riding therapy to try to stop my neurological problems - the imbalances and problems holding pens, tying shoe laces, holding forks, little flailing arms and hand movements, and loss of balance now and then wobbles when I walked, that made others identify and bully me for being weird and *different*. While this happened, I saw another 40-50 kids and teachers watching from upstairs windows - pointing and LAUGHING AT MY PLIGHT.
Then, between 7th & 8th grade, my pony ran me under our porch and hit my head at a gallop, and I got my first TBI on top of the neurological problems I had before. Even before that, I could NOT decipher faces or what the moving eyebrows and mouth shapes meant, or the hand movements, and others always got so angry because I could never seem to stand or be in the right place (body location) in relation to them. Sometimes I got hit, when I have no idea what I did wrong that got them so mad because of where I stood or sat or where my eyes or hands went or movements they made.
The attacks were so bad, I felt like going through a war zone everytime I had to ride the school bus. One day on the way home, I was just walking to my house, when this kid, Billy LeFurgy, who was in 12th grade when I was in 9th, came along, just grabbed me, shoved my head into a snowbank, and tried to hold me there unable to breathe shouting "die." Because I was *different*.
At the horse barns when they learned I could ride, and in University when some learned I was intelligent, they didn't treat me so bad, and actually tried to help me. I worked beyond my neurological abilities and hung on so hard until I got my degrees, so I could have a chance to have independence and a real life. But, the bullying never really goes away. It is everywhere neurologically disabled people turn in all walks of our Society.
One day, when hubby was sick with a high fever, (pre-right foot injury), he asked me to walk down Clearwater Beach about a mile to get him some orange juice. I was just walking there, and came around a corner, and there were 8 girls & two boys about freshman college undergrad age, taking pictures - until they spotted eyesight of me. Then they started shouting "Hey retard, Yeah you - hey you retard, ugly retard, come over here." I tried to walk on by, but they started throwing things at me, and trying to bully and pick a fight. Fortunately, I managed to cross the street, and some bicyclists cut them off, and I managed to mingle into some other elderly pedestrians. Another time, hubby and I were leaving the Hillsborough County Law Library downtown Tampa, and a group of others actually zigged and zagged to walk up to him and say "hi," and crossed the street to avoid me -- just by my neurological looks alone (I had not said one word, and I had never seen them before).
Most of my followers follow my almost daily saga of being bullied and attacked, and I'm just talking about all this - relating this horrible part of my life, because I have even been slapped hard in the face and hit for not being able to handwrite "properly." Form the letters "right" or do it fast enough or control my hand and fingers on the pen I am holding.
Folks out there need to know that bullying AUTISM people and people with ANY kind of neurological disability or, indeed, ANY person with a disability is NOT "Okay."
We start suffering the ABUSE & BULLYING targeting us for being *different* at a very young age - as soon as others who prefer "sameness" and "normality" start noticing we are *different* and go on "kill" - "maim" - "injure" - or "torture" the AUTISM person social-group gang attacks against us for what we sit there bewildered it is we did "wrong."
Adults with Autism and people with other early childhood brain injuries and cerebral palsy and other neurological disabilities need to start "coming out of the closet" and talking about the bullying and abuse attacks on us just for being *different*.
Whether we are a 3 year old who suffered hypoxia during birth, or have AUTISM, or are an elderly American with a stroke, there is NO excuse for a Society that allows these PERVASIVE ABUSE-BULLYING-attacks & persecution to be done to an innocent, severely disabled *different* population of neurologically disabled people, who move *different* / speak *different* / read *different* / write *different* / use *different" tools to do all of those things / use a *different* mix of senses and modalities to perceive and respond to the World and other people / and/or enjoy *different* objects, things, and interests rather than gossiping (wasting employer's time) around the coffee machine.
We are, as a neurologically disabled group of Americans, your child, your mother, your sports instructor, and we write your music, paint your galleries, invent your scientific and mathematical equations, engineer your buildings. Some of us even build cities and remarkable bridges and other engineering feats of science.
We don't deserve this CRIMINAL level of abuse and human rights violations and violations of our right to respect and dignity, equality, independence, and freedom that we have the right to access and enjoy same as everyone else.
We are NOT going to be silent ! We can and WILL speak out about these facts of our existence. Our struggle for a better tomorrow and for acceptance and the right to live free in peace is NOT going away - you can kill a person, but you can't stop an IDEA of Freedom whose Time has arrived on the Autism spectrum and in the World.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Why We With Autism Personify Our Autism Horses
I have had to take a little law clerking and artistic painting hiatus from my blog for awhile. Now that I am back, I want to write about a little understood subject among neurotypicals and neuroskeptics -- about those of us with autism and our relationships with our autism horses. In essence, why we with autism personify our autism therapy horses and why they are such a vital part of our lives.
The use of therapy horses in autism is not and should not be a new concept.
In the 5th century B.C. horse riding was used for rehabilitating the wounded soldiers (Gamache, 2004). Florence Nightingale observed in 1860, “[an] animal is often an excellent companion for the sick” (p. 103). During the 1960s, when Equiis Savant began riding, horses first became used in the United States for therapeutic purposes (Engel, 1984).
Many people ask me what "is" horse therapy and where can they go to get it. It has been called by various names before, such as: Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP), Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP), equine-assisted experiential therapy (EAET), Equine-facilitated therapy (EFT), Equine-assisted learning (EAL), Equine-facilitated learning (EFL), therapeutic riding, psychotherapeutic riding, and hippotherapy (physical rehabilitation/therapy; Gasalberti, 2006). There are quite a number of different horse therapy programs existing in the United States, often run through non-profit organizations. Some adults with autism, as I have done, can advance after many years of such therapies to benefitting from having their own personified autism horse who vastly improves their lives. My mother began my horse riding therapy when I was age 10 after I told her I knew a Breyer horse was not a *real* horse and I wanted to ride a real horse. I have continued since that time with my personified autism horse therapies my entire life.
There are a number of reasons cited in the available literature over the Internet as to why horses are ideal for psychotherapeutic work and would work for benefitting people like me with autism: Horses have a calming effect on the person while requiring total attention to the moment, prospects for metaphor, and relational features (Esjborn, 2006). The horse is a prey animal and is also distinctly social. Horses can aid persons with physical disabilities, who benefit from the gentle rocking motion that may help to relax muscles and improve balance. The horse’s large size may contribute a therapeutic benefit -- its power and size provide opportunities for riders to explore issues related to vulnerability, power, and control. The straightforward nature of the horse’s interactions also may lead to therapeutic gains because horses are not duplicitous in behavioral interactions, and communication between horse and rider is typically clear and unencumbered (Taylor, 2001). As a result of all these characteristics, horses can be instrumental in helping people with significant autism communication deficits such as myself to achieve direct, honest communication -- in at least some format(s).
Horse therapy can can teach people with autism about energy, boundaries, how people move their bodies, and the intensity of purpose we as people with autism bring to others, because horses are very sensitive to our energy and how we move around them. According to Brooks (2006), if the person moves too fast or wants to touch the horse, they often move away from the intensity of the energy we convey; they are careful about maintaining personal space. Yet, horses are also very curious and will usually approach a human who remains calm and unaggressive (p. 208-209). This allows autistic people to learn to respect the boundaries of the horse and still have positive interaction with it. Although I still have boundary difficulties with people (humans) in some circumstances and contexts, the horse therapies I have received have neverthless vastly improved my abilities, and I have at least become pretty fair with understanding boundaries in the autistic-horse interaction.
Horses have also been used to simulate healthy touch in a holding environment to 're-create the safe space, both physical and psychological, which is created by the mother unbeknownst to the infant.' Jennifer A. Lentini, M.D. & Michele S. Knox, Ph.D., A Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Equine FacilitatedPsychotherapy (EFP) With Children and Adolescents, International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 13(1) (2008), pp. 17-30 (hereafter "Lentini & Knox, 2008"). Thus, horses may benefit people such as myself with autism -- with overcoming problems relating to physical contact or closeness. "[B]eing carried” by a horse may have positive associations for women who have shunned physical closeness by humans (Bates, 2002). The holding and touch therapy provided by horses has also reportedly been used to aid in correction of negative experience such as those causing a psychotic break, through the use of trance in therapy and the horse as a means to help a rider focus into an alpha meditation state promoted by the natural gaits and regular motion of the horse induced through its rhythm and relaxation (Lentini & Knox, 2008). I have never been fortunate enough to have a therapist sufficiently knowledgeable to use my autism horse therapy for some of my different complexities equally problematic as the latter; however, I have tremendously benefitted from my personified autism horses for touch and hold, carrying therapies to help me address my childhood issues of not being able to achieve closeness and contact with other people (humans).
Therapy with horses reportedly may also be used to break though a person's defensive barriers and bring them fresh insights (Tyler, 1994). Autistic people who are behaving in ways that are inconsistent with feelings or thoughts must, according to Tyler, become behaviorally consistent and cooperatively affective in order to work with the horse; 'a therapist in office work might not be aware of the existence of such dissonance the horse can bring to light by its tendency to display unsettled behavior until the person's behavior becomes internally consistent.' Roberts (2004), attributes such as the reason horses work well for therapy concepts of relaxation training, self-awareness, and abstract schemas of unconscious. He describes the horse as "a living, breathing biofeedback machine because it externally reveals internal processes in real time. … Horses respond to the internal state of the person, no matter how much the person tries to disguise it” (p. 33). I can certainly attest to all of these uses of my personified autism horse therapies in my life with autism, perhaps among the biggest benefits this therapy has provided to my life -- although I KNOW the neurotypicals will NEVER make me into one of THEM !! Give. It. Up. all you NTs ! My social cognition circuits will always be ... autistic !!!
Horses, as the literature explains, can teach autistic people to send congruent messages with spoken and body language, because horses communicate almost entirely through body language and are not capable of "double bind" communication (Vidrine, 2002). Thus, a horse can function as a very large mirror to overcome the lack of mirror neurons inherent in autistic people's brains to promote conscious attention to the autistic person's specific behaviors, encouraging authentic communication and awareness of our secret intentions. Horses are relational animals possessing natural ability to mirror what an autistic person's body language is saying, as a result 'giving insight into our own nonverbal communication and behavior patterns' (Colclasure, 2004, p. 2). Cumella (2007) observed many other benefits of horse therapy, including improved self-confidence, self-efficacy, communication, trust, perspective, assertiveness, and boundaries. Moreover, the uninhibited nature and unconditional response of the horse, as well as the horse's non-judgmental nature, may contribute to greater connectedness and self-acceptance on the part of the rider with autism (Lentini & Knox, 2008).
As mentioned, while I have praised the benefits of these uses of personified autism horse therapies in my life, I am not, however, confident I have achieved all the objectives mentioned by Cumella -- some being far more difficult for a person with autism than others. I am likewise not sure it has been helpful for an autistic person to lack understanding of double bind communication, but at least my personified autism therapy horses have taught me to communicate -- and that is a headstart !!
The rhythm created by riding horses is also reportedly important to simulate one of the first experiences of a developing child, to build up “body-identity” and help with correcting pre-verbal dialogue. It is because humans can actually ride horses, there is a unique relationship there that is not present with an autism therapy dog or cat. 'A literal holding and sustaining dynamic is created when a rider experiences close skin contact with a big and supporting living horse, and it is significant in this respect that the ratio between the body weight of a horse and rider is not unlike the body weight ratio between a mother and infant.' The horse may interact with the autistic person in an appropriate and physical way that would not be possible for the therapist. (Lentini & Knox, 2008). While I have achieved benefits from my horse therapies in this respect, I still experience great difficulty separating out the difference between interacting with a human therapist and my personified autism therapy horse -- is this an autistic problem ? A personified horse problem ? Or perhaps, one of having not yet formed a complete attachment ? I suppose I will have to leave that to my future human therapist with the courage and skill to tackle these issues.
Vidrine (2002) also discusses the use of horse therapy for transferences in the Jungian sense of archetypes such as Pegasus and the unicorn, The Black Stallion, and Misty of Chincoteague. According to Vidrine, 'the horse provides a whole new object that may be projected upon with various transferences' by the autistic person, whereby people with autism 'can imagine horses as magical, powerful, beautiful, brave and strong,' contributing to the therapeutic benefits derived from autism horse therapy. Bates (2002) explains that the horse also may be represented as the object of transference, associating the rider’s repressed id to the horse’s impulsivity and vitality while the therapist acts as superego, limiting the rider and horse to safe behavior. “[T]he therapist’s job (superego) [is] to show the patient (ego) how to control the horse (id) without losing the horse’s vitality” (Scheidhacker, 1997, p. 33). This technique, when mastered, people with autism can learn to apply in their relationships with other people (humans) !!!
I can definitely confess to projecting Jungian archtypical fantasies and various transferences onto my personified autism horses -- especially when I am galloping along at a good clip. How does an autistic person explain the feeling she is mounted on the Black Stallion or Flame ? Or, a Black Winged-Pegasus ? Again, perhaps I will leave it to another day for my future therapist to work out all these transference fantasies that vastly improve my life while riding my personified autism horse with mane and tail flying in the wind !! And, yes, we people with autism come to believe through our autism horse therapies that our autism horses ARE in fact human !!!
Horses can also reportedly teach people with autism 'structure, responsibility, routine, care for another (the horse), empathy, safe mistake-making, the value of practice and mastery, discipline, problem-solving, body awareness, visual learning, patience, respect for others choices, creativity, self-esteem, relaxation, the value of completing necessary but unpleasant tasks, self-reflection, and nurturing;' in addition, group horse activities can widen the autistic person's “circle of trust” and promote interpersonal interaction (Lentini & Knox, 2008). The Spanish Peruvian horse has frequently been used for such interactions because it is known for a “gentle, consistent, trustworthy disposition” (McCormick and McCormick, Horse Sense and the Human Heart, 1997, p. 43). The husbandry and care of a horse can be instrumental to autistic healing. Such additional autism horse therapies are achieved by what we people with autism commonly refer to as "working around the barn." This can include (*Gasp*) mucking our personified autism horse's stall !! (And, WHERE IS MY THERAPIST ?! ... perhaps 'futher !' explains my fantasies projected into my newest savant art masterpiece I am working on called "Peruvian Princess At The Medieval Castle With The Faere Charisma" !!!)
According to Internet literature, the horse’s sensitivity may help an autistic person coordinate their emotions (i.e, French: movement and behavior (expressed feeling)) with their feelings (sensations and perceptions). Thus, horses may be used in family, cognitive behavioral, play and analytic therapy (Taylor, 2001). In a comprehensive paper in 2007 (a real mouthful), Karol discusses six aspects of the benefits of psychodynamic work done in sessions employed by an advanced-level clinician: "existential experience (including aspects of biofeedback, here-and-now attention, and immediate communications), unique relationship with the horse, therapeutic relationship with the therapist, nonverbal experiences communicating with the horse, preverbal experiences such as comfort, touch and rhythm, and the use of metaphor. She notes that, 'When a [person] is on top of a horse, sometimes for the first time in [that person's] life, he or she is looking down onto [others]... and can experience power… and an enhanced sense of his/her own body… [furthermore] the horse is also a vulnerable creature and so serves as an apt companion for a [person] overwhelmed by his or her own sense of vulnerability and imperfections' (p. 81). The relationship with the horse can help develop a ... self-concept and ethics.'" (Lentini & Knox, 2008).
"'Transference can occur in relation to the [horse] and be used therapeutically, and countertransference may develop, especially if the [autistic person] takes out his/her frustrations on the animal. Nonverbal experiences communicating with the horse refers to how the [autistic person] listens for and interprets the nonverbal cues of the horse. This can be expanded into how [autistic people] relate to the outside world in human behavior and communication. Preverbal experiences relate to the development of object relations.'" (Lentini & Knox, 2008). Karol also sometimes uses music to augment and encourage the development of an internal consistent rhythm, and can develop metaphor through the autistic person's imagination, through problem-solving, or through story-telling, thereby using metaphor to help bridge the inner and outer worlds of the person with autism. Id.
That WAS a mouthful (!), but I can personally attest to the tremendous help my personified autism horses have been to me through my life in even remotely achieving my ability to coordinate my emotions and my feelings -- amazingly, I believe my better-than-expected Bar-On EQi score bears this out. And, I have to say ... there is NOTHING that compares to riding horses to music, which I have done on a number of occassions !! Pleeeaaaassse (and I promise not to stim !) ... let me practice my piaffe and do my canter pirouettes to the sound of Jimmy Driftwood's "Battle of New Orleans" ... "They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em, down the Mississippi to the Gulf Of Mexico" !!!
Horse therapy can also reportedly be used for conditions co-occurring with autism such as borderline personality disorder (Bates, 2002), and/or treating people who are fearful, anxious, depressed, angry, or dissociative (Tyler, 1994). In a study of different types of sports intervention, “[t]he most consistently positive intervention [with special needs people was found to be] the horse therapy” (Arizona State University (ASU), equine therapy, McCann (2005, 2005, p. 2). (Vidrine, 2002) suggests that therapy with horses may be particularly effective in treatment of refractory and guarded patients. (Scheidhacker, 1991; and McCormick,1997) go further and recommend use of horse therapies when traditional psychotherapy fails. I do know I have autism co-occurring features of borderline personality disorder, probably from my childhood sexual molestations and having witnessed the suicide of my mother; I also highly suspect, although no one has ever told me, that I disassociate as do most people with autism who have been forced to pretend they are *normal* in a neurotypical World and other causes, but I won't even get into the complexities of THAT in my particular life -- it is waiting for the One Dominant Savant Psychotherapy Master With The Expert Abilities To Ride Such Double Black Diamond Slopes In The Hopes Of Seeing That Beautiful Eternal Liminal Dissolution again !! I do believe, however, that my autism horse therapies and personified autism horses have helped with these co-occurring conditions, and I know I have personally experienced the benefits of such autism horse riding on the release of happiness spells on me when I become depressed over something -- and they also do a Great Job controlling my sometimes unbearable TLE pain syndromes ! Aarrrgggghhhh !!
There are other benefits I have achieved from my autism horse therapies I do not find mentioned in any of the literature I have read -- such as the relentless practice focusing on points while doings things like flying lead changes across diagonal lines, has helped me to be able to hold eye gaze with others deeply looking into their eyes while conversing -- despite my autism. Competing with my autism horses in horse shows has taught me a lot about how to put on a performance, even to entertain others when they want Entertainment Live !, and be tangibly rewarded for doing a good job the right way.
Maybe the most important thing my personified autism horses have given me is the knowledge that horses can truly speak, and what they have to say is this: There is no dream a person with autism cannot achieve if the person just believes through unwavering faith that their dreams really can come true !!!
~ Equiis Savant
The use of therapy horses in autism is not and should not be a new concept.
In the 5th century B.C. horse riding was used for rehabilitating the wounded soldiers (Gamache, 2004). Florence Nightingale observed in 1860, “[an] animal is often an excellent companion for the sick” (p. 103). During the 1960s, when Equiis Savant began riding, horses first became used in the United States for therapeutic purposes (Engel, 1984).
Many people ask me what "is" horse therapy and where can they go to get it. It has been called by various names before, such as: Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP), Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP), equine-assisted experiential therapy (EAET), Equine-facilitated therapy (EFT), Equine-assisted learning (EAL), Equine-facilitated learning (EFL), therapeutic riding, psychotherapeutic riding, and hippotherapy (physical rehabilitation/therapy; Gasalberti, 2006). There are quite a number of different horse therapy programs existing in the United States, often run through non-profit organizations. Some adults with autism, as I have done, can advance after many years of such therapies to benefitting from having their own personified autism horse who vastly improves their lives. My mother began my horse riding therapy when I was age 10 after I told her I knew a Breyer horse was not a *real* horse and I wanted to ride a real horse. I have continued since that time with my personified autism horse therapies my entire life.
There are a number of reasons cited in the available literature over the Internet as to why horses are ideal for psychotherapeutic work and would work for benefitting people like me with autism: Horses have a calming effect on the person while requiring total attention to the moment, prospects for metaphor, and relational features (Esjborn, 2006). The horse is a prey animal and is also distinctly social. Horses can aid persons with physical disabilities, who benefit from the gentle rocking motion that may help to relax muscles and improve balance. The horse’s large size may contribute a therapeutic benefit -- its power and size provide opportunities for riders to explore issues related to vulnerability, power, and control. The straightforward nature of the horse’s interactions also may lead to therapeutic gains because horses are not duplicitous in behavioral interactions, and communication between horse and rider is typically clear and unencumbered (Taylor, 2001). As a result of all these characteristics, horses can be instrumental in helping people with significant autism communication deficits such as myself to achieve direct, honest communication -- in at least some format(s).
Horse therapy can can teach people with autism about energy, boundaries, how people move their bodies, and the intensity of purpose we as people with autism bring to others, because horses are very sensitive to our energy and how we move around them. According to Brooks (2006), if the person moves too fast or wants to touch the horse, they often move away from the intensity of the energy we convey; they are careful about maintaining personal space. Yet, horses are also very curious and will usually approach a human who remains calm and unaggressive (p. 208-209). This allows autistic people to learn to respect the boundaries of the horse and still have positive interaction with it. Although I still have boundary difficulties with people (humans) in some circumstances and contexts, the horse therapies I have received have neverthless vastly improved my abilities, and I have at least become pretty fair with understanding boundaries in the autistic-horse interaction.
Horses have also been used to simulate healthy touch in a holding environment to 're-create the safe space, both physical and psychological, which is created by the mother unbeknownst to the infant.' Jennifer A. Lentini, M.D. & Michele S. Knox, Ph.D., A Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Equine FacilitatedPsychotherapy (EFP) With Children and Adolescents, International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 13(1) (2008), pp. 17-30 (hereafter "Lentini & Knox, 2008"). Thus, horses may benefit people such as myself with autism -- with overcoming problems relating to physical contact or closeness. "[B]eing carried” by a horse may have positive associations for women who have shunned physical closeness by humans (Bates, 2002). The holding and touch therapy provided by horses has also reportedly been used to aid in correction of negative experience such as those causing a psychotic break, through the use of trance in therapy and the horse as a means to help a rider focus into an alpha meditation state promoted by the natural gaits and regular motion of the horse induced through its rhythm and relaxation (Lentini & Knox, 2008). I have never been fortunate enough to have a therapist sufficiently knowledgeable to use my autism horse therapy for some of my different complexities equally problematic as the latter; however, I have tremendously benefitted from my personified autism horses for touch and hold, carrying therapies to help me address my childhood issues of not being able to achieve closeness and contact with other people (humans).
Therapy with horses reportedly may also be used to break though a person's defensive barriers and bring them fresh insights (Tyler, 1994). Autistic people who are behaving in ways that are inconsistent with feelings or thoughts must, according to Tyler, become behaviorally consistent and cooperatively affective in order to work with the horse; 'a therapist in office work might not be aware of the existence of such dissonance the horse can bring to light by its tendency to display unsettled behavior until the person's behavior becomes internally consistent.' Roberts (2004), attributes such as the reason horses work well for therapy concepts of relaxation training, self-awareness, and abstract schemas of unconscious. He describes the horse as "a living, breathing biofeedback machine because it externally reveals internal processes in real time. … Horses respond to the internal state of the person, no matter how much the person tries to disguise it” (p. 33). I can certainly attest to all of these uses of my personified autism horse therapies in my life with autism, perhaps among the biggest benefits this therapy has provided to my life -- although I KNOW the neurotypicals will NEVER make me into one of THEM !! Give. It. Up. all you NTs ! My social cognition circuits will always be ... autistic !!!
Horses, as the literature explains, can teach autistic people to send congruent messages with spoken and body language, because horses communicate almost entirely through body language and are not capable of "double bind" communication (Vidrine, 2002). Thus, a horse can function as a very large mirror to overcome the lack of mirror neurons inherent in autistic people's brains to promote conscious attention to the autistic person's specific behaviors, encouraging authentic communication and awareness of our secret intentions. Horses are relational animals possessing natural ability to mirror what an autistic person's body language is saying, as a result 'giving insight into our own nonverbal communication and behavior patterns' (Colclasure, 2004, p. 2). Cumella (2007) observed many other benefits of horse therapy, including improved self-confidence, self-efficacy, communication, trust, perspective, assertiveness, and boundaries. Moreover, the uninhibited nature and unconditional response of the horse, as well as the horse's non-judgmental nature, may contribute to greater connectedness and self-acceptance on the part of the rider with autism (Lentini & Knox, 2008).
As mentioned, while I have praised the benefits of these uses of personified autism horse therapies in my life, I am not, however, confident I have achieved all the objectives mentioned by Cumella -- some being far more difficult for a person with autism than others. I am likewise not sure it has been helpful for an autistic person to lack understanding of double bind communication, but at least my personified autism therapy horses have taught me to communicate -- and that is a headstart !!
The rhythm created by riding horses is also reportedly important to simulate one of the first experiences of a developing child, to build up “body-identity” and help with correcting pre-verbal dialogue. It is because humans can actually ride horses, there is a unique relationship there that is not present with an autism therapy dog or cat. 'A literal holding and sustaining dynamic is created when a rider experiences close skin contact with a big and supporting living horse, and it is significant in this respect that the ratio between the body weight of a horse and rider is not unlike the body weight ratio between a mother and infant.' The horse may interact with the autistic person in an appropriate and physical way that would not be possible for the therapist. (Lentini & Knox, 2008). While I have achieved benefits from my horse therapies in this respect, I still experience great difficulty separating out the difference between interacting with a human therapist and my personified autism therapy horse -- is this an autistic problem ? A personified horse problem ? Or perhaps, one of having not yet formed a complete attachment ? I suppose I will have to leave that to my future human therapist with the courage and skill to tackle these issues.
Vidrine (2002) also discusses the use of horse therapy for transferences in the Jungian sense of archetypes such as Pegasus and the unicorn, The Black Stallion, and Misty of Chincoteague. According to Vidrine, 'the horse provides a whole new object that may be projected upon with various transferences' by the autistic person, whereby people with autism 'can imagine horses as magical, powerful, beautiful, brave and strong,' contributing to the therapeutic benefits derived from autism horse therapy. Bates (2002) explains that the horse also may be represented as the object of transference, associating the rider’s repressed id to the horse’s impulsivity and vitality while the therapist acts as superego, limiting the rider and horse to safe behavior. “[T]he therapist’s job (superego) [is] to show the patient (ego) how to control the horse (id) without losing the horse’s vitality” (Scheidhacker, 1997, p. 33). This technique, when mastered, people with autism can learn to apply in their relationships with other people (humans) !!!
I can definitely confess to projecting Jungian archtypical fantasies and various transferences onto my personified autism horses -- especially when I am galloping along at a good clip. How does an autistic person explain the feeling she is mounted on the Black Stallion or Flame ? Or, a Black Winged-Pegasus ? Again, perhaps I will leave it to another day for my future therapist to work out all these transference fantasies that vastly improve my life while riding my personified autism horse with mane and tail flying in the wind !! And, yes, we people with autism come to believe through our autism horse therapies that our autism horses ARE in fact human !!!
Horses can also reportedly teach people with autism 'structure, responsibility, routine, care for another (the horse), empathy, safe mistake-making, the value of practice and mastery, discipline, problem-solving, body awareness, visual learning, patience, respect for others choices, creativity, self-esteem, relaxation, the value of completing necessary but unpleasant tasks, self-reflection, and nurturing;' in addition, group horse activities can widen the autistic person's “circle of trust” and promote interpersonal interaction (Lentini & Knox, 2008). The Spanish Peruvian horse has frequently been used for such interactions because it is known for a “gentle, consistent, trustworthy disposition” (McCormick and McCormick, Horse Sense and the Human Heart, 1997, p. 43). The husbandry and care of a horse can be instrumental to autistic healing. Such additional autism horse therapies are achieved by what we people with autism commonly refer to as "working around the barn." This can include (*Gasp*) mucking our personified autism horse's stall !! (And, WHERE IS MY THERAPIST ?! ... perhaps 'futher !' explains my fantasies projected into my newest savant art masterpiece I am working on called "Peruvian Princess At The Medieval Castle With The Faere Charisma" !!!)
According to Internet literature, the horse’s sensitivity may help an autistic person coordinate their emotions (i.e, French: movement and behavior (expressed feeling)) with their feelings (sensations and perceptions). Thus, horses may be used in family, cognitive behavioral, play and analytic therapy (Taylor, 2001). In a comprehensive paper in 2007 (a real mouthful), Karol discusses six aspects of the benefits of psychodynamic work done in sessions employed by an advanced-level clinician: "existential experience (including aspects of biofeedback, here-and-now attention, and immediate communications), unique relationship with the horse, therapeutic relationship with the therapist, nonverbal experiences communicating with the horse, preverbal experiences such as comfort, touch and rhythm, and the use of metaphor. She notes that, 'When a [person] is on top of a horse, sometimes for the first time in [that person's] life, he or she is looking down onto [others]... and can experience power… and an enhanced sense of his/her own body… [furthermore] the horse is also a vulnerable creature and so serves as an apt companion for a [person] overwhelmed by his or her own sense of vulnerability and imperfections' (p. 81). The relationship with the horse can help develop a ... self-concept and ethics.'" (Lentini & Knox, 2008).
"'Transference can occur in relation to the [horse] and be used therapeutically, and countertransference may develop, especially if the [autistic person] takes out his/her frustrations on the animal. Nonverbal experiences communicating with the horse refers to how the [autistic person] listens for and interprets the nonverbal cues of the horse. This can be expanded into how [autistic people] relate to the outside world in human behavior and communication. Preverbal experiences relate to the development of object relations.'" (Lentini & Knox, 2008). Karol also sometimes uses music to augment and encourage the development of an internal consistent rhythm, and can develop metaphor through the autistic person's imagination, through problem-solving, or through story-telling, thereby using metaphor to help bridge the inner and outer worlds of the person with autism. Id.
That WAS a mouthful (!), but I can personally attest to the tremendous help my personified autism horses have been to me through my life in even remotely achieving my ability to coordinate my emotions and my feelings -- amazingly, I believe my better-than-expected Bar-On EQi score bears this out. And, I have to say ... there is NOTHING that compares to riding horses to music, which I have done on a number of occassions !! Pleeeaaaassse (and I promise not to stim !) ... let me practice my piaffe and do my canter pirouettes to the sound of Jimmy Driftwood's "Battle of New Orleans" ... "They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em, down the Mississippi to the Gulf Of Mexico" !!!
Horse therapy can also reportedly be used for conditions co-occurring with autism such as borderline personality disorder (Bates, 2002), and/or treating people who are fearful, anxious, depressed, angry, or dissociative (Tyler, 1994). In a study of different types of sports intervention, “[t]he most consistently positive intervention [with special needs people was found to be] the horse therapy” (Arizona State University (ASU), equine therapy, McCann (2005, 2005, p. 2). (Vidrine, 2002) suggests that therapy with horses may be particularly effective in treatment of refractory and guarded patients. (Scheidhacker, 1991; and McCormick,1997) go further and recommend use of horse therapies when traditional psychotherapy fails. I do know I have autism co-occurring features of borderline personality disorder, probably from my childhood sexual molestations and having witnessed the suicide of my mother; I also highly suspect, although no one has ever told me, that I disassociate as do most people with autism who have been forced to pretend they are *normal* in a neurotypical World and other causes, but I won't even get into the complexities of THAT in my particular life -- it is waiting for the One Dominant Savant Psychotherapy Master With The Expert Abilities To Ride Such Double Black Diamond Slopes In The Hopes Of Seeing That Beautiful Eternal Liminal Dissolution again !! I do believe, however, that my autism horse therapies and personified autism horses have helped with these co-occurring conditions, and I know I have personally experienced the benefits of such autism horse riding on the release of happiness spells on me when I become depressed over something -- and they also do a Great Job controlling my sometimes unbearable TLE pain syndromes ! Aarrrgggghhhh !!
There are other benefits I have achieved from my autism horse therapies I do not find mentioned in any of the literature I have read -- such as the relentless practice focusing on points while doings things like flying lead changes across diagonal lines, has helped me to be able to hold eye gaze with others deeply looking into their eyes while conversing -- despite my autism. Competing with my autism horses in horse shows has taught me a lot about how to put on a performance, even to entertain others when they want Entertainment Live !, and be tangibly rewarded for doing a good job the right way.
Maybe the most important thing my personified autism horses have given me is the knowledge that horses can truly speak, and what they have to say is this: There is no dream a person with autism cannot achieve if the person just believes through unwavering faith that their dreams really can come true !!!
~ Equiis Savant
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Invitation To Visit My Website -- EquiisAutisticSavantArtist
My EquuisAutisticSavantArtist website is currently under construction. I am inviting anyone interested in enjoying more of my savant autistic artwork and learning about my life as an adult savant person with autism who grew up during the 1950s-1960s to pay a visit to my website at:
http://equiisautisticsavantartist.webs.com/
~ Equiis Savant
http://equiisautisticsavantartist.webs.com/
~ Equiis Savant
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Allow Me To Introduce Myself
I am the EquiisSavant, an EquiisAutisticSavant living in Florida with an intense restrictive interest in people with autism who ride horses, play music, create savant artwork, and who believe people with autism should be accorded professional licenses and equal opportunity.
I have been diagnosed with high functioning autism and savant abilities by my neurologist, Michael Hoffmann, M.D., who is the most capable doctor I know in his ability to deal with the conundrums of persons with autism.
The art piece featured to the right is an example of my savant autism art abilities, entitled: "Dueling Male Zebras," acrylic, Apr. 2009.
I dedicate this blog to my late mother, who met Bettleheim's accusations of "refrigerator mothers" responsible for the vast waste of autism, by obtaining a teaching credential, studying special education in the doctoral programs at Michigan State University, and devoting her time to creating one of the earliest personalized autism interventions of the 1960s in support of my lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer.
~ Equiis Savant
I have been diagnosed with high functioning autism and savant abilities by my neurologist, Michael Hoffmann, M.D., who is the most capable doctor I know in his ability to deal with the conundrums of persons with autism.
The art piece featured to the right is an example of my savant autism art abilities, entitled: "Dueling Male Zebras," acrylic, Apr. 2009.
I dedicate this blog to my late mother, who met Bettleheim's accusations of "refrigerator mothers" responsible for the vast waste of autism, by obtaining a teaching credential, studying special education in the doctoral programs at Michigan State University, and devoting her time to creating one of the earliest personalized autism interventions of the 1960s in support of my lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer.
~ Equiis Savant
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