From MSNBC:

Some revolutionary companies around the globe are leading a new movement to transform the unique attributes of high-functioning autism into sought-after job skills.

Companies like Specialisterne in Denmark and the non-profit Aspiritech in Chicago train people with autism to be software testers, data entry personnel and assembly workers. Such positions, which might be boring and monotonous for many, can capitalize on the detail orientation and repetitive nature that are often displayed by people with autism.

“My career would not have existed at all without the autism,” says Ron Brix (above), a longtime computer systems developer for Wrigley.

Robert Austin, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, wrote about Specialisterne for the Harvard Business School and says, “there’s no reason this couldn’t work in the United States.” He says that redefining conditions like autism as differences, rather than disabilities, is important for a developed economy.

… Austin says we need to recognize special abilities in people, realize that these may come with challenges to working in a traditional workplace, and find a way to minimize disabilities and take advantage of differences.

(MSNBC photo)

Writing the New York Times ‘Diagnosis’ column,  Dr. Lisa Sanders ponders whether Sherlock Holmes might have had Asperger’s syndrome. The fictional private eye, to be featured in an upcoming film starring Robert Downey Jr., had many symptoms of the syndrome, she says, including an obsessive focus on narrow subjects, mood swings and an apparent inability to relate to others.

Sanders says author Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes’ creator, trained as a physician and filled his stories with realistic medical description. Could he have based Holmes on patients he observed? “We may never know,” she says, “but clearly Holmes’s peculiarities have a persistent appeal.”

(Movie poster from imdb.com)

From the [UK] Guardian:

Nicola Clark, the mother of a British actress with Asperger’s syndrome, has launched a campaign to stop non-disabled actors from portraying characters with disabilities. Her daughter Lizzy, 14, plays a character with Asperger’s in a highly praised BBC television film.

… Nicola Clark has said that employing actors who are not mentally disabled to play characters with neurological impairments should stop. It is the “blacking-up of the 21st century”, she said. “We need to break down these barriers. They’re unacceptable and indefensible in a modern-day society, especially when there are so many good, disabled actors who are both ready, eager and able to take on these parts.”

The BBC has begun efforts to raise the profile of performers with disabilities, and next week will launch a nationwide talent search. The network’s popular EastEnders series recently introduced David Proud, an actor with spina bifida who uses a wheelchair in real life.

On the UK’s Channel 4, a video interview with Nicola Clark. An excerpt :

Q: Can you explain, as a viewer, what I’m going to get from watching Lizzy play somebody with Asperger’s that I won’t get from an ordinary actor?

A: Authenticity … authenticity and importing the story and the characterization with the truth, I think.

(Photo of Nicola Clark from Channel 4 video)

An editorial in the [Toronto] Globe and Mail says removing the term “Asperger’s” from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders would cause a “lamentable” loss of identity for many.

The editorial says Asperger’s syndrome, with its combination of intelligence and social awkwardness, has received more attention in recent years as it has become popularized in books, television, and movies.

There may well be a lack of consistency in the current application of Asperger’s. And since the word “autism” represents a large continuum of disorders, it may seem odd to give a specific name to such a small slice.

Yet Asperger’s syndrome has become a useful identity for many diagnosed with it. And while the dramatic possibilities have been overdone, the current attention has certainly raised awareness of the capabilities of everyone with autism. Developmental disorders rarely get such good press. Should we be so quick to throw that away?

Autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen writes in the New York Times that experts should move cautiously on the proposal to remove Asperger’s syndrome from the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” He says such a move could have wide-reaching consequences for people and their families, as well as for insurers.

First, what happens to those people and their families who waited so long for a diagnostic label that does a good job of describing their profile? Will they have to go back to the clinics to get their diagnoses changed? The likelihood of causing them confusion and upset seems high.

Second, science hasn’t had a proper chance to test if there is a biological difference between Asperger syndrome and classic autism. My colleagues and I recently published the first candidate gene study of Asperger syndrome, which identified 14 genes associated with the condition.

We don’t yet know if Asperger syndrome is genetically identical or distinct from classic autism, but surely it makes scientific sense to wait until these two subgroups have been thoroughly tested before lumping them together in the diagnostic manual. I am the first to agree with the concept of an autistic spectrum, but there may be important differences between subgroups that the psychiatric association should not blur too hastily.

Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Center at Cambridge University, is the author of “The Essential Difference.”

From the New York Times:

Experts who are revising psychiatry’s diagnostic manual have proposed eliminating Asperger’s syndrome and another form of autism: Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). They propose including the two categories under a general diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, part of an effort to recast psychiatric disorders as a continuum.

The change, if approved, is likely to be controversial. Some experts worry that the loss of the Asperger’s label will discourage people from being assessed for autism, while others fear that inconsistent use of labels over time will cause confusion and interfere with the provision of services.

From the Washington Post:

Tim Page, author of “Parallel Play: Growing Up with Undiagnosed Asperger’s” and a Pulitzer Prize winning music critic, answers readers’ questions about Asperger’s syndrome and its effect on his life.

Some excerpts:

“The diagnosis was helpful in a lot of ways — mostly in explaining some of the things that had proved difficult, sometimes even impossible, for most of my life. And I didn’t exactly “give in” to the condition, but being aware that I had it helped me make smarter choices.

“… I also admire the radical new autism activists, such as Aspies for Freedom, who believe that autism and Asperger’s should be considered “differences” rather than afflictions. I have some mixed feelings about this –  although I do think some of the things I ended up doing were enabled by my Asperger’s Syndrome, I still wouldn’t wish it on anybody, for I’ve felt pretty unhappy a lot of my life. Still, I love their punchy, radical spirit — and who knows? Perhaps the depression and anxiety that seem to accompany most cases of AS wouldn’t be there if we didn’t always feel so strange.”