In College, On the Spectrum
Peer mentors to help with organizing one’s day and replaying conversations for students who may not catch social cues. Training about autism and Asperger’s Syndrome for faculty and staff (in housing, in campus safety). These are just some of the ways that colleges and universities in Michigan are seeking to support college students on the autism spectrum, today’s Detroit Free Press reports. While students with autism have certainly attended college before and without special supports, college officials interviewed note that increasing numbers of autistic students—-in part because of better educational services earlier in their lives, “federally mandated mainstreaming into regular classrooms,” and parental advocacy —are going to college.
Steven Schwartz, an associate professor of special education at Madonna University, noted that “15 or 20 years ago, the idea of including an autistic kid in a general education classroom was craziness. Now it’s not only an expectation, it’s the law.”
………
And in her survey of 80 institutions across the country last year, [Jane] Thierfeld Brown [director of student services at the University of Connecticut’s law school] said four-year schools had an average of 10 students who reported to their schools’ disabilities offices that they had some form of autism. But she estimates the number is much higher because many students don’t report their diagnosis.
Thierfeld Brown is co-authoring a book on Students with Asperger’s Syndrome in Higher Education, which will certainly be a must-read for me when it comes out.
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17 opinions for In College, On the Spectrum
Marita
Mar 10, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Speaking of universities, I saw this article about Colorado University teaming up with Google and a program called “Sketchup” to help people with Autism express themselves.
http://www.google.com/educators/spectrum.html
laurentius-rex
Mar 10, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I wouldn’t know Uni student though I am.
I in my own research have come accross a lot of difficulty in this whole peer business as Uni’s because there is a heck of a lot of sociology driving it.
I’m an out an out aspie, the world knows it, but I am an old fogey grey hair, it’s different for my younger “peers” with different cultural experiences and social prerogatives.
I have discovered that we on the internet are a somewhat liberated and priveleged community, like the bra burning feminists or out of the closet gays. What we experience has not penetrated common social experience to the degree we might have hoped. There are far too many closet aspies pretending to be normal and doomed even more than I am.
If I say I am not normal, that not only means I am not neurotypical that means in a very real sense that my enlightened and informed experiences (given my disability background) are not normal for those who would be considered my peers.
abfh
Mar 10, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Actually, 15 or 20 years ago, plenty of autism spectrum kids were included in general education classrooms because the Asperger’s diagnostic category didn’t exist at that time.
Now we have more autism awareness and more services, but also more prejudice and more students who are afraid to disclose… there’s still a very long way to go.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 10, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Progress never is a one-way street……
laurentius-rex
Mar 11, 2008 at 2:29 am
ABFH is right, I was one of them 30 years ago, not that anyone would really have regarded me as typical of my generation because I don’t do normal, never have. I would not say my schooldays were free of prejudice, one was just a freak back then and just as open to abuse.
Would having a diagnosis have lessened that? I don’t think so at the time.
retiredwaif
Mar 11, 2008 at 2:38 am
“Actually, 15 or 20 years ago, plenty of autism spectrum kids were included in general education classrooms because the Asperger’s diagnostic category didn’t exist at that time.”
Absolutely. There’s also the issue of disclosing adult diagnoses, which is a very tricky situation. There are a lot of reasons an adult might not want to be “out,” not the least of which is that they might have worked very hard to develop enough of a social sense to interact beautifully with the world within certain parameters, only to watch the edifice come crumbling down the second they disclose and everyone starts watching them for “behaviors” and the like.
I’m having a wonderful time in college this time around, in my thirties, but at nineteen it was a full-blown nightmare. Part of it is the ability to be completely antisocial, interact only with professors, and go home to my apartment at the end of the day rather than a dorm, of course. Nonetheless, I’m having a huge problem right now that is directly Asperger’s-related, and I don’t want to disclose to disability services or anyone else who doesn’t know already. I’m considering a one-on-one meeting with the professor. Kristina, as a professor yourself, would you be receptive to a student who came to you to discuss such an issue in confidence? Or would it be weird, and disability services is really the only place to talk about such things?
Zaecus
Mar 11, 2008 at 3:04 am
@retiredwaif:
The ultimate decision is yours, and I’m coming to terms with the fact that no one is quite as cursed as I am, but I feel I should offer a caution for your consideration.
Confidentiality for us is only as good as the honor of the individual we talk to. Neither the law nor institutional procedures mean anything.
When I revealed myself to a counselor, I chose one that was licensed, meaning I was supposedly covered by federal law, state law, her licensing body’s ethical guidelines, -and- the school’s confidentiality in counseling policy.
None of this stopped her from revealing the one thing I had been insistent about confidentiality on to the Dean of Students, and once he had the info, there was nothing to stop him from throwing all of the schools administrative policies out in order to put me in my place.
Obviously, he was well within his rights because, as it has turned out over the last two years, I don’t seem to have any.
Cliff
Mar 11, 2008 at 3:23 am
Actually, I’ll differ a little here, for fun.
It’s an issues that the “closet” metaphor is a little lacking. For one, I might have, at one time, been considered a “closet” autistic, because I was living with a negative sense of self, none of which was related to “autism”, even vaguely. But it wasn’t really that I needed to “come out” as much as a lack of framework. Indeed, once I really had applied that framework to myself, I latched onto it without any sense attached to the autism itself. The closet metaphor implies that the negative is attached to the object itself.
The prejudice is also a tricky issue. I mean, without the existence of that framework, I would have been discarded like a shirt that had been sprayed by a skunk. Even individuals who weren’t as impaired as I was would get the category “mentally deficient” and treated worse for it. This is particularly potent because, in my view, a medical diagnosis as such diminishes the moral component of the different behaviors. Since different behavior is treated as “bad”, putting it within a larger context diminishes that (I should note that perhaps the best example of a moral component was Martin Luther’s reaction to an autistic kid). If anything, the discrimination of autism, while not all a good thing, is better than its prior alternative.
And the other thing…
“There are a lot of reasons an adult might not want to be “out,” not the least of which is that they might have worked very hard to develop enough of a social sense to interact beautifully with the world within certain parameters, only to watch the edifice come crumbling down the second they disclose and everyone starts watching them for “behaviors” and the like.”
For me, the contrary in practiced turned out to be true, though I understand the conception. By disclosing that, I was able to both interact with other individuals and was not discriminated based on my differences in that moral sense. Coming clean about my differences allowed people allowed others to understand them as personal differences and not strictly personal faults.
For what it is worth, I was direct about autism to my professors (and others) this year, and it’s been very good. They’ve been understanding, considerate, and still treat me as another legitimate individual. Now, I’ll admit that I’ve gained enough skills that, while someone could find differences, they’re not behaviorally huge, though the mental differences are (which basically equates, in the long term, to being a very stressed out person, because I’m always struggling, struggling to remember to act in type), so the discrimination factor may not be as representative here as it might be.
Cliff
Cliff
Mar 11, 2008 at 3:27 am
Well, quite a post interrupted mine. Question, though.
By “throwing all of the schools administrative policies out in order to put me in my place”, what exactly do you mean? It’s not clear from the statement.
Cliff
Zaecus
Mar 11, 2008 at 3:33 am
@Cliff:
I don’t have the energy to go through the exhaustive list again, though I know you’ve never gotten it, but the highlights are:
Failure to follow the school’s disciplinary policy, including denying me due process.
Failure to inform me of the schools appeals process.
Failure to -advise- me on proper student behavior and my options for continuing my educational path.
The last one really was a lot more of a problem than it might seem because it amounted to leaving me no choice but to leave the school and, since I have been able to find no method of self defense, give up on ever going back.
A good chunk of the administrative policies were thrown out before the counselor broke confidentiality, or he’d never have found out.
Owl
Mar 11, 2008 at 10:56 am
I tended to tell my professors but not all of them. I might still ask them direct questions on how to make my comments more useful to the classroom but unless they knew already that wasn’t often useful. People with no knowledge of autistic issues are likely to just pick a few of your obvious traits and tell you to stop doing them. People with lots of knowledge have no idea for what coping strategy to use but, oh my, are they sympathetic. So end of the day I’m not sure I ever got much out of telling professors. The exceptions to that were when they had an interest in me as a person outside of their classroom and then we could discuss my life and the things in it driving me crazy. But then again that was outside the teacher student relationship. Or in otherwords I never found it useful unless I was dealing with a person who had a personal interest in me. As long as the relationship is purely academic the only use I can find is they are the person in authority and if something comes up where they have to use their power to judge a situation it can be better if they know. But I never ran into those situations on campus.
Marla
Mar 11, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I think it is great these supports are being put into place. My sister who is not Autistic but disabled could have benefited from such support in college as well. Often the supports in college for people with special needs are less than satisfactory.
laurentius-rex
Mar 11, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I would find it very hard to be deliberately secretive about my diagnosis considering that all one has to do is google my name and they will get 101 facts about me from my website, blogs and wherever else I have been including here.
One has to watch out for cybersurveillance now as Uni’s are monitoring the internet, and particular myspace and facebook for things that are in breach of there disciplinary codes.
In fact I was recently pulled up over something I wrote on an email list which was apparently contrary to the Uni’s code on guaranteeing academic freedom for visiting lecturers who I do not approve of.
If I posted something derogatory about any of the academic staff there could be consequences.
Sarah
Mar 11, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I can only speak to my own experiences, but the few professors to whom I have disclosed my diagnosis with have been nothing but supportive of me. Most of them don’t really know what “Asperger’s Syndrome” is, and referencing “autism” tends to cause confusion, but I’ve been met with understanding and accommodation when I’ve mentioned that certain aspects of a class are hard for me because I have poor motor skills due to a disability, for instance.
C. S. Wyatt
Mar 25, 2008 at 1:48 am
My own experiences have been mixed at best. I am officially HFA and registered with Disability Services at my university. I actually speak at various conferences at schools, including the ASA national this summer. You might imagine my dept. professors would be particularly informed and tolerant. Some are… But this year has included a disciplinary hearing after I had a seizure in class. Apparently, that’s disruptive.
I have very strong opinions, now. You are only protected if you are registered as disabled — which saved me. The ADA legal cases are clear that universities still have a lot of discretion. If a prof claims you cannot do equal work, even due to a disability, you can be excluded. The ruling this is based on involved a deaf nursing student. The college involved worried about audible alarms being missed.
At the grad level schools can make your life very hard.
I have told my dept. and the university that my experiences are part of my presentations on ADA and legal issues involving autism. I also record some invents on my blog, but not all.
Regan
Apr 18, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Just got this today,
“Arlington, VA, April 18– The Organization for Autism Research (OAR) released Understanding Asperger Syndrome: A Professor’s Guide, a 12-minute video for use by college students with Asperger Syndrome as a tool to educate their professors, teaching assistants, and others about the disorder. OAR produced the DVD in cooperation with the Global Regional Asperger Syndrome Project (GRASP) and Pace University in New York thanks to a grant from the Schwallie Family Foundation. The video is available now for viewing and download at no cost on OAR’s Web page, http://www.researchautism.org/resources/AspergerDVDSeries.asp
“The idea behind this series,” said Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D., OAR’s president, “is to have adults with Asperger Syndrome in effect teach what it means to be an adult with the disorder.”
To that end, the video features two people with Asperger Syndrome, Michael John Carley from GRASP and Kiriana Cownesage, a doctoral student at NYU. Dr. Gerhardt also appears providing information on “reasonable accommodations” in the college classroom. In addition to being posted on OAR’s Web site, OAR will post it on YouTube.com and produce DVDs to be available upon request via the Web site by early June”
Kristina Chew, PhD
Apr 24, 2008 at 12:24 am
And, April 23rd An Arbor News story about Univ of Michigan student Tim Hull, a double major in computer science and history who is graduating.
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