Support synergy and success on the autism spectrum.

[Music]

nothing

of any significance was ever

accomplished by a single man

acting alone

i like that quote by john maxwell

because it serves as a reminder that

regardless of

who we are where we’ve come from or how

able we are we all need

support in different shapes and in

different forms

in order to try and achieve our hopes

and our dreams

shortly after i was born i was diagnosed

with a very

very serious congenital heart defect

my family noticed quite quickly that

something was indeed

very very wrong i wasn’t eating

very well and i was sleeping most of the

time

and so my very stressed out mother raced

me towards the nearest medical surgery

and unfortunately they were fully booked

and to make matters even worse

they thought my mother was overreacting

for you see only two years previously

my older sister melissa had passed away

five days after she was born with a very

similar heart condition now luckily

or rather unluckily depending on how you

look at it i went to massive

chronic heart failure then and there in

the medical

surgery my family were told that had i

not been brought in when i was

i would have surely have died in the

middle of the night

and so i was a whisked away to the

opposite side of the country

for life saving surgery

once i arrived medical professionals

placed an artificial heart valve

deep within my chest i was only two

months old follow-up surgeries would

have this artificial heart valve

replaced when i was two years old and

then again

several years later when i was 14. and

as we can all see

i’m not dead so clearly these surgeries

were a

resounding success so

please enjoy a picture of me in a swing

and so life continued as per normal as

it was meant to be

i was developing rather well despite my

rockiest start to life

i was achieving all of the milestones

academically anyway however socially

something really wasn’t quite right and

it’s this very topic

that i will be discussing with all of

you here today

and so when i was eight years old i was

diagnosed as being

on the autism spectrum this was back in

the 1990s when we didn’t know very much

about what autism

really was at the time suddenly

bullying loneliness and social

challenges

well they all became my norm and to make

matters even more interesting

the same year that i was diagnosed my

parents

decided to get divorced so just as

i was coming to terms with being

different things were rapidly changing

back at home however despite these

rapidly changing dynamics home was

always a very safe place

i knew that if i were having any dramas

at school i could always return to the

safety and comforts of my home

any additional supports that i needed

whether they be speech therapy

social skills development or even a play

date with friends

all of that was readily available to me

school was wonderful and school was very

difficult

but i loved learning i was obsessed with

reading

and trains of course thomas the tank

engine was my gem

and my closest friend was the school

librarian and she does look a little bit

like mary poppins

we had a lot in common she thought i was

cool and like me

she loved to read however making more

age-appropriate friends i found kind of

incredibly difficult

the actual making of them well that was

the easy part

however keeping them that was another

story entirely

in fact school would have been the

absolute perfect place

had all the other children staying at

home

i attended several different private

schools

a luxury not many on the autism spectrum

are afforded and my experiences within

these private schools taught me

that regardless of where you go to for

an education

and regardless of where you go to for

work

the people that surround you in these

environments

should ideally be an extension of your

family

a very supportive family

that support i found is absolutely

critical

to our very success

continuing on my friends and family

white that were always there to guide me

whenever i forgot to say hello they

would remind me his greetings did not

seem to come naturally for me

frequently i would crash burn and feel

overwhelmed but they would always be

there

to pick me back up again and send me on

my way so i could better try to

fit in within this normal world that we

all live in

now it’s commonly said that living on

the autism

spectrum is like having an invisible

disability

on the outside we might appear smart and

capable and competent

but on the inside we might struggle with

anxiety

be coping with depression dealing with

sensory issues or other individual

challenges

something as simple as talking on the

phone

attending a family barbecue or even

going on a school excursion

can be mentally exhausting for some

however i felt my biggest challenges lay

in trying to meet everybody’s

expectations

and being reminded of my failures what

felt like every five

seconds often it felt like my individual

needs as a person

did not seem to matter to anybody else

even now i often feel like i’m walking

on eggshells

too afraid to express my opinion in fear

of

being openly criticized or being too

blunt

although i find this generally happens

when i’m speaking to someone

in a position of perceived authority

even now on stage during this very

presentation i’m second guessing

every word that comes out of my mouth

for the longest time i believe that

these communication issues that i’ve

been

led to believe that i have were only an

autism-centric

issue however

as i’ve gotten older and i’ve met more

and more people from different walks of

life

i’ve come to the realization that these

communication issues

actually affect everybody regardless of

who you are or where you’ve come from

and so entering adulthood i wanted to

earn a little extra money much like

my friends and my peers by finding a

part-time job

however whereas teachers mentors

and other supporters can help and

protect me in an educational

environment entering into the workforce

i’d never experienced

such crawl and relentless bullying

and then there was the issue of whether

or not to disclose having a diagnosis

see doing so to an employer during a job

interview

might make them feel uncomfortable and

in turn i might miss out on a valuable

opportunity

although if i stayed quiet

and i did nothing and issues arose down

the line after being

hired then perhaps i was never entirely

truthful

in the first place i’m downed if i do

and i’m damned if i don’t you can see my

dilemma

currently in australia 20 of all

individuals on the autism spectrum

have been fired for not disclosing

a diagnosis of autism to their employer

and so i turned 18 and i managed to find

employment at a local fast food

restaurant very close to my home

and i decided not to disclose having an

autism diagnosis

i received virtually no training i was

berated five minutes into

my very first shift from not really

knowing what i was meant to be doing

in order to quell the manager’s yelling

i reluctantly admitted that i was indeed

on the autism spectrum however

in response she retorted in front of

other

staff and even the customers that had

she known that i was on the autism

spectrum that she never would have hired

me

this blatant discrimination would follow

me from workplace

to workplace and i’ve never gotten

started on my perfectionism or that this

can be

seen as a very positive trait to have

well i would always endeavor to do

things properly and i

obviously still do this would often slow

my productivity

as job after job what plays up the

workplace flew by

it became evident to me that this wasn’t

just affecting me

but also my family however on the upside

i had plenty of time to play video games

how could i not i had all that free time

assassin’s creed bioshock halo 3 years

of war those were the days but don’t

laugh

those skills with media they would come

to help my career much further

down the line it would take me

several years before i would manage to

find employment with a supportive

organization with a

very supportive boss to my complete

surprise

i even won employee of the year and i

felt absolutely

fantastic currently

the unemployment rate for individuals on

the autism

spectrum is 31.8 with 45

reporting skills far higher than what is

actually required for the jobs that they

have

many struggled to finish high school let

alone any post-school qualifications

and many find it difficult to find work

centered on their likes

and on those strengths however

meta-analyses also

suggest that people in the spectrum are

some of the most dedicated

reliable and consistent employees that

you could ever want

so clearly there is a mismatch

but why to me

i feel that this is due to a mismatch

of values everybody has in their heads a

completely different idea

of the perfect employee and more often

than not people on the autism

spectrum do not seem to fit within that

social norm but hey

those challenging bosses and you know

the ones i’m talking about

they don’t exactly fit within my ideals

either

so perhaps there is a bit of a double

standard or maybe there isn’t

i’ll leave that entirely up to you

to elaborate further on what i mean

whenever i’m given an instruction

by an employer that i think doesn’t

really make sense i will openly question

it

and when i do so that can often be seen

as confronting or even a little

intimidating

however my intention is to never hurt

harm or even humiliate

it’s to gather enough evidence so i can

make well-informed choices so i can

deliver to you

the employer exactly what you want

employers often forget that there are

two science to every story

and more often than not people on the

spectrum are given the shorter end of

the stick

and so confused with my employment

prospects

i applied to study a bachelor degree in

film

and television and this degree took me

five

years rather than the normal three in

order to complete

i deferred countless times because i

believed i did not have the intelligence

or the resilience in order to be able to

finish

however with the support of my family

particularly my mum

i was able to see the degree through to

its rightful conclusion

and as you can see she was very excited

for me

these skills as a videographer i managed

to develop

through my degree and soon i was finding

work within

the disability wedding and educational

sectors mainly as an editor

even today i was asked to film this very

teddy’s presentation

however after meeting with the

organizers of this event

they encouraged me to put down my camera

for change

and to apply as a speaker you can

imagine my great shark when i was

actually

selected to speak

and so there are mentors all around us

so i might not even realize it

several years ago i had the great

fortune of attending my very first tedx

event

and it was there i would meet a lady

that was going to have a profound impact

upon my life

as you can see she was one of the

speakers and she

had a dream and that dream was to put

together a community

of people on the spectrum that could

work together

network together and thrive as one

it’s people such as this parents

mentors teachers friends and good

supportive

knowledgeable employers that can really

make all the difference to our lives

regardless of our ability no one

can do it alone regardless

of our ability a couple of years ago

i decided uh to take this idea further

by studying a master’s degree

in education specializing in special

needs education

and while i absolutely loved this study

it was not without its challenges

currently today autism segregation is

increasing and has been doing so of the

last

15 years in australia while we’re more

inclusive

on paper ticking boxes

in reality that’s far from the case

unfortunately this situation is getting

much worse

no case is this more prevalent than in

our educational institutions

namely our schools and in our

universities

and so i issue a challenge to everybody

today in this room

to look deeper within the individual

rather than tolerating the person that’s

standing in front of you

question the reason behind their actions

and offer them any support that they

might require

it might surprise you to know that you

need us just as badly as we need you

and to my friends on the spectrum please

seek out the support you need

it is out there you can find it try to

rid yourselves of people that do not

seem to have your best

interests at heart and don’t settle for

a life

that doesn’t fulfill you nothing of any

significance

was ever accomplished by a single person

acting alone we all need

a helping hand thank you very much

[Music]

you