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