On CNN's Anderson Cooper show tonight: Amanda Baggs of Ballastexistenz
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a medical corresondent at CNN will interview Amanda Baggs on the Anderson Cooper show tonight, 10 P.M. Eastern time. From Gupta's blog:
She taught me a lot over the day that I spent with her. She told me that looking into someone's eyes felt threatening, which is why she looked at me through the corner of her eye. Amanda also told me that, like many people with autism, she wanted to interact with the entire world around her. While she could read Homer, she also wanted to rub the papers across her face and smell the ink. Is she saw a flag blowing in the wind, she might start to wave her hand like a flag. She rides in a wheelchair, she says, because balancing herself while walking takes up too much energy for her to also type and communicate. To an outside observer, the behaviors would seem eccentric, even bizarre. Because Amanda was able to explain them, they all of a sudden made sense. In case you were curious, there is no possible way that I was being fooled. Amanda, herself, was communicating with me through this voice-synthesis technology.
It really started me wondering about autism. Amanda is obviously a smart woman who is fully aware of her diagnosis of low-functioning autism, and quite frankly mocks it. She told me that because she doesn't communicate with conventional spoken word, she is written off, discarded and thought of as mentally retarded. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I sat with her in her apartment, I couldn't help but wonder how many more people like Amanda are out there, hidden, but reachable, if we just tried harder.
Updated: The transcript of the show is here, though it's the complete show and you need to scroll down a bit to get to the section with Amanda. Anchor Kiran Chetry also says there will be "much more with Amanda and Sanjay tomorrow. Plus, you can also read a blog by Amanda and watch her video by logging on to CNN.com/360blog. While you're there, you can actually ask Amanda questions about autism."
7 comments:
CNN seems really tapped into the disability blogosphere lately--huh.
And this is yet another reason to follow the Disability Blog Carnival--ballastexistenz is very often linked, and we had a link to commentary on Amanda Baggs' phenomenal youtube video in the second January carnival edition, a month ago. (Amanda is scheduled to host a Disability Blog Carnival in later April.)
Thanks for posting this-I would have missed it otherwise.
Wow...that is marvelous.
Glad you put this up- I was able to see it. Thanks.
I missed it! Do you know if there's a webcast of it anywhere?
"Because Amanda was able to explain them, they all of a sudden made sense."
Um, DUH. Idiot. If you can get past the iron doors of "education" that slammed shut your ability to perceive and think, and pay enough attention, you can figure it out... even if they CAN'T speak.
I have a non-verbal autistic kid.
He's not so hard to understand.
I've been around several autistic children, most non-speaking. None were difficult to understand. You just have to get off your arrogant high horse and pay attention.
I am so tired of Naked Emperors prancing about in their new suites, making asses of themselves.
I apologize. I read that and got really pissed off.
- Shannnon Wallace
I agree with you. Lots of people are overlooked or ignored because they don't communicate "perfectly."
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