I
was born on May 25, 1978 in La Mirada, California. At the age of 4, I
was diagnosed as being severely autistic. For most of my childhood, I
was also believed to be retarded. When I was 13 years old, I was introduced to
Facilitated Communication - a method of communication which allowed me to type
my thoughts. With Facilitated
Communication (FC),
it became clear that I was not retarded, but instead, was very autistic and
lacked a method of expressing myself. Sadly I was so autistic I was not
aware of the world around me and looked very retarded. Using FC, I
graduated from Whittier High School in Whittier, California with honors, and
am now a student at Whittier College typing independently. In addition
to my school work, my mother or my friend and program coordinator and I travel
to autism/special ed conferences around the country doing presentations and
keynote addresses. This website includes transcripts from some of those
conferences, a schedule of future conferences, as well as academic and
personal writings.
If
you would like to contact me about living with autism, please feel free to
email me (srubin693@earthlink.net).
Please bear in mind that typing is a slow process for me and between
schoolwork and conferences, I may be a little slow in replying.
For
more information about FC or conferences I have done, please contact Rita
Rubin (brubin698@earthlink.net).
