Tim Goldstein Speaks to the Chinese American Association for Autistic Community About Being Proud to Be Neurodistinct
Cindy Gap founder of Tech on the Spectrum, leader and frequent collaborator in autism awareness with me at Google, and fearless autism self-advocate invited me to present to and do Q&A for the Chinese American Association for Autistic Community.
If you would like to watch the presentation and the Q&A the video is available at https://youtu.be/0BW9rFPNzY0 We had an extensive Q&A session and great questions were asked. Once again I see how desperate parents everywhere are for understanding of autism from the perspective of autistic adults and the hope of a fulfilling future for the children as they become adults. Unfortunately, all the parents usually hear is the medical and education culture's deficit oriented view. They hear that the autistic population is severely unemployed with a depressing work outlook. Almost no one tells them about the large number of autistic individuals who are working in all careers and most commonly without the support of a special program. Organizations like TACT, Teaching the Autism Community Trades , have a placement rate in good paying career jobs of 87% upon graduation from the program. They have started hundreds of autistic individuals start careers that allow them to support themselves in roles that can last a lifetime.
If you are Chinese American with autism or parent with autistic child this is a tremendous resource to help with many challenges but specifically the additional challenges that Chinese culture and norms create. Check out their website at https://sites.google.com/view/caaac-org/home or their YouTube channel