Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Navigating the Future of Autism Advocacy: Challenges and Opportunities

Transcript

Navigating the Future of Autism Advocacy: Challenges and Opportunities · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

• 0:00
  Honestly, this is how you get away with like free content and
• 0:03
  but yeah, I'm going to talk to you guys in the next.
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  I don't know. Was like 25, 30 minutes so
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  hopefully I know you guys have been super insane by all these
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  amazing like entertainers and actors that.
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  So now you got for me being boring for the next 20 minutes
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  if that's okay. So so much.
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  So my name is done. Obviously.
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  There you go. And then yeah.
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  I my brand is the astral world. So, I started YouTube channel
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  back in 2013 and didn't do anything with it and then 2017,
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  I decided to go or ham. Going to make this YouTube
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  channel but I was 26 years old was diagnosed with what was then
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  Asperger's Syndrome to know. Awesome Spectrum Disorder level
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  2, it's not really any different just nomenclature and I also
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  have ADHD and obviously the in dyslexia and all that great
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  gravy stuff that comes with an Autism Spectrum diagnosis.
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  But since then I've been able to kind of a travel, the world and
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  do all these kind of amazing things trying to help inspire
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  people. Inspire young people on the
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  autism spectrum to kind of do their do more and improve the
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  way that they see the world around them rather than see it
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  was horrid. Double Dark Cloud.
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  Because when I started YouTube, the first thing I did, what up
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  basically, I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, right?
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  And I knew nothing about it. So, I went online and I was
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  like, what is aspect syndrome? Couldn't find anything about it,
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  then I found one video of an autistic guy and it was so
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  depressing. I was like, oh my God, like, I
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  don't know what's this. So I was like, why don't I make
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  something? It's true, it's true, you never
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  look at videos of autistic, people prior 2017, online of
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  terrible. And so I basically said, hey,
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  why don't I put something out? That's entertaining, fun
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  educational and try and mend the Gap needless to say, my first It
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  was absolutely garbage but it still served its purpose and
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  then it did that I did that can continually for a year or two
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  and then I decided that I wanted a word from YouTube and it said
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  I was going to do it for them and go all in and I did that.
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  So the type of content that I put out is basically information
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  but I've made it educational and I'm trying to make it
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  entertaining because nobody wants to sit and watch a video
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  about something very, very intense.
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  That's very boring, you know? Like see don't boring videos.
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  So try to make it It's saving kind of fun.
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  The ADHD really does help so, yay, because I'm quite happy
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  active, and I do a lot of crazy stuff, excuse me, but basically,
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  that's who I am and what I do. So why did I decide to put
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  videos on YouTube? Now, as damn numbered, sixth
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  over there said, he said that you two ever loves you too
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  bright because YouTube's great and the reason this was great
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  for autistic people was because autistic people are quite visual
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  Learners or kinesthetic Learners, right?
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  Which means the rest get in there and play with Lego and
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  stuff. You know I'm talking about.
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  Out. And so like, in terms of of
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  YouTube, I was able to kind of Express information.
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  If people can't digest it in a way that was visually
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  entertaining, but then they could that they could watch the
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  video and understand what I'm saying.
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  Rather than read a book or kind of sit in a boring lecture kind
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  of like what I'm doing right now because it's super boring for
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  you. I'm sorry and I do paste a lot
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  which is kind of cool but in terms of my pedometer I'm doing
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  about 6,000 miles right now. So I'm kind of good.
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  I want to turn but in terms of that YouTube I really figured
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  that it was a really good way. Put out information with people
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  with digesting, go. Okay, I get it.
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  And what I found was that there was an entire community of
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  underrepresented people on the internet that needed someone to
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  hang out, and that was kind of cool for me.
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  I thought, yeah, you know, that I've been there being in school
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  being the kid in school on the corner who nobody really wants
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  to speak to your play with and all of a sudden, he find a group
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  of people are interested in Dungeons and Dragons, I'm sorry.
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  And and then all of a sudden it's great and I can hang out
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  with people and and so I wanted to do that online.
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  And that's exactly what I did. And today, I'll tell us, we have
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  200 20,000 subscribers on YouTube.
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  Got a hundred fifty-four thousand followers on Facebook,
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  40,000 followers on Instagram. And yeah.
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  Well, now we're talking ticked off because let's face it
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  everybody who's on the internet, how The Tick Tock channel.
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  So we have to do that too. So we're on 26,000, some of them
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  picked up, but the end of the game there is the actually
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  digest information across all platforms.
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  We have podcast blog and we do many, many, many things.
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  So I want to talk about something that I've been working
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  on. I mentioned, I'm dyslexic.
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  It right? So that means that my reading
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  and writing isn't the best but hey, ho, I'm only human and I
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  have two books out. Well, I have a sorry, I have one
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  book out and I just finished writing my second book, which is
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  quite interesting for just like a person's write books and and
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  how it happened is. I basically I like to see how I
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  can overcome potential problems because I have this interesting
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  desire to figure out that we don't live in a world with
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  problems. We have a potential toward
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  solutions, kind of like if you're walking down, the road is
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  long metaphorical, so get ready. You walking down the road and
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  there's a, there's a block in the way like a brick or
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  something or a big boulder. You know, that you need to move
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  the boulder to move forward across the road.
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  So basically we know that the problem is the rock there, but
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  the actual solution is to just move the rock so we don't
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  actually have a problem. We have a potential source of
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  solutions for get rid of the Rock, right?
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  So I was like, how does a dyslexic dude?
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  I can't even spell his own name, write a book and how I did it
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  was I use my iPhone to dictate as way, dictate it to the iPhone
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  and it made it into text and that's how I roll.
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  Both my books which is quite interesting.
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  Right? And I love this because I find a
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  lot of people get really kind of closed up when they feel like
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  they can't do something right. And so, what I mean by this is a
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  degree in chemistry so I love chemistry is great.
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  One of those fun things in the world is molecular symmetry in
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  group Theory. I know everyone's like oh yeah I
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  love it. I can see I get too excited
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  about it and so I can the Symmetry group Theory, great
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  stuff. But unfortunately is one of the
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  most difficult things to get to grips with.
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  So I did for my dissertation is Like I created a visual
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  representation of like an asymmetry in group Theory within
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  Minecraft, which is a great gameplay away that if you've
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  heard of it. But my cup is so good that I
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  built this. These models in Minecraft and up
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  to a point where actually Microsoft wanted to buy the the
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  models offering, but I didn't sell it to them, I still have
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  it. But the idea was that anybody
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  who could play Minecraft, could get the concept of something
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  quite technical very, very quickly.
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  And so, that was kind of me again, going towards something
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  that I'm not looking at problems.
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  And looking at potential Source Solutions, which The dope,
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  right? And so that's kind of like what
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  I do. So I've come up with a scale.
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  I want to tell you about the scale of work that I do, but I'm
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  first gonna have a drink because like any graceful performer or
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  entertainment. I have to be hydrated to
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  continue talking and I talk a lot because it really t a lot
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  isn't all that kind of fun stuff.
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  Oh, you don't like the sound. Oh, I'm so sorry.
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  I'm only joking. Sorry if I offended anybody but
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  my slips anyway, so I have the skill that come up with.
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  So basically the that we have this with the astral World which
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  is the name of my brand, we actually shorten it to just hear
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  W now, Tau media, but so they asked me what we focus on two
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  areas. We focus on the fact that there
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  are children struggling in parts of the world, all cus world who
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  are on the autism spectrum and the parents need support, right?
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  And they get it but then there's also this other side of it.
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  Where You have a doctor on the Spectrum who get little to no
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  support because I was focusing on the children, right?
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  And and and the way we look at it is in the scale is that when
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  you are you know, first a new person in the world and you're
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  born and it's all great and everything's brand new and you
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  have to learn things like learning how to, to eat and sit
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  next to people and go to school and conform to society.
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  It's all very scary and it's a very difficult thing to learn.
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  And it's always it's so overwhelming that some of the
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  most difficult times for artistic person would be when
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  they're very, very little, right?
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  But then he becomes there's no there's no pressure in the team
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  kind of years because you kind of finish school and you just
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  swashbuckling around and you can kind of cool.
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  You've already learned all the cool stuff that needed to do
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  like, you know, I don't know, just eating and being around
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  family and all that. You've got brothers and sisters
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  that you dislike and all that kind of fun stuff.
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  You know, you already know those things.
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  Where it's a teenager and there's no, there's little to no
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  pressure on a teenager typically.
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  Once you finish school, right? You kind of the world's your
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  oyster but as you get older and you become an adult like myself,
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  you have marriage, mortgage and kids.
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  And cars and all this other garbage that gets in the way.
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  And these are external pressures that you would then having to
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  learn. Again, just like you did when
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  you were tiny, when you're in school, and you have to learn
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  how to sit down and write and look at teachers and all this
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  other nonsense. So you have a similar effect of
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  people who are very, very small. Some people are very, very old
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  in retrospect. So this is the scale and we're
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  talking about. So this scale is kind of where
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  we measure how to help people. So the people in between, I'm
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  not saying they don't need any help, but they're, they're more
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  likely to kind of just cruise and Coast.
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  That's where the people who are aging adults and or young
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  children are in need to support. So, that's kind of what we do
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  with the ask me world. And then I'm going to talk a
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  little bit about what we actually do.
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  So we look at a lot of, like, what's the future of autism,
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  right? One of the biggest things that
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  we try and do, is we look at accessibility.
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  One of the biggest things that annoys me is like hospitals,
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  doctors surgeries, public places in general, absolutely have
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  garbage. Accessibility for autism, like,
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  I don't know if you've been through with, you know, you Go
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  to hospital and as horrible Lighting in hospitals near like
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  how is it, you know, your place where medical people supposed to
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  treat you or help you, and you've got a medical condition
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  or, or neurological condition yet.
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  The lighting is not set up to accommodate it so it's not
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  accessible, right? It's really bugs.
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  Me. Are you going to task on a say?
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  They're really proud. I love this.
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  They're like we have autism our happens once a year.
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  I'm like a whatsoever supposed to respect your Associates
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  shopping once a year. Thanks to school, great effort,
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  but not good enough. So we're actively trying to
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  really push through to Create more inclusive and dynamic
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  ranges of, of accessibility. And I recently briefed the
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  European Parliament in France on how autistic people have left
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  out the job market for similar accessibility issues.
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  And then they also briefed the bunch of big National Banks
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  about how employees, within their organization would have
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  less accessibility because of the, the, the officers are not
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  set up to accommodate new division, C.
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  And the way I explain it was like, if you go, Back to maybe.
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  I don't know. Like the 1800's and you have
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  like no wheelchair access to, to the bank.
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  I wanna be like, well, that's your fault.
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  You're a wheelchair user, right. But right now, we're bismal to
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  not have wheelchair access, right?
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  Be crazy. But now with autism, if they
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  have no awesome accessibility, it's are for, right?
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  But, I want to change that attitude, so that when they have
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  no awesome accessibility, that's the company's fault and they are
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  legally obliged to do something about that.
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  So, that's kind of a little bit about some of the work that we
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  actually do. Now, the European Parliament was
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  really fun, actually, briefed a bunch of different countries
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  about how how they leave autistic people individuals
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  outside of the jobs scope. And there are companies who are
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  actively recruiting autistic individuals like Otto Kahn, they
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  recruit people to be consultants and stuff like that were from
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  home remote. And, and they're exclusively
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  they just hire or certain people's, we Consultants, which
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  is really cool. So there are there are many
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  different things companies that I work with to kind of close
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  these gaps, which is kind of like what I'm trying to do,
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  excuse me. So, Another interesting fact is
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  that GPS or your doctor's, your Physicians of the American say,
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  less than sorry about, 40% of all GPS.
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  Have no background in something Waters, and which is kind of
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  shocking, you know, it's almost half of the amount of people who
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  will see you, through your life, on a medical fashion, have no
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  idea of your condition. So that to me really strikes, a
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  big big, also, and working again, with an University,
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  neurodevelopmental team in the NHS in Wales, and a bunch of
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  other organizations, to kind of, try and bring monitor.
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  Training and are kind of understanding and knowledge easy
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  stuff to the NHS, which is kind of kind of cool.
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  So one of the most interesting things I like to say is that if
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  you follow the national cystic Society, they have a slogan now
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  which is a world that works for everybody, right?
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  And it's all it's all nice campaigning for a world that
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  works for every. But what I feel like I'm doing
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  with with my community and my team is that we are building
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  that world, right? So it's all well and good
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  thinking about it but you have to actually get out there and do
• 11:47
  And it's all well, good. Going to the Garden saying, like
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  God, I wish I didn't have weeds and I walking the house, she's
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  getting heads at least pick those weeds out, you know,
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  because nothing's going to happen unless you take action,
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  you know, that's what you have to do.
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  So that's what we do. So I want to talk a little bit
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  about is every board yet. I feel like I'm just rambling
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  here. I'm so sorry.
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  Every Spring, sing it. I try to a song.
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  All right, give me some he Aetna.
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  No, no, I am a musician. I do appreciate.
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  Everybody's talents here. There's me just talking absolute
• 12:13
  nonsense about Parliament. I'm so sorry.
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  So I want to You just kind of talk a little bit about the
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  things that I'm developing and doing with my team, at the
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  astral world. And I'm really proud of is,
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  we're moving into creating virtual reality, environments,
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  for autistic, individuals and communities, so that you can
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  access the metaverse, quote, unquote, black circle bugs.
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  Lovely idea there. But the matter of us is
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  something is going to happen and it is rapidly.
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  Moving forward, we see more, you know, web three things like
• 12:39
  blockchain and of teas and virtual reality and all these
• 12:42
  kind of crazy futuristic terms that nobody really knows about.
• 12:45
  But we are working on those right now.
• 12:47
  You know, we actually have a virtual reality since
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  environment. I work at one of the biggest AI
• 12:52
  development companies in Europe and AI what Sundberg the call
• 12:56
  them. We developed a lot of Robotics
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  to help, educate young children, on the Spectrum, who drives me
• 13:02
  to robot than a teacher in that kind of cool gravy stuff.
• 13:05
  We're also developing apps to help the NHS.
• 13:07
  As one of my biggest goals this year, as we're developing data
• 13:10
  collection apps. So that the NHS, what I want to
• 13:12
  provide services, they actually know exactly what they want to
• 13:15
  do. You know, because up until this
• 13:16
  point, Point about about three months ago, I was briefed in a
• 13:21
  meeting with some of the movers and shakers in the North Wales
• 13:25
  kind of area on awesome. Small whales in general, one of
• 13:28
  the things they said oh yeah we're developing all these
• 13:30
  Services. These packages for autistic
• 13:31
  people. I said well how did you come up
• 13:32
  with those data? And I said well we just thought
• 13:35
  of it as well, if you don't know what you need to help people
• 13:38
  with and what, how do you come up with a product or the
• 13:41
  service? They were like, oh, shoot.
• 13:42
  So now we're looking at collecting the data.
• 13:44
  Yes, unbelievably shocking and I will From the data in the
• 13:47
  correct way to the facilitate that we do has to be done within
• 13:50
  a certain way. So yeah, so that's not me my
• 13:51
  team deep doing as well, so we actually, we are actually
• 13:57
  finding Global events as well. I was talking to a couple
• 13:59
  friends of mine earlier. We are putting on an event in
• 14:01
  Canada, called autism, Social Summit, which is going to be
• 14:05
  first, one of his kind of which I am actually planning one for
• 14:07
  Wales as well with the the wills autism dog as well.
• 14:11
  Because there's a lot that needs to happen in terms of
• 14:15
  conferences and stuff and up until now we've had Had really,
• 14:17
  like, just really basic conferences, rather than
• 14:20
  entertaining conventions for autistic people to enjoy
• 14:22
  different things. So, there's a lot going on,
• 14:24
  which is really, really cool, but that is basically what we're
• 14:28
  up to. And so, I just wanted to say
• 14:30
  thanks for listening to my absolute garbage for about what
• 14:33
  we are. Now, 23 minutes on 20 minutes,
• 14:35
  well, that was great. So if anybody has any questions
• 14:38
  I want to talk about anything. I'm doing and any work I'm
• 14:40
  doing. Please come and speak to me or
• 14:41
  be somewhere in this room for the next 15-20 minutes.
• 14:45
  Alright guys, thanks so much. Have a good night.
• 14:46
  I don't know. This is on next and terrible,
• 14:48
  I'm sorry, thank you but I wasn't damn.
• 14:54
  I'm still talking. What's what's the?
• 15:00
  I don't want to go this way. All right.
• 15:02
  Well, there is dumb. Dumb little gentleman.
• 15:06
  All right. Whoo.
• 15:10
  Yeah, whoo.