Panel on how students with autism can fit into college

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I have been invited by my old college/university to do a panel discussion on how colleges and university had make students with autism make the most of their experience. I will be doing this discussion with some of the top academics in Canada and I will providing them some insight of what I went though in the academic system, what helped me during my time in college/university and what can universities do to best accommodate students with autism. I wanna reach out to all of you and I would like to know any experiences or programs that you know of of when you went to college/university and how the experience helped you during your college days. Any help would be appreciated.

Wow, good luck! I myself thrived academically at uni (still do), but I have virtually no social life because a uni day tires me out so much I NEED solitude. Social programs from my previous uni were useless, and my current uni doesn't do anything for me beyond exam help, even though I asked specifically.

Well right now I am in a program run by the Disability Center at the university which is seems to be more of an experiamental program which is testing in trying to provide students with disabilities with needed services. But every student is different so they'll try to specilize towards each students needs. So far I have gotten stipends, network connections towards, tutoring, peer mentoring, workshops, connecting students with resources. With autism, its tricky cause the needs of the students differ so much and probably need to be specialized. But what I think would to have easy access to resources, any special tutoring, career help and advice, peer mentoring, social networking help, and a person that can interactively work with them and the university. Cause my first experiances in college, there was resources but I had to go from person to person finding the resources and often feeling very lost. It would be good to have a system where if the aspie needs a resource, we can go to one person and that person can connect us to the service. Mainly cause we cant social network and we have weak executive functioning skills so finding your own resources or figuring things out on your on makes things very very hard.

I have someone who is in the same year as I am who goes to classes with me and sits next to me in them. He also does the projects and stuff with me and if I need anything I need to talk to other people for I can ask him to help me. Without him I wouldn't be able to go to uni.

It did take me over a year to build up the courage to ask for help, because to get help I needed to call someone or go to their office. What would have worked better, for me at least, is an email at the start of the year asking me whether I (suspected I) had autism and whether I would want help with that. An email that also specifically states that you can reply to it at any time with just 'yes' and then someone will contact you to get started. Something like that would have saved me a lot of time. Frankly it's quite strange that to ask for help with ASD at uni you need to do exactly those things that are hard with ASD.

First of all, congratulations: I'm sure that everyone will appreciate your insight, as well as those of the others who are contributing here.

I have had an interesting experience with college and university. One one hand, I find the work itself very easy, but the difficulty came in learning to plan out my time and managing my anxiety around assignments and tests, as I am a procrastinator and a perfectionist: not the best combination. I find that success in postsecondary really depends on executive functioning skills such as time management and planning assignments...and this took me quite a while to learn to do effectively. As well, most of my difficulty came from managing my anxiety and navigating social relationships.

It's absolutely essential that anyone with ASD register with disability services even if they are not experiencing difficulty, as it allows for a backup plan if something goes wrong.

Out of curiosity, where are you presenting? Is it at a conference or ASD event? I also live in Canada and do speaking engagements regularly about ASD.

Good luck!

During my short stint away at college, i made friends with open minded types of people. I went to an art school, so it was easier i guess.
A lot of people were gay, goth, punk, "freaky by nature", hippies, and we all hung out together. People weren't judgemental of others.
At least if they were i didn't notice it.
Maybe making a NT Autie/Aspie alliance?

From an Australian Aspie: I wouldn't say that fitting into uni (college) is my main problem, although there were and are difficulties. This was especially the case during the first time around, when I struggled badly with the social nature of uni and had constant battles with low self-esteem. With the benefit of more maturity and an actual diagnosis, I am now doing a second bachelor's degree with a lot more success. I am registered with the uni's disability support services and get some small concessions during exams, such as no fluoro lights. I would like to push for more time in exams where mathematics is involved, but I think I need to get an assessment done that I can't afford. The necessary process has not been explained to me very well.

The most serious problem I had was with the transition from uni to career. I never did anything with my first degree because I didn't know how. I had no idea how to network. All the techniques for finding graduate jobs were anathema to an Aspie. I don't give a good impression in job interviews. I would have loved to have some support to help convert my degree into employment - degree-related employment, not the menial job I found myself in.

Thanks for the input guys/gals. I already have a script all done and I will be presenting it in a few weeks. I am looking forward to it.

Good luck. Would be interested to know how it goes.

From my experience, college has the same advantage as the internet; by its very nature, you are more likely to find people with similar interests and who appreciate quirkiness. This makes it easier to find people willing to talk to you, and friends as well.

I just try to befriend people who are shy or have learning disabilities or mental disorders. That way I feel like I'm not alone and I have people to hang around with. The Centre for Students with Disabilities helped a little bit as well. They have a zen room in there if you're feeling overwhelmed and/or upset. You can just sit in there and relax and listen to your iPod if you want. I also write my tests in the testing centre so I don't feel like I have to rush and I get to write my tests on the computer as my penmanship is really sloppy.

The panel went very well. I was called an inspiration by the heads of these universities. I made YouTube video with a recap of what happened at the panel and also my story. Would anyone like to see it? send me a PM and il send you the link.