"Autism Is A World"'s Sue Rubin

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Has anyone heard of or watched the documentary Autism Is A world? Sue Rubin is functionally non-verbal and uses facilitated communication. She attends university and writes extensively.
her website is: www.sue-rubin.org
Ive never heard it mentioned in any of the articles (or maybe I just missed them), but what is the probability that she has something else going on apart from autism, or that is causing the autistic symptoms?
She has a very short stature, short limbs and if I recall large hands that are out of proportion with the rest of her body, which would indicate some form of dwarfism. She also has what I would call a certain distinctive facial appearance, i.e. that would alert people to the possibility that she has some sort of developmental condition (her photo is on the website, but it's even more apparent if you watch the documentary which i think is up on youtube).

http://www.stateart.com/productions/dis ... n/tips.asp

Nice how you dont show the link lol but then its fast for me to find the stuff video clips on the left...

Missed tones over here of autism stuff on tv....

http://suedweb.syr.edu/thefci/Video_and ... tions.html

Until she was 13, most believed Sue to be ret*d. Repeated tests put her IQ at 29—“the level of a 2 year old.” Rita says that her hopes for Sue, then, were modest—to keep her out of an institution, to educate her in special classes, to someday help her get a job “cleaning tables off or something like that that ret*d people do.” But then, just before she was 13, Sue’s psychologist, Jackie, introduced her to “facilitated communication.” Jackie and Rita worked with Sue tirelessly and, slowly; the person trapped inside her silent, strange behavior began to communicate and to emerge into the world an aware, intelligent young woman. When Sue was retested months later, the results were stunning—a 133 IQ. Sue entered regular high school classes.

Sue has become a tireless disability rights advocate. We watch her write a speech for a conference on autism. During the long process of writing, Sue’s support staffer Lisanne keeps her focused. Here, Sue demonstrates her wit, intelligence, and compassion. She starts by telling her audience, “If you think living with autism is difficult, try getting into college” and ends, in a tender moment, with a very personal offer to help others with autism who hope to follow in her footsteps.

Sue shares her final thoughts as the film concludes. Her words are simple: “The last thing I want to clarify is that no matter how much social interaction one has, one will never be free of autism. The tendencies to be and act in certain ways may subside but I will always be autistic.”

She certianley is an interesting young lady.

I don't think Noonan's syndrome or anything like it constitutes a bad reputation, or that "pure" autism is better than "impure" autism. I've gotten flack for the way I look from other autistic people, because I look (to some) as if I could have something else going on in addition to autism, but guess what, there's nothing worse about that than there is about people whose only diagnosis is autism.

Anbuend,

I didn't mean to insult anyone. I don't even know what you look like. For all intents an purposes, I don't care. I ALSO have tried to be more accepting than you could believe, so I won't try to convince you. I just made a blanket statement that is generally true. As for noonan syndrome giving autism a bad reputation, only a VERY small number of autistics could have it. So I doubt it would have much of an impact. If most had it, people would tie them together, etc...

As for pure autism, does anyone REALLY know what that is? I mean nobody can have all the symptoms(You can't be more AND less sensitive to pain everywhere, for example), so who is to say what PURE autism is? Pshyciatrists just found some very common traits, lumped them together, and gave them a name. They realize the traits aren't THAT consistant, so they are almost like mix/match.

Again, I certainly didn't mean to insult anyone. And beauty certainly IS in the eye of the beholder.

Steve