As awareness of Aspergers has only relatively come the the
attention of your middle classes and GPs many people will
have grown up, worked and had families in complete
ignorance of their condition. An assessment to determine
whether someone could have Aspergers is also less likely to
have occured in someone who is successful in their chosen
career - why would they bother. Many consider George Dubya
Bush to be dyslexic, but we and he are unlikely ever to
know for sure. It is probable that many of the worlds top
scientists, mathematicians, philosophers have been
Aspergers - the stereotypical absent minded professor comes
to mind. Bill Gates name of Microsoft fame is sometimes
banded around as having Aspergers, based on observations of
his public persona and behaviour no doubt. But who knows.
And after reading Nick Hornby's autobiographical account of
his (over the top) obsession with Arsenal football club, I
thought Aspergers then, a suspicion reinforced by the fact
that subsequently had an autistic child. But I can't
imagine many famous people admitting they have the
condition, even if they were interested to find out. Like
the suspicion over Bill's Aspergers, anyone famous pointed
out as having the condition is likely to be based on how
they are observed in public and scurrilous rumour, not from
any objective criteria or them having "coming out"
On Wed, 11 Jul 2001 13:42:23 +0100 Ian Francis
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi
> Does anyone have details of what consider to be positive role models for people (adults) with
> Aspergers e.g. autobiography, video, etc? I've been asked by a student with Aspergers who'd
> like to read about other the experience of others, especially 'success stories'.
> Thanks
> Ian Francis
Bryan Jones
Equal Opportunities Adviser
London Guildhall University
Tel: 020 7320 1137
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