Back in September of 2004, I went to an open house at Allston-Brighton Free Radio, an independent community radio station in Boston, Massachusetts. The station was looking for new shows to put on their schedule. After getting a tour of the station by their program director, I told him that I was a member of the Asperger Association of New England (AANE), a non-profit organization (website: http://users.rcn.com/aane12/). He listened to my idea of my doing a public affairs show to raise awareness about Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. The outline of my show would be that I would interview experts in the field of Asperger's Syndrome who were either members of AANE or people who were guest speakers with at previous AANE events (like their annual Asperger's Syndrome convention in October), inform the public about AANE's programs with helping adults and children with Asperger's Syndrome, and talk about my experiences of being a person with Asperger's Syndrome. Before I left the station, the program director handed me a membership application.
The following week, I discussed my idea with Dania Jekel, the Executive Director of AANE, Phil Schwarz, the Vice-President, and Gyasi Burks-Abbott, a Board Member, about my idea of a public affairs show. They advised me to proceed with this idea and introduced me to their intern, Rosanne, who helped me with completing the application for Allston-Brighton Free Radio.
However, we had trouble coming up with a title for the show. At first, I thought about using the name of one of my two websites that I started in December 2004 called "Uncommon Bostonian" (http://www.yvonnechristian.unimstores.com) as the title, but I rejected the thought of using it for the show was because I wanted the show to focus more on people with Asperger's Syndrome and AANE, not my writing. Also, "Uncommon Bostonian" is the title for my planned memoir of how I discovered that I have Asperger's Syndrome. After getting a few suggestions for a title from fellow AANE members, I decided to go with Phil Schwarz's suggested title: Outside In. As Phil explained to me, people with Asperger's Syndrome always feel like they are on the "outside looking in."
After mailing the application, Allston-Brighton Free Radio accepted me and then scheduled my training of their studio equipment at the end of November. I met with one of their producers during Thanksgiving weekend 2004 and learned how to work their audio board. The next step was to schedule a time for my show. I called and left messages with their secretary during the first week of December. She and I kept missing each other's phone calls.
The following week, my dream of doing a public affairs show about Asperger's Syndrome were smashed when I was in a car accident in Brighton. Two cars hit my car from behind during a minor snowstorm one evening. My car skidded on the icy bridge and hit a wire fence head on. I suffered injuries to my neck, back and right knee. A week later, Rosanne informed me that her internship with AANE was over and would not be able to help me with recruiting guests for my show because she was moving out of state. AANE was unable to find someone else to help me with my show, and I was spending a lot of my free time visiting the chiropractor for my injuries. I e-mailed Allston-Brighton Free Radio and told them that I would be unable to a radio show right after New Year's.
In late January 2005, Allston-Brighton Free Radio went off the air. Its five-year run was filled with problems.
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/04607564.asp
Six months later, I was thinking about a way to promote my writing and raise public awareness of Asperger's Syndrome. For the last few years I was hesitant about starting a web log (better known as a blog) because my second website called "The Uncommon Bostonian's Uncommentary" (http://www.christianmall.unimstores.com) is where I write my editorials and updates. Then, I learned that America Online was allowing its members to create their own blogs since 2003. When I started my two websites in December 2002, I've had technical problems with editing them because I use a Macintosh computer called the eMac and not a Windows personal computer. Therefore, I sometimes had to go to the public library to edit my websites, but I don't go to the library very often. Because I've been an AOL member since 1997, I decided to start a blog and see what happens because I could work on this at home all the time (except when I wasn't able to use my computer in January and February of 2006 because of problems with my telephone line and my hard drive). I decided to christen the blog with the "Outside In" title.
"Outside In" made its debut on July 8, 2005. Two months later, Autism Asperger's Digest's columnist, Ellen Nothbohm, saw one of my comments about her article called "Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew." She told her editor at Future Horizons, Inc., a publishing company that produces books about autism and Aspeger's Syndrome, about my blog. Next, the editor e-mailed me asking permission to use one of my blog's quotes for the book version of Ellen's Ten Things article.
I was delighted and granted permission. Six weeks later, I got my complimentary copy of Ellen's book. On the back cover it says:
"Forget Letterman! This is the Ultimate Top Ten List!"
--Yvonne Christian, adult with Asperger's and writer of the blog "Outside In"
I felt thrilled with the recognition, and it boosted more hits for my blog.
Thanks, Ellen and Future Horizons!
Outside In: http://journals.aol.com/yechristian/OutsideIn/
Ellen Notbohm: http://www.ellennotbohm.com/index.html
Future Horizons: http://www.futurehorizons-autism.com/
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Comments: 10
Thanks you for sharing this. Asperger's awareness is very important. Many people have no idea what the disorder is and even when explained, they don't get it.
Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew
http://www.ellennotbohm.com/ten_things_article.html
Thank you for drawing my attention to this article.
All the best!
Christopher, car care has always been difficult for me. I'm lucky that I still have my car in one piece after owning it for almost 10 years. Taking care of myself, my condo and my cats take up most of my time. Also, I work full time, but always dream about being a full time writer.
Bonnie Sayers