In a later post, I will explain why this area is so deeply important to me. What is Asperger's Syndrome? - From the National Autistic SocietyAsperger syndrome is a form of autism, a condition that affects the way a person communicates and relates to others. A number of traits of autism are common to Asperger syndrome including difficulty in social relationships, difficulty in communicating, limitations in imagination and creative play. For now, I just wanted to share a couple of important links with you.

Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University is a noted writer and academic on the subjects of Autism and Asperger's Syndrome: she is  probably the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. Articles such as An Inside View of Autism give a deep insight into what it feels like to be autistic. I commend her articles on the IRCA site.

This Times article on Mike Lesser is a good read, and refers to his website "Autism and Computing" which contains papers relating autism and computing: how computers can help autistics and vice versa. I love his quote:

"It can be argued that human knowledge and achievement is limited by our attention. Most of us do not have enough attention to deal with the demands of everyday life. That’s why 2,000 people die on the roads each year.

However, it seems that humanity has evolved a way of dealing with this problem of scarce attention by giving some people the propensity to focus their attention in a concentrated beam, an attention tunnel. This approach is often diagnosed as autism or Asperger’s syndrome. There is a minor but socially significant side-effect to this tight beam approach: it means that little attention is left for social rules, language, and how human beings relate."

And don't forget the resources on the National Autistic Society site.