An interesting Q & A with Temple Grandin, a member of the YAI Autsim Center's Advisory Board, from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Temple Grandin has written best-selling books and revolutionized livestock slaughterhouses. She is a professor of animal science and an activist, and a recent movie about her life starred Claire Danes. And, Grandin is autistic.
Grandin began talking in the 1980s about what it meant to live with autism, opening the door to a closed world. For the first time, it was possible to glimpse what it was like to be extremely sound or light sensitive, to feed on repetitive behavior but thrive under new experiences devoid of surprises.
Grandin, 62, was in the Bay Area last week, dividing her time as her life work is segmented - between animal welfare and autism. Grandin, who estimates that more than half of the cattle in the United States and Canada are now handled in equipment she designed, visited a Marin County dairy. The next day, she spoke at a luncheon in Novato for Matrix, a nonprofit providing support to families with children on the autism spectrum.
In an interview before the luncheon, Grandin offered advice to parents, talked about her work with animals, and spoke of how her own developmental challenges became assets.
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