Switched On

by John Elder Robison

  Peter Enticott has also weighed in on this story, and I’d like to recognize his contribution here. Peter helped out in the background for the American edition of this book, and wrote a foreword for the Down Under edition. He’s a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and another top TMS scientist.

  Next I’d like to thank Dr. Geri Dawson for asking me to get involved in autism science and then serving as a guide and mentor as I found my way. When I began my NIH service I was supported by everyone I met—from National Institute of Mental Health director Dr. Thomas Insel, to National Institute of Child Health and Human Development director Dr. Alan Guttmacher, Office of Autism Research Coordination head Dr. Susan Daniels, and all the members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee with whom I’ve had the honour of serving since 2012.

  At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention I was encouraged by Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, Dr. Cathy Rice, and many others. Whenever I have a question you are always there, and I hope I’ve been able to reciprocate by my work on your committees.

  Five years ago, Geri suggested I offer an autistic person’s perspective to the scientists of INSAR, the International Society for Autism Research. Today I am a voting member of INSAR and a member of its governing committees. I speak up for the role of autistic people in guiding research for and about us. I’d like to express my thanks to all of the INSAR members who have spent time talking to me and encouraging me on this journey.

  Lisa Greenman deserves special thanks for connecting me to the Ivymount School in 2008. Lisa is a federal public defender with a focus on defending people with developmental disabilities. It was she who counselled me to speak up for autistic people who are unfairly charged with crimes by ignorant or misguided prosecutors.

  Monica Adler Werner at the Ivymount School showed me what an autism school can be, as did Dr. Marty Webb of Monarch School in Houston, Texas. Both of you have inspired me more than you know, with the evidence being the high school programme in our car complex today.

  Monica turned out to be involved with a team of researchers at the Children’s National Medical Center’s Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders who wanted to find practical ways to help kids on the spectrum. “Medical research is fine,” she told me, “but we still have to teach kids how to get by in the world right now.” It turned out they were developing a curriculum called Unstuck and testing it in classrooms at her school. What I saw was so impressive that I wrote a foreword for the Unstuck and On Target! book, and I recommend it wherever I go. Next year, we hope to begin testing the Unstuck techniques at William & Mary.

  I’d like to thank everyone at the College of William & Mary, particularly history professor Karin Wulf, who first brought me there, provost Michael Halleran, who believed in neurodiversity at a time when the word was unknown in higher education. Thanks to Joel Schwartz, director of the Charles Center and dean of honours and interdisciplinary studies, for welcoming me into his college. I’d also like to recognize my other colleagues in the neurodiversity programme—Professors Josh Burk, Cheryl Dickter, Warenneta Mann, and Janice Zeman. I’m proud to be associated with all of you. Thanks also to the Aronow Foundation for their support of W&M’s neurodiversity effort.

  Thanks to my old friend Eugene Cassidy, president of the Eastern States Exposition, and all his crew—especially John “JJ” Juliano and Gerard Kiernan—for providing such a wonderful venue for photography and a uniquely colourful cast of characters.

  Thanks to Maribeth, Martha, and the staff of Robison Service. All of you keep the place running while I am engaged in these projects.

  I owe a debt of gratitude to Steve Ross for believing in me over the years. It was Steve—as the head of Crown in 2007—who initially brought me into Random House when he saw the manuscript that became my first book. Now, with Steve as my literary agent, I’ve remained in the Random House family with editor Jessica Sindler and publishers Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau. For those of you who wonder what editors and publishers do, they took the jumble of words from my neurodiverse mind and arranged them to flow smoothly, as you read them today. While every word in this book is my own, my editor and publisher were instrumental in putting them into the fine form you read today. They eliminated repetitions, corrected strange styles, and moved passages around so the story marched ahead as smoothly as the beat of the TMS machine. You might say they arranged my words so the print on these pages matched the vision of the book in my mind—a remarkable feat!

  I would also like to recognize the efforts of a few others on the Random House team: publicity director Sally Marvin, deputy publisher Tom Perry, art director Greg Mollica, production editor Beth Pearson, copy editor Amy Morris Ryan, and Amelia Zalcman in the Random House legal department.

  Finally I owe a great debt to my lovely wife, Maripat. She has shown me a family life I’d never known, and she’s beside me in all that I do. She feeds, nurtures, and cares for me despite my difficult ways, and she tolerates the things I do with mostly good humour. As I said in the dedication, she’s knitted our blended family together with love.

  Thanks also to the rest of our family—Julian, Joe, Jack, and Lindsay—for putting up with me and believing in this project. There have been many nights that I sat upstairs writing till midnight when I could have been entertaining our pets, playing board games, tending to household responsibilities, or doing other more family-like activities.

  This is without a doubt the hardest book I have written. The many different characters and the multiple threads of the story made the process quite complex. When characters got up and moved on their own I found it so unnerving that I would stop writing for days. Glue eventually held them down. Anytime tools were needed I used pliers from Knipex and screwdrivers from Snap-on. Bosch solar cells gathered the energy to write by, and pulp lumber for the page proofs came from our forest. Getting the finished work from the wilds of Massachusetts to Random House in New York was a difficult challenge, but my five-ton army cargo truck was up to the task. As I told the startled doorman at 1745 Broadway, ten-wheel drive will take you anywhere. My uncle Mercer showed me that forty years ago, and I never forgot. Remember that well in your own travels.

  About the Author

  JOHN ELDER ROBISON is the New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, and Raising Cubby. A world-recognized authority on life with autism, Robison lectures widely and is Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William & Mary. In addition, he serves on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, which produces the U.S. government’s strategic plan for autism spectrum disorder research, as well as committees and boards for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, INSAR, and other organizations. Robison is also the founder of J E Robison Service, a Bosch Car Service centre and one of the nation’s leading restorers of Land Rovers and Rolls-Royces, and home to TCS Careers and Life Skills, a programme that teaches the auto trade to teens and young adults with challenges. A machine aficionado and avid photographer, John Robison lives with his family in Amherst, Massachusetts.

  johnrobison.com

  Facebook.com/JohnElderRobinson@johnrobison