Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Aaaand breathe...

We had what was in some ways an interesting computer training session this afternoon. The most interesting thing about it was that it was even more strikingly obvious than normal that the guy running it has at least the "social communication" aspect of the autism triad (we already knew he had some problems with interaction, but I can't speak to the imaginative deficits). This guy claims that the reason he is such a pain to work with is because of being on the spectrum - but though I know it sounds harsh, if he hasn't got a proper diagnosis, he hasn't got the disability - but it's perfectly possible to have "features" without being on the "spectrum".

Anyway, leaving that aside, someone who doesn't know when he's losing his audience, thinks it's possible to turn all the lights off and not have everyone go to sleep, has no clue about layout, thinks it's a good idea to repeat all the things you can do with every single feature (you can start a new document here... and here... and here...) is NOT best placed to train anyone in anything, let alone a bunch of academics in using a new communication system that doesn't have the features we need, because no-one asked us.

I will stop now. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

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