Front Page

World

UK

UK Politics

Business

Sci/Tech

Health

Education

Sport

Entertainment

Talking Point

In Depth

On Air

Archive




 Wednesday, November 3, 1999 Published at 08:33 GMT


Health

Internet first for disabled

The internet has helped the disabled to communicate

The UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched the world's first global
disability conference held entirely on the internet.
Mr Blair launchedAutism 99 - a conference organised by the National Autistic
Society (NAS) and funded by the Steve Shirley Foundation - on Tuesday.


It includes chat rooms where people can discuss issues of interest, new
research papers on a variety of subjects and other material, including an
exhibition, a series of audio interviews and a self help area where delegates
can run their own workshop sessions after the main conference.

The NAS is also encouraging schools to take part and says people without
computers at home can access the conference through libraries or cybercafes
on www.autism99.org.

Mr Blair's backing for the project is in addition to that of the prime
ministers of Australia and Singapore.

It comes after he attended a computer course last week and after Chancellor
Gordon Brown announced plans to widen access to the internet.

Mr Blair said: "I am delighted to be able to launch Autism99 - the first ever
world-wide internet conference on a disability issue.

"Autism is a difficult problem and one we are only just beginning to really
understand.

"The purpose of Autism99 is to give parents and families and also health and
education professionals the opportunity to exchange information, to pool
ideas and to get to know how different people, and indeed countries, are
coping."

Communication problems

Jane Asher, president of the NAS, said: "For two weeks in November this
fantastic initiative, which is a world's first, will give people from all
walks of life a chance to learn about what autism is and is not - simply by
clicking a mouse.

"As a keen web user myself I am delighted we are using this up-to-date way of
exchanging information to help those who may themselves have difficulties
with communication."

The site will remain online after the event and continue to provide relevant
news and information.

According to the NAS, there are some 500,000 in the UK with some type of
autism, ranging from the milder form, known as Asperger Syndrome to the more
severe.

It is perhaps most well-known in connection with the film Rain Man in which
Dustin Hoffman played an autistic savant.

There are only a small number of autistic savants in the world and they are
said to have a remarkable spatial and numeric abilities.

Some 40 million people in the world are autistic and, although it is thought
to have been around for centuries, the numbers are said to be rising. This
may, however, be because of better diagnosis.

Males are up to four times more likely to suffer from the condition than
females. Possible causes are genetic, viral or metabolic, with triggers
including German measles.

It is also linked to epilepsy and there may be an association between
difficult labour and autism.

Controversially, a UK study has suggested a link between the mumps, measles
and German measles vaccine and autism, but health experts say this has not
been proven.

Imagination

Autism is a lifelong learning disability associated with an inability to
understand others' feelings and difficulty in the development of play and the
imagination and communication problems.

For this reason, the NAS says the internet has been a particular boon.

"People with autism can have difficulty communicating with people face to
face and maintaining eye contact," said an NAS spokesman.

"They also have difficulty understanding speech which might be less logical
and less linear than written language."

One contributor to the conference, from the Independent Living on the
Autistic Spectrum, claimed: "The internet is for many high functioning
autistics what sign language is for the deaf."