be a part of who she is. It’s not
overdone. For two years I was
on set every day with Diane
and worked with her and gave
her ideas. I was just there to
make sure it was accurate. I
worked with the writers. We
would work through an important scene where Asperger’s
played a huge part in her reaction to something.
I learned a lot about how the
TV business
operates. One
really cool thing
is that they
gave me a recurring role on
the show. I had
wanted to have
a part on the
show, and at
one point there
was a part open
for an intern.
I did the table
read, and right after the read
they clapped and then gave me
the part.
having to do it myself. I used
it for social modeling because I
didn’t know how to act.
MP: What do you believe have
been the greatest obstacles
you’ve had to overcome in
your life, school, and career?
PLANK: The greatest obstacles
for me have been social ones.
I’ve spent a lot of time learning
social intelligence and a lot of
sheets. They want to shock the
system of the kid. It’s a socalled “treatment” for autism
that doesn’t work. I don’t think
they even have a rationale for
it; they just do it. The psychiatrists have all these theories
about sexuality in the mother,
and they blame the mother
for the autism. It’s really backwards and shameful.
We traveled throughout France
docum enting
countless families struggling
to get support
for their autistic
children. I was
already going
to speak at a
conference in
Denmark and
then went to
Amsterdam and
stayed in London for a day. I
liked speaking in Europe.
“I think the Internet
was invented for
autistics.”
MP: Why were you drawn to
the industry?
PLANK: The whole entertain-
ment industry for me is entertaining and rewarding. Having
a creative outlet is fun for me.
Acting is fun for me because I
get to pretend to be someone
else. The consulting side is fun,
and writing is enjoyable because you get to create things
that weren’t there before. I’ve
always loved watching TV; it
was an escape for me, a way
to see people talking without
26
time early on trying to make
friends and failing. I’ve since
learned social skills. But I still
struggle some with executive
functioning.
MP: Tell us a little about the
process of making the documentary Shameful.
PLANK: Well, first, it’s not re-
leased, but we went to France
and found that people were
feeling hopeless because there
was little support for their kids.
Kids are being tortured. It’s
called packing, where they
wrap the children in frozen
ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
I’m anxious that I’ll do well, though.
MP: You spoke at the UN on World Autism Day.
What was the most important part of your message?
That’s a powerful thing to be able to connect like
that. It allows people who have trouble connecting with people in real life to find others. If the
Internet didn’t exist, they might never have been
able to do that.
PLANK: One of the questions they asked was
“What is an important thing that doesn’t get
addressed?” It was World Autism Awareness
Day, but really the most important thing is acceptance, not just awareness. I talked about the
importance of autistic communities.
I think the Internet was invented for autistics.
People who don’t like eye contact, people who
have trouble processing things in real time can
write a message on a computer, and then they
can go away and wait, and then someone can
respond, and then they can look at the response
and think about what to say and then write it
without having to deal with any of the social
anxiety.
Maripat Robison is an international speaker and
writer, leading workshops on loving someone
with autism. A retired television executive and
magazine publisher, Maripat has raised two neurodiverse kids and is married to John Elder Robison. Maripat is
the author of the popular blog and forthcoming book, I Married
a Geek.
MP: You do a lot of public
speaking all over the world.
What were the difficulties you
had to surmount in order to do
that?
PLANK: I always enjoy pub-
lic speaking because, unlike
speaking with someone in
person, you don’t have to deal
with social reactions. I don’t
have to look anyone in the
eye; I don’t have to do any of
that. I’ve had so much anxiety
in social situations that doing
something like speaking to a
group of people, for me, is not
anxiety inducing. Obviously,
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