Lucy Blackman
Born with autism, Lucy could not understand much of what was said around her. Her own language came later from newspapers and books. She created stories and poems in her head from the words she had read. As an adult she still barely speaks.In 1987 early in her teens Lucy started to use a keyboard with someone touching her arm, but that was not a substitute for ordinary speech. Lucy’s language had developed in a world of her own making in which she had never passed on information to someone else. Even today she does not answer questions in the same way as other people.Lucy’s ambition was to write a book. She went to High School. She wrote letters and essays, learnt how to explain herself and began to crreate characters in her stories. While writing she started to understand her own autism, and through that understanding she came to type on a computer with no physical support to complete her B.A. (Hons) in Literary Studies, and later her M.A. Lucy continues to write both prose and poetry but also has reached out in her daily life to be involved with other disability services in Queensland, Australia, where she now lives.Autism and Other Adventures: Lucy’s Story is an essential resource for anyone interested in autism, sensory issues, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and especially the rapidly expanding world of keyboard use among the autism community. It is also an intriguing, humorous, poignant and exciting autobiography.
