Omer Rehan is a student at UWC who has a cousin with autism. Throughout this talk, he explained that autism isn’t something that sets someone completely apart from what is considered ‘normal’ behavior. As well as the fact that autism is a spectrum, not everyone has the same type or intensity.
Omer’s cousin is quite reluctant to get to know new people, but now Omer is one of the people he trusts, and he has started to express a kind of excitement when he sees him.
His cousin’s parents were confused when they first heard the news, the lack of knowledge about autism being one of the reasons, as well as the fact that they didn’t know there was a diagnosis for the ‘social disorder’ that he had. Now, they try to support him as much as they can, helping with home-schooling and many other things.
From this, my opinion that had already been formed by this school about disability not being a factor that would define a person was reinstated and emphasized as Omer’s cousin is a real-life example of how trying to get close to someone regardless of their abilities or lack thereof, can change their opinion of you.