Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Like Colour to the Blind

Soul Searching and Soul Finding

Donna Williams

Paperback: £16.99 / $28.95 add to cart

1998, 234mm x 156mm / 9.25in x 6in, 304pp
ISBN: 978-1-85302-720-8

Like Colour to the Blind continues with autistic author Donna Williams’ autobiographical journey. Donna, who never knew what it was like to feel her hand and her leg at the same time, let alone experience tell the difference between real communication and automatic ‘talking doll’ responses, tells the fascinating story of her relationship with Ian, an asexual man with ‘multiple personalities’, who is somewhere on the Autistic Spectrum. Together they set out to find out what is real and what is not.

With hilarious results they develop an NLP-like strategy called ‘checking’ which appeals only to the feeling part of the brain and gets around stored learned responses. This ‘checking’ essentially triggers the thoughts, feelings and choices of the ‘real self’ buried under society-endorsed robotic facades and socially reinforced learned caricatures. Like chainsaws in the rainforest of their lives, they pledge to follow through at all costs with what they find are their real wants and likes. The results are that they throw out much of the household furniture, their clothes, the contents of the cupboards and then realise they want to be married (but fail to check that it is actually to each other!) so, within two weeks of very autistic marriage preparation, they recklessly marry one another.

Intertwined with Donna and Ian’s hilarious and surreal story is the story of their friendship with Alex, a non-verbal teenager who knows all about being autistic and unable to control one’s own appearance, utterances and actions. Alex has just managed to communicate for the first time in his life through typing and, afraid of being left behind by his reckless friends, he pleads movingly, with great power and beauty, through this only voice he has, not to be left behind. Along the way Donna, Ian and Alex all journey into the world of Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and discover the world beyond visual fragmentation, meaning blindness, face blindness and fragmented bodies as they see each other and the world as cohesive, whole and three dimensional for the first time.

You will laugh and you will cry, you will cringe and you will cheer your way through Like Color To The Blind.