I have found that many individuals on the autism spectrum, including those with Asperger's Syndrome, are able to navigate the world of Second Life with ease. There is an extraordinary number of people in SL with autism or people who have children with autism. Because of this I thought it would be important to open up a non profit Autism Awareness Center, actually I opened two. One is in Victoriana Pavilion and the other is on one of the many NY Medical Sims. The facility is full of useful information for persons with autism, their families, their teachers, and the general public who just want to know more about it.

I think it's so wonderful that Second Life exists for people with autism because it more or less alleviates some of their problems with verbal and non verbal communication as experienced in real life. This puts them on basically a level playing field with neurotypicals. Often times I cannot tell if a person I'm talking to is on the spectrum or not when I meet them in Second Life, primarily because through the typed word they communicate just like everyone else and their intelligence is able to shine though without being hindered by real life challenges with communication.

A couple of weeks ago we had an auction for autism at the center and raised $200.00 USD in just 3 hours! This is in addition to the over $500.00 USD we raised for autism since last Spring. We donate to two different SL groups that benefit real life people, The ASA in SL and Autism Support in SL. I hope to be able to continue with this work; autism awareness is so very important as the numbers of diagnosed cases keep rising.

Here is a link to my blog about the Autism Center:

http://kosharimahana.blogspot.com/2009/09/austism-awareness-center-now-open.html

Koshari Mahana

aka Jenni Siri (in real life)