What it's like to walk down a street when you have autism or an ASD

This video will give you an idea of what its like to walk down a city/town street when you have autism.

I didn't manage to get the brightness perfect its too bright at the end. the brightness should be more like the start of the autism walk part its seemed to get too bright at the end for some reason.

The first part is a neurotypical walking down a city street then what an autistic or asd person will see and hear when they walk down the same street.

It will hopefully give neurotypicals a rough idea about what it's like to life with autism or an ASD. it impossible to get it perfectly correct but i've tried to recreate the experience as closely as possible. Parts of the video are too bright and parts are about right but i'm not amazing at video editing so i've tried my best with what knowledge i have.

It does vary from person to person with autism but this is a simulation of how I personally experience the world.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Autism
• ASD
• what
• its
• like
• simulation
• autistic
• aspergers
• sensory
• overload
• sensitivity

[DarkTheAtheist]

I don't think I experience increased sensitivity or maybe I've just got used to it, unfortunately I don't have NT senses to compare it to. I am that easily distracted by things though when I'm not trying to calculate the number of seconds since the big bang or something else equally ridiculous.

[weaveintothewin2]

@DarkTheAtheist thanks your your comments some asd people don't have this problem :-)

[4UCLA]

Awesome. Of course it depends on age, my son would have stopped and examined the drain(s), tried climbing the pipes and would have liked seeing his shadow! Also, he would have collected a bunch of rocks and discarded trinkets along that short jaunt. Of course he isn't even seven yet! :-) Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

[weaveintothewin2]

@4UCLA yeah I used to do a lot of that accept I seemed to like collecting bottle caps. I used to look down drains also. grown out of it about 90% sometimes I do collect trinkets if its a really good find like a hello kitty hair clip that my fiancée loved obviously we washed it first lol. Thanks for your comment

[bohemianhare]

re: 2:33 Green!!!!

Haha, but seriously, I've always looked at stuff like that when walking around, and much prefer cloudy days. The noise is pretty accurate, at least for areas where people are.

[weaveintothewin2]

@bohemianhare thanks :-) glad to hear its accurate could to get other opinions :-)

[DamiettadCarnivalle]

It is my considered opinion that people who have to deal with this level of sensory distraction, and who manage to "grow up", and make a "normal" life for themselves-- have a level of courage and bravery that few of us will ever understand, far less be able to measure, or emulate. God bless you all.

[TheLittletwitcher]

Thanks for this! I was actually going to do something similar myself, but I don't have the technology to do it. Apart from the brightness (which you yourself said was too bright) this is exactly what it is like for me. Every tiny little thing distracts my attention. I have the sensory problems so bad I need a carer with me whenever I go out or I get distracted and walk into the road!

[chris11sholtz]

the brightness is overdone as you said, but the sounds and focus are dead on. it's funny because when you played the "non-aspie" view, i got distracted by many of the same things you honed in on. what the video can't make you feel is the anxiety and uncomfortable feelings we get with so much going on. there are definite benefits to having asperger's syndrome, but those benefits come at a price.

[Someonece]

I had no idea it was like this.. i thought people with ASD saw the world normally but their minds worked a completely different way

[DrJReefer]

Seems a lot like walking down the street after smoking a fuckton of weed. Everything is too loud, too bright and everyone is staring at you.

[ruediix]

You need to use an over-bright prevention filter to prevent the brightness from removing detail and an altered gamma curve. Otherwise the over-bright areas will remove detail instead of increase them.

Additionally, instead of placing the sounds in mono, place them all with a slight delayed reversed waveform on the opposite ear. This produces a tone of background noise, but then increase their volume, instead of decrease the volume.

[axelsharam]

@hawx242 When anxiety levels are high, and you get into a situation you feel uncomfortable or scared in, your body sends adrenaline through your body to either fight the dangerous situation, or flight (run away from it). Imagine you're face to face with a tiger. You either fight or flight.

[atamagaiida]

I'm glad u made this. Perfect example for AS though I wouldn't know how NT see things. It would be such bliss to see the world as an NT :-/

[sesgardner]

the noise was spot on - I can't believe it's actually that quiet for neurotypical people! The other thing I experience (which you couldn't show) is I am almost constantly jumping from the sounds and, because of poor depth perception, I would be terrified of those cars so close by. I wouldn't know if they were coming at me or not.

[broad1134]

Thank you for this. I have an autistic son, non verbal, and doesn't sit, crawl or walk. I have often wished I could spend a day or even an hour in his body to understand how he processes life. Your video helps make this wish come true.

[hawx242]

what do u mean "flight or fight response"?

[autisticNintendofan]

its not avalibe on mobiles that's stupid