I can talk myself in and out of anything. It’s especially easy if you have a good friend who can help you with that.
“Does this make me look fat?” I’d ask Kathy. Kathy was my best friend all through school and college. We were roommates at Framingham State. Kathy knew me better than anyone.
“What do you want the answer to be?” Kathy would ask. Now, if you’re a guy reading this, that probably makes no sense to you at all. But if you’re a woman, and especially if you used to be a female teenager, this makes perfect sense. What Kathy meant, and what I knew she meant, was “Do you just love it and feel like you’ll die if you don’t buy it, because if you don’t buy it and then you change your mind, and you come back for it, it will be gone, and then you will live in grief as an ugly spinster for the rest of your life; or do you mean geez I really like this, but it costs as much as a Volkswagon and I’d have to be out of my mind to spend this much money?”
“I don’t know . . . ” I linger on the price tag.
“You know, it makes you look fat.”
Kathy moved to Cape Cod right after we graduated from FSC, and I went to sea; so when it came to figuring out whether Jason could really get a driver’s license, we went to Alpha One.
That was Samantha Fenderson’s idea. Sam was Jason’s Voc Rehab counselor through Morse High School. Voc Rehab’s job is to help people who have disabilities get and keep a job. That extends to transportation to and from work, so Sam felt it was completely appropriate to fund Jason for a driver’s assessment at Alpha One.
Founded in 1978, Alpha One “annually assists more than 6,000 people of all ages, including children and the elderly, with a range of disabilities: mobility impairments, traumatic brain injury, deafness, blindness, other vision and hearing impairments, developmental disabilities, mental illness, and AIDS. For more than three decades, Alpha One has been responsive to the needs of individuals with disabilities, initiating, advocating for, and implementing systems change to overcome the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from living independently.”[1]
“ . . .and implementing systems change to overcome barriers that prevent people with disabilities from living independently.” These are people we want in our corner.
Among its many initiatives, Alpha One has an adaptive driving assessment.[2]
“Personal transportation is key to independence,” Alpha One says. “Our driver evaluation program is designed to help people resume driving following a disability, or to help young adults with developmental disabilities start driving.[3] The intent of our driver evaluation is to help people maintain their independence, or develop strategies for independent driving.”
“Our evaluators are dually licensed as Occupational Therapists and Driver Educators in the State of Maine. The evaluation includes a comprehensive assessment of visual, physical, and cognitive skills, as well as an in-vehicle assessment conducted in Alpha One’s adapted vehicle. Recommendations for adaptive driving equipment, further training, and teaching strategies are included as part of the evaluation.”[4]
The evaluation took place in South Portland, and Kristen clearly knew her stuff. I think. We weren’t invited into the room. Imagine that. I’m the boy’s mother, and this woman wants to work with Jason alone. Hmmmph.
(Flashback: In high school I applied for a Navy ROTC scholarship. My mother said if I was mature enough to join the Navy, I was mature enough to figure out how to get to Boston and back for my interview by myself. I grew up 40 miles from Boston, so it wasn’t like an interstate trek; still, it involved a Greyhound bus, asking for directions, something called the green line and the red line, and a bit of a walk to Technology Square, but by golly I did it. I arrived sweaty and breathless and proud of myself, only to enter a room full of male adolescents cool and crisp in suits, with their mothers by their sides.[5])
I guess if Jason was potentially mature enough to drive, he was stable enough to go through the evaluation by himself. And headsup: the examiner at the Department of Motor Vehicles doesn’t let Moms or Dads attend the on-the-road test either.
When Kristen completed the desk eval with Jason, she moved Jason to an adapted vehicle, which is code for there is a brake on the passenger’s side, too. As Steve and I watched anxiously, Kristen packed Jason into the car and informed us she was taking him to the cemetery—an enormous expanse of roads and headstones not far from the Alpha One office.
“I guess that’s because everyone is already dead there,” Steve said under his breath.
When we met Kristen and Jason at the end of the cemetery drive, Kristen pointed out Jason drove with one eye closed—a result, she thought, of his strabismus. We knew Jay had strabismus—it was hard not to notice that sometimes his left eye would stray to the left, while his right eye remained forward; but we had never noticed this impacting his vision so severely that he could not see well using both eyes; or, put more technically, that his strabismus interfered with his binocular vision.
Kristen reported, in part, “On the Comprehensive Trail Making Test (CTMT) Jason scored in the below average range; however, with each successive trail his performance improved despite increased difficulty with the task. For instance, on the first trail he scored in the severely impaired range. On the next trail he scored in the mild to moderately impaired range. On the third trail, he scored below average and the fourth and fifth trails he scored in the average range, indicating that with exposure and practice his performance improves.”
“New, unpredictable situations may be challenging for Jason to problem-solve independently. Training should start with Jason as an active passenger identifying all of the things that he needs to pay attention to on a familiar route; this may help him know what to look for on unfamiliar routes.”
“It is important to keep in mind that even a well-practiced route is never the same route twice; many factors influence the conditions.”
“Provide Jason with as much hands-on learning as possible. Jason may find it helpful to have a visual demonstration of what he will be learning prior to going out in the vehicle. For instance, after instruction of a concept, a demonstration is provided. Allow Jason the opportunity to practice what was demonstrated (e.g. if the instruction is being done with a map and toy cars, have Jason demonstrate his understanding of the situation being presented.”)
“If the plan is for Jason to commence driving in the near future, he will need to enroll in a driver’s education course due to his age. Given that Jason is in mainstream classes with support, he should be able to manage a traditional driver’s education course provided his support system is available to break down tasks and reinforce learning as needed. Jason will benefit from driver’s instruction that presents information in multiple formats, hands on demonstration, and most important, repetition.”
“The in-vehicle instruction with the instructor should be increased to a minimum of 20-25 hours, preferably with an instructor who is experienced working with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
Kristen’s report could reach one or more of several conclusions.
“It is my professional judgment that the consumer is (check all that apply):
___ A good candidate for adaptive devices/vehicle modifications
___ A good candidate for successful driver training and licensing
___ A fair candidate for successful driver training and licensing
___ A poor candidate for successful driver training and licensing”
Jason earned a fair.
So it was off to Maine Eye Center, where Dr. Berman prescribed lenses that would help treat Jason’s strabismus. Donna broke Driver’s Ed lessons down for Jason, and Gina provided additional classroom support. Jason earned his Learner’s permit on the second try. Donna then patiently took Jason on road after road throughout Bath and surrounding communities. Steve and I provided Jason with nearly 200 hours of on-the-road practice as well, including countless trials of parallel parking.
When the time came, Jason passed the written exam. This didn’t surprise us, because Jason has an incredible memory, and he was well prepared. And with one exception, he passed the on-the-road test as well. The exception was that while he used the mirrors when switching lanes, Jason did not look over his shoulder as well. Thankfully, the examiner allowed Jason to retake just that part of the exam a month later.
And then Jason had a driver’s license.
A license, but no car. Steve and I believe strongly in leverage. Our car, our rules. Our money, our rules. Our son, our rules. As my Dad said to me, my sister and brother, “The State may have given you a license, but I haven’t.” Lots and lots of rules, and carefully executed subterfuge “from” our auto insurance carrier whose logo we borrow for exacting standards of maturity, safety, maintenance, and daily behavior to remain a driver. We affectionately refer to this strategy as the “BSafe Auto Insurance”[6] Scam. Letters with expectations periodically “arrive” from BSafe with clairvoyant insight on Jason’s emerging sloppy habits, and are reinforced with the occasional glimpse of a BSafe-branded instant response vehicle on the road. These morph into an omnipresence that convinces Jason his driving is under continuous scrutiny, whether we are with him or not, and the stakes are high. If “BSafe” pulls his insurance, Jason will lose his driving privileges.
I realize this was the long way around, but let’s get back to the point. Our training through the DHHS grant on transition to adulthood, which led us to Adventures in Driving for folks with ASD, completely changed our visions of adulthood for Jason and Joshua. The floodgates were open. The mist in the crystal ball parted. Housing. Employment. Leisure. Block by block, twist by twist, we could solve this puzzle.
More on those adventures to come.
[1] http://www.alphaonenow.com/about_us.htm
[2] A quick internet search makes me think every state has adaptive driving assessments for people with disabilities available. Google Adaptive Driving Assessments for providers. Seek a referral through your state’s Department of Voc Rehab.
[3] Emphasis is mine
[4] http://www.alphaonenow.com/adaptive_driving.htm; To obtain a Driver’s Evaluation Packet from Alpha One, visit http://www.alphaonenow.com/userfiles/Driver_Introduction_Pack2013_update.pdf
[5] The ROTC recruiter asked me if I would change my major from English to engineering. Standing on principle, I said “absolutely not.” I didn’t get a scholarship. The Navy is not as keen on Fitzgerald and Hemingway as I am.
[6] A pseudonym; no sense tempting a lawsuit 😉