Barbora Suisse is the mother of an autistic person. She also is the founder of “Autism Friendly” (“Draugiški autizmui“), a nonprofit organization in Lithuania, and the co-author of a book about autistic adults in her home country.
“Autism Is Part of Me” presents 15 stories of autistic adults, allowing a better understanding of the everyday life of a person living on the autism spectrum, the challenges they face and the ways they find to overcome them. These short life stories, illustrated by Tatjana Pleskevičienė, who is also a member of the community of autistic adults, are followed in the second part of the book by interviews with child and adolescent psychiatrist Prof. Dainius Puras, disability-rights expert Prof. Jonas Ruškus, medical anthropologist Dr. Daiva Bartušienė, and the President of the Lithuanian Association of Psychiatrists Dr. Ramunė Mazaliauskienė.
The book invites readers to explore the unique world of autistic people and aims to dispel the uncertainty often felt by parents of autistic children: what kind of a future awaits my child, will he or she have friends, a family, a job? Does an autistic adult need help – and if so, what kind? The authors of the book, Barbora Suisse and Jurgita Žalgirytė-Skurdenienė, are convinced that “answers are liberating: they give a name to challenges [and] they help us find people similar to us”.
