Ask HN: How can I help my son with Epilepsy and Intellectual Disability

[kshacker]

Saw this post : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512071 and that motivated me to post about our situation.

My son is 23 years old. He has completed AA degree in liberal arts at a local community college. He has complex-partial epilepsy and intellectual disability. In my personal opinion, he is borderline for both conditions : his epilepsy is controlled by medications and his intellectual capacity is quite borderline - he will be on top of the list of disabled people, but will find himself struggling to compete with regular people. Social skills are bad with strangers, but otherwise he is quite communicative.

His interests are technology - he can not program, I do not think he could write a for loop, but he can narrate the in-depth progression of technology of all iPhones, Androids, Samsungs and what not. Could he describe all features? Maybe not, but he knows quite a bit that he could be groomed into a salesman (except his current inability to connect to people which may be needed for sales). We looked at Quality Assurance but current QA is quite a bit of programming, and while I think he would be eventually good at manual QA (review of the product and finding faults), not sure those opportunities exist any more.

After the long Covid break when we did not want him venturing out anyways, we have just started to push him (yes we need to push him) to start looking for jobs. The first few reactions have been negative. It is clear that we will need to help him find something only via the disability route, and we have started pursuing that route with Department of Rehabilitation although it appears their focus may be to find him any job so that he is not a burden to society

Wonder if anyone has suggestions, or just opportunities for (even unpaid) internships where he/we can start figuring out what works. We are in South Bay and that would be a preference due to his inability to drive due to epilepsy.

[BillSims]

I read an academic paper, perhaps a dozen years ago, I've lost that and can't find it now, I REALLY wish I could find that again.

They took a group of intellectually "challenged" students and ran them past a panel of judges to evaluate them. Then they put the kids through an acting class, not Shakespearean acting, but "acting normal", and again ran them past the panel of judges. The increases in scores was amazing. And that is exactly the sort of judgement that kids like those are going to have made on them every day of their lives. And this is exactly what is not going to be a part of almost any usual school.

I do not know where you could find a class like that, perhaps the authors of that paper could help. I think something like this might make as big, or bigger, difference than almost anything else. There is what you are able to do and then there is what those people around you will let you do.

If anyone can find anything like that then I have an idea for a project that might make use of exactly this.

[kshacker → BillSims]

Thanks ! I myself was an introvert / challenged in some spheres but I have gone through my share of hiring and demos and I am trying to use those skills (rehearsals) on him to prepare him ... but kids (even 23 year olds) learning from parents does not always happen :)

[MattGaiser]

> while I think he would be eventually good at manual QA (review of the product and finding faults), not sure those opportunities exist any more.

Take a look at governments. They often have a requirement that certain groups are able to use their sites with screen readers and whatnot and tend not to be very sophisticated when it comes to automation.

My last job was in the government and had manual QA staff to cover all the odd edge cases.

[kshacker → MattGaiser]

Thanks, will check that out. BTW would you mind sharing where that would be? Most of the government jobs I see are in Sacramento, or I guess they will be in state capitals and in DC.

[MattGaiser → kshacker]

I live in Canada, so this was in Calgary, Alberta. But it was for a municipal government.

[giantg2]

How about technical writing?

It sounds like he understands products, so he could write product manuals/inserts. This wouldn't require the interactive part of being a salesman, but would still utilize that type of product knowledge.

[kshacker → giantg2]

Thanks yes that's a great idea, let me think a bit more about it.

[giantg2 → kshacker]

I don't know his specifics, but one other thing to check out is something like auticon.com

[kleer001]

My only input is that he might find smaller companies more to his liking. Like less than 100 people. 30-50 would be nice. Less big egos bouncing around, less corporate inanities, more human understanding. But, like all things, he'll probably need to shop around. He has something valuable to contribute so shouldn't stick with something awful just because it pays.

Best of luck!

[kshacker → kleer001]

Thanks ! Sure, we actually have been taking the opposite perspective. Because we believe he will get a job only via the disability route, we have focused on government + big employers since they have such programs. let me think through this.

[kleer001 → kshacker]

That might be a good way to go, but I have no experience in Really Big places or in Gov't. My suggestion was based on my current employment. I'm sure you'll find a good solution!

[Dracophoenix]

Have you tried to look for freelancing gigs with tech review sites? You could check sites like XDA, Notebookcheck, Anandtech, 9to5mac and the like. They may not pay much, but it's a start at least.

[kshacker → Dracophoenix]

Thanks. I think he needs quite a bit starting. And I may be overselling him :) I have tried to encourage him to do reviews on YouTube, which I believe he can do, but he is quite "there are so many people doing this, why would someone watch me" and not getting my explicit point to him that this is to get him to know how to do it, and not to make money. He is actually quite photogenic (in my opinion) for our race, which will be a bonus, but getting him to cross that hurdle is a problem. Sorry for venting. At present I am traveling but when I get back, I plan to do a 1 minute capsule myself (just repeating an article from macrumors on videos) everyday so that I can get him engaged.

Thanks for the ideas though.