VoV, in partnership with Vashon Center for the Arts and the 2017 Vashon Sheepdog Classic, recorded Dr. Temple Grandin’s presentation from the Katherine White Hall at Vashon Center for the Arts.

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. She inspires and motivates with her story. She didn’t talk until she was three-and-a-half years old, communicating her frustration instead by screaming, peeping, and humming. In 1950, she was diagnosed with autism and her parents were told she should be institutionalized.

She recounts “groping her way from the far side of darkness” in her book Emergence: Labeled Autistic, a book that stunned the world because until its publication, most professionals and parents assumed that an autism diagnosis was a virtual death sentence to achievement or productivity in life.
Dr. Grandin later developed her talents into a successful career as a livestock-handling equipment designer, one of very few in the world.