Episode Details

Eighteen-year-old Liam says, “I always had a happy life…I never had a sad life before, but sometimes I get confused – I struggle a little bit.”

At an early age, Liam was diagnosed as being on “the autism spectrum.”

His sister, photographer Erin Lefevre, gives us a glimpse into his daily life, and what being on the autism spectrum means, in a remarkable photo essay called “Liam’s World.”

What it reveals is relevant, given that more than 3.5 million Americans live with autism spectrum disorder and, according to the Centers for Disease Control, it is believed to affect 1 in 59 births in the United States.

Erin Lefevre is joining us today to discuss what she has learned about autism through chronicling the daily life of her brother. And Barbara Bookman, director of the City University’s Project REACH, will tell us how that project is working to fulfill the university’s mission of providing an affordable and accessible higher education to students who are on the autism spectrum, or who have other disabilities.

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