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I never learned how to drive and admit I have huge anxiety about it,while I do sometimes think about it I also worry about all the rules with driving and having to do so much at the same time,sometimes I do get asked why I don’t drive and it’s a uncomfortable question for me because I don’t want to reveal to someone that I am on the spectrum.
People who think everyone should do everything that everybody else does by a certain age seriously need to shut up IMO. Everyone is different, not everyone is capable of driving, I know I possibly could drive an Automatic, but like I said, the man from the DVLA said no.
I disagree. I think that you need to specifically drive with a instructor who specializes in teaching people with disabilities how to drive. I don't know about where you live because you didn't say where you live but I live in Kansas City Missouri and I of course have been diagnosed HF ASD since I was 15. so I've been able to ge housing assistance and Social Security etc. but I knew that driving was gonna be difficult I knew that I had trouble with focusing attention span and that like you I have to look at my pedals because I get confused even though I don't have dyslexia I get nervous and forget which one I'm supposed to hit and I don't slow down to that stop sign I just sometimes forget and I keep going or I forget what I'm supposed to look because I have no attention span and I don't pay attention so sometimes even when I'm walkin I don't pay attention to what I'm doing and I just keep going and I have to stop and look what I need is a guy dog that can stop for me and remind me hey or some kind of a watch or something if there was a thing that would allow me to notice when I come to occur so that if I don't stop for myself it will alert me hey this is the card stock and don't just walk out in the traffic because I have no sense in that and my mom didn't want to upset me but she wanted me to think about the realities that I might not be able to drop and I went through vocational rehabilitation who was able to fork the money ove to pay for a specialized driving course you might be able to come up with that yourself I don't know or you might have somebody else I can help you afford it I don't know it may not even be that much money for where you live but there was a specialized portion of the hospital that is about disability mobility and they had a student car that is for physical and mental disability training . They had the steering will set up for people that don't have certain limbs where everything has to be on the steering wheel and they have modified other things as well and she tested me for ASD to see where I tested and she tested my spatial awareness my attention span my ability to process multiple things at once how quickly can I react and how do I react to chaos coming at me all at once .and tailed a visual test where you look at a computer screen and when you see the squiggly line on the computer screen you click the button they do that when you get an eye exam and they tested me on an arcade game that has light up buttons and every time the button lit up I had to tap the button before the button turned off and it would get faster and faster and I could prove how good I was at chaos and keeping up with it or not and she said my depth perception was poor and my attention span was poor my ability to process chaos is poor and yet she was going to try her best to teach me to drive because everybody deserved a chance to try this one was gonna be difficult and after six weeks I never did get any better at any of those I kept having to be reminded you're getting close to the curb slowdown slowdown slowdown and I kept having to be told look left and right before you go out into the street past the stop sign and I kept having to be told when you go right I think it's a sharper turn then when you turn left or is it the other way around? See that's one thing I couldn't remember. and I can't remember if it's left or right turns that you have to look for traffic before you can turn and then the other direction you turn you don't have to look for traffic because of the direction the cross traffic is going. I get confused which one and I would look left and right regardless if it was a left or right turn and I kept getting told no you don't have to look up the right when you turn this way only when you turn the other way because of the Waycross traffic is going and I would say I want to look anyway that helps me to know where I'm going and I would get told you don't have to you're not understanding that and I can't gauge how close I am to other objects around me so when I'm stopped at the stop light and I'm waiting for cross traffic to go and I'm waiting for an adequate gap between two cars so I can make a left turn out past the stop sign into the traffic I sometimes will think I have an adequate space and I'd start to go and my instructor would say no you have to wait for a bigger gap by the time it takes you to turn it out you're gonna be hit by the car coming behind you on the right side there's not a big enough gap for you to make that turn and sometimes I would have a but ton of adequate space to make a turn and I panic and I turn to slowly and by the time I actually make the turn I'm lucky I didn't get creamed by the car to my right because at that point the gap is lessening because I'm not making a quick enough turn on my left or same for the right turns . And that's because I can't gauge how close or far away I am and I can't gauge based on the distance between the two cars how long it would take me to make an average turn out en that's part of my depth perception. When I was told I have poor depth perception it's not about whether I can see the world flat or see the world in 3D like I'm supposed to I can see a 3D movie just fine I can see flashes and a movie without getting epilepsy or anything I don't have a walleye which means eyeballs are too big for the socket and they protrude from the socket making it impossible to see a 3D movie I don't have that problem I don't have any problem with seeing the world flat or dimensional but I cannot gauge distance and the time it takes me to make a turn based on how wide a gap is between two cars in cross traffic so I can't help can I make such a turn do I have enough of a gap to make such a turn in that amount of time before the car on the right side catches up to the Konnowac and closes the gap I can't gauge those things so I always wait too long to make a turn and then it's too late and I can't make turn anymore now I have to wait again and now there's 80 cars before I can make a turn again before there's an adequate gap where I can make a turn again and the car behind me is getting pissed off because I'm taking too long to make a decision if I'm gonna turn off or not and they can't go around me either and that's why I have that perception issues I don't see the world flat by any means.It's critical for you to learn to drive a manual transmission vehicle based on feel alone- not sight. Don't even think about looking at the pedals or the gearshift. When it's time to shift, you simply depress the clutch without any thought. Then immediately followed by shifting gears- by feel and not sight as well. Then letting the clutch out in a gentle fashion. Again, by feel alone.
As for using your eyes, keep them on the road at all times. None of it comes easily- or naturally to most people. But with time and lots of practice, you will eventually be able to operate a manual transmission on feel alone, as it's intended.
And no, don't tell your instructor you are on the spectrum. Driving is their skill. Not understanding alternate neurological states. That will just confuse them and possibly give them unfair preconceived notions of your aptitude and ability to operate a motor vehicle.
I disagree. I think that you need to specifically drive with a instructor who specializes in teaching people with disabilities how to drive. I don't know about where you live because you didn't say where you live but I live in Kansas City Missouri and I of course have been diagnosed HF ASD since I was 15. so I've been able to ge housing assistance and Social Security etc. but I knew that driving was gonna be difficult I knew that I had trouble with focusing attention span and that like you I have to look at my pedals because I get confused even though I don't have dyslexia I get nervous and forget which one I'm supposed to hit and I don't slow down to that stop sign I just sometimes forget and I keep going or I forget what I'm supposed to look because I have no attention span and I don't pay attention so sometimes even when I'm walkin I don't pay attention to what I'm doing and I just keep going and I have to stop and look what I need is a guy dog that can stop for me and remind me hey or some kind of a watch or something if there was a thing that would allow me to notice when I come to occur so that if I don't stop for myself it will alert me hey this is the card stock and don't just walk out in the traffic because I have no sense in that and my mom didn't want to upset me but she wanted me to think about the realities that I might not be able to drop and I went through vocational rehabilitation who was able to fork the money ove to pay for a specialized driving course you might be able to come up with that yourself I don't know or you might have somebody else I can help you afford it I don't know it may not even be that much money for where you live but there was a specialized portion of the hospital that is about disability mobility and they had a student car that is for physical and mental disability training . They had the steering will set up for people that don't have certain limbs where everything has to be on the steering wheel and they have modified other things as well and she tested me for ASD to see where I tested and she tested my spatial awareness my attention span my ability to process multiple things at once how quickly can I react and how do I react to chaos coming at me all at once .and tailed a visual test where you look at a computer screen and when you see the squiggly line on the computer screen you click the button they do that when you get an eye exam and they tested me on an arcade game that has light up buttons and every time the button lit up I had to tap the button before the button turned off and it would get faster and faster and I could prove how good I was at chaos and keeping up with it or not and she said my depth perception was poor and my attention span was poor my ability to process chaos is poor and yet she was going to try her best to teach me to drive because everybody deserved a chance to try this one was gonna be difficult and after six weeks I never did get any better at any of those I kept having to be reminded you're getting close to the curb slowdown slowdown slowdown and I kept having to be told look left and right before you go out into the street past the stop sign and I kept having to be told when you go right I think it's a sharper turn then when you turn left or is it the other way around? See that's one thing I couldn't remember. and I can't remember if it's left or right turns that you have to look for traffic before you can turn and then the other direction you turn you don't have to look for traffic because of the direction the cross traffic is going. I get confused which one and I would look left and right regardless if it was a left or right turn and I kept getting told no you don't have to look up the right when you turn this way only when you turn the other way because of the Waycross traffic is going and I would say I want to look anyway that helps me to know where I'm going and I would get told you don't have to you're not understanding that and I can't gauge how close I am to other objects around me so when I'm stopped at the stop light and I'm waiting for cross traffic to go and I'm waiting for an adequate gap between two cars so I can make a left turn out past the stop sign into the traffic I sometimes will think I have an adequate space and I'd start to go and my instructor would say no you have to wait for a bigger gap by the time it takes you to turn it out you're gonna be hit by the car coming behind you on the right side there's not a big enough gap for you to make that turn and sometimes I would have a but ton of adequate space to make a turn and I panic and I turn to slowly and by the time I actually make the turn I'm lucky I didn't get creamed by the car to my right because at that point the gap is lessening because I'm not making a quick enough turn on my left or same for the right turns . And that's because I can't gauge how close or far away I am and I can't gauge based on the distance between the two cars how long it would take me to make an average turn out en that's part of my depth perception. When I was told I have poor depth perception it's not about whether I can see the world flat or see the world in 3D like I'm supposed to I can see a 3D movie just fine I can see flashes and a movie without getting epilepsy or anything I don't have a walleye which means eyeballs are too big for the socket and they protrude from the socket making it impossible to see a 3D movie I don't have that problem I don't have any problem with seeing the world flat or dimensional but I cannot gauge distance and the time it takes me to make a turn based on how wide a gap is between two cars in cross traffic so I can't help can I make such a turn do I have enough of a gap to make such a turn in that amount of time before the car on the right side catches up to the Konnowac and closes the gap I can't gauge those things so I always wait too long to make a turn and then it's too late and I can't make turn anymore now I have to wait again and now there's 80 cars before I can make a turn again before there's an adequate gap where I can make a turn again and the car behind me is getting pissed off because I'm taking too long to make a decision if I'm gonna turn off or not and they can't go around me either and that's why I have that perception issues I don't see the world flat by any means.
Well I'm just simply saying in general that if you can find something like that given you kind of sound like maybe you might be in a situation where I'm at you might want to try that option I don't know that country so I can't say you have that kind of instruction for driving but if all you have is a neurotypical instructor available, do the best you can. But if it turns out that you're just not connecting with them end you're getting worse because they aren't understanding why you're not connecting they're not understanding why you don't seem to remember your pedals why you can't seem to get past simple things and it's frustrating then then you might suggest I would like an instructor who is more personable or someone that can understand my disability on a certain level that this person isn't capable of doing given that they don't know disabilities because they are neurotypical.
That really helped me but I was gonna fail regardless but I would've caused accidents in the traffic I would've probably smashed the car completely to pulled I would've cost legalities if I had a regular Neurotypical instructor. but I failed anyways regardless butI'm just throwing that suggestion out there I meanyou kind of wanted to know what is other peoples opinions andshould you or should you not docertain thingsand I'm just throwing out the opinioncountry to country it might be different but that is my suggestio how I handled it and you sound like you might be similar to where I'm at.
I don't know any other people on the spectrum that failed driving. I may take them 800 times but they got it eventually as I can't figure out how in the hell they did because I can't . What in the hell is their secret because I want to drive more than anything in the world and I just can't and I never will be able to and you sound like another person that might possibly be in that area I found another person that struggles to drive on the spectrum yay I'm not alone but here's what I did here's what works for me and there's an idea to run with.
Also, I apologize for th long wall cloud of words I have no idea how to paragraph and split paragraphs but I'm working on learning that I just don't know how to tell when you break up a sentence into the next paragraph or keep it going. but I am sometimes getting it. I apologize for that though.
I'm 24 year old woman with aspergers and I've been thinking about a drivers license. I've wanted it since i was 18 years old and now I finally have the money, but I have some worries will I be a good driver or even get the license.
I drove a car once or twice on a empty road and I had a lot of trouble on focusing on the road. I also had to look at the pedals and the gearstick when switching gears. That might get easier with practice but what can I do to concentrate better? And should I tell the teacher about my AS?
Thanks for your answers. I probably can't afford my own car for a long time but licence is useful so i can borrow or rent a car when i need it, i wish i could try driving school before i pay for it but if i deside to go there i don't want my money to go to waste if i drop out. Maybe i can learn even if i have to take more driving lessons than others if i just remember to focus