Portland State Magazine Spring 2008

ABOUT THIS PAGE We want to hear about your books and recordings and your future exhibits, performances, and direct– ing ventures. Contact the magazine by e-mailing psumag@pdx.edu , sending a fax to 503-725-4465, or mailing to Portland State Magazine, Office of University Communications, PO Box 751, Portland OR 97207-0751. 6 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2008 Autistic couple write book on dating LOVE HAS NO BARRIERS . That's what Jody John Ramey MA '05 and Emilia Ramey '07 have found. Despite having Asperger syndrome, a lighter form of autism, the Rameys met and fell in love while studying at Portland Scace. "Emilia volunteered on campus at the Disability Advocacy Cultural Association, where I had an office," recalls Jody. "We had just started dating a couple of weeks. I had been doing a lot of presentations around the world on disability-related topics and dance. I thought it would be cool to write something about dating for autistics for an upcoming conference on autism. Emilia thought I was nuts. 'What do we have to tell anyone?'" But Jody, 35, persisted and won Emilia, 33, over to his way of thinking. Shortly after giving their dating for autistics talk at several conferences, Jody proposed chat they expand their ideas into a book. Fortunately, the romance between Jody and Emilia was blossoming. We starred daring at the beginning of2006 and got engaged during spring break," says Emilia. "During the summer we cook marriage prep classes and were married Labor Day weekend." Now the Rameys have written Autistics' Guide to Dating, a 128-page book published by London-based Jessica Kingsley Publishers. The subtitle stresses rhar the book's audience includes ''Autistics and Those Who Love Them or Who Are in Love with Them." "We break down our relationship into some of its component parts and extrapolate what worked for us and what didn't work for us," says Jody. Communication is an important topic of the book. Nonautiscic people can