Despite not talking until she was 3 years old and the belief that she would not grow up to be successful, Temple Grandin is one of the top animal-handling-machine designers in the world.

Grandin was diagnosed with autism in 1950, and she will be sharing her experiences, beliefs and advice at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The speech will be in the Dvorak Concert Hall with live streaming to the Doudna Lecture Hall, which are sold out. Streaming will also be available in the Black Box Theatre.

Gail Richard, the communication disorders and sciences department chairwoman, said Grandin has a Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“Grandin was born in an era where there were a lot of misconception about autism and what is was,” Richard said. “Her mother was very instrumental in giving her opportunities and keeping her in regular education.”

Richard said Grandin’s teachers, who recognized her talents, helped her build them.

“I think she had a lot of people who mentored her along the way,” Richard said.

Despite her shyness, Grandin travels and promotes autism awareness through her life story.

“She wants to make a difference,” Richard said. “She talks about how she wants to know she has made a difference in the world.”

Richard said Grandin offers insight to the disorder that helps parents and professionals understand why some of the characteristics might be there and help those individuals reach their own potential.

“One of the questions she was asked once was if designing slaughter facilities was kind of contradictory,” Richard said. “Her answer was ‘no that if we do it in a humane way as opposed to a cruel way, then that is an improvement.”’

She said Grandin is one of the few people who design these facilities in an efficient and humane way.

Richard said to understand Grandin’s experiences, people need to understand what autism is.

“The term autism means ‘alone’ literally,” Richard said. “The primary characteristic of autism is that the individuals are in their own world or socially isolated, and they have difficulty relating to other people and the environment.”

Richard said another common characteristic is sensory overload, resulting in sensitivity to sights, sounds, smells and textures.

“Temple tells some great stories about some of her sensory overload,” Richard said. “She’ll talk about certain clothing that was very itchy and like sandpaper.”

Richard said this is why most people with autism will stay where they are comfortable.

“In their own world, they are very comfortable, but when they come out into our world, there is all this stimuli that hits them—sounds and smells, visuals,” Richard said. “That is when they get overwhelmed and when we start seeing all the behavior because they are trying to block out all the things that are disruptive to them.”

Richard said Grandin might talk about her job designing animal slaughterhouses.

The department of communication disorders and sciences will be showing “Temple Grandin” a film based on her life. The film will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Buzzard Hall Auditorium.

All the money from the speech will go to benefit the Autism Resource Center at Eastern.

This center is small, but Richard said she hopes to use the money to expand it so those around Charleston and surrounding areas will have a closer resource available.

The center will provide evaluation, consultation and education about autism.

Richard said Grandin wants people to know she is not cured of autism but has learned to moderate her actions.

Richard said autism is genetically coded so people are born with it and will die with it.

“When people imply that Temple is cured, she will say, ‘I am not cured. I continue to work very hard at this,’” Richard said.

Richard said Grandin is a great role model for autistic people.

“She wants other people to hear her story so that it’ll inspire them as a person with autism or a parent of a child with autism to not give up and buy into the stereotypes,” Richard said.

Samantha McDaniel can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].