As the letters cascaded across the screen, Ariel’s fingers had only just started warming up.

Ariel Latle, is a 17-year-old teenage girl suffering from autism. Born as a non-verbal person, Ariel’s interactions with the world around her would normally be typing through an electronic device. She was known for her miraculous talent for one of the fastest typers in the world.

At an early age, her parents were the owners of a computer company. This enabled her to encounter a diverse range of technology ­­­which drew her in and she began to take interest in them.

At the age of 6, Ariel’s communication, due to the lack of school, had been very limited. However one day, her mother handed her a laptop, and she has “never been able to stop fiddling with it ever since”.

“When I gave it to her, you could suddenly feel all her emotions rise and her lips would gently curve up into a warm smile. It was something that didn’t happen very often,” Ariel’s mum stated.

Ariel had spent most of her high school years, locked up in her own room, typing vigorously away on her laptop.

However at the age of 12, was when Ariel’s life began to turn upside down. Ariel’s father had betrayed her mother for another woman. This made it harder for Ariel’s mother to look after her and to cope with her fits and minute orders in life. Ariel’s mother eventually grew old and impatient with Ariel and decided to leave her with her aunty, hoping she would take good care of her.

Ariel’s life was often arduous and mistaken. She was isolated from other people because they misunderstood her profound disability. Her schoolmates would call her names such as “The Retard” and “The One who has No Brain”. However Ariel was able to endure this, by the support and assistance that her teachers would give her.

Soon after, Ariel had spent most of her life in front of the computer, typing up many stories that were related to her life and how she viewed the world. These stories were read and admired by many famous journalists who were inspired by her individuality and integrity.

Yet, many people are still unsure about the condition of autism. To understand this, we have invited a professional doctor to take an interview with us.

Q: So what is it exactly?

“Autism is a complex disorder of neural development that affects a person’s ability of interacting with the world.  People with autism lack language skills and have restricted and repetitive behaviour. Autism alters how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organise. This therefore affects the information that is processed in the brain. It is prevalent in about one to two people per two hundred with four times as much males as females,” Doctor Swertyi explains.

Q: Is it curable

“No, autism is not curable. However it is treatable. The reason why it is not curable is because it is bioneurological disorder. ABA and therapies alone cannot completely address this disorder. It requires much more than that. No matter how much a person diagnosed with autism improves, they will always have autism. ” Swetyi analyses.

Knowing this, Ariel has been living life to the fullest, and has recently had her first novel published called “The Blessing of an Author”.