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I have a peculiar problem in that area. I have Aspergers syndrome. More often known as high functioning autism. Unfortunately because it is so high functioning, many people don't realize I have it and often don't believe me when I tell them and I am not considered disabled enough for the ADA to apply to me. Therefore I have to work out all the problems associated with trying to keep this condition from getting me fired on my own. That gives me an interesting perspective on the subject dealing with learning disabilities in the workplace. Now before I discuss it from that angle, let me first address it from the point of view of dealing with others. In my first job I was working with a young man, we'll call him Marc for his own privacy, who was a hard worker and one of the nicest young men you will ever meet. However he was mentally handicapped. I don't know his precise diagnoses but his symptoms appeared to have a significant and obvious disadvantage in the workplace. I got to know his family pretty well through a series of odd coincidences. My sister worked at the Mesa Arc Center where he was often a patient and got to know him well that way without realizing that I knew him until we saw him with his father who was waiting to visit my grandmother in the hospital. It turned out that Marc Dad was my grandmother's Bishop in the LDS church. Like I said, odd coincidences, anyway one day I saw him in tears because another co-worker had been verbally abusing him and calling him a retard. I didn't witness the verbal abuse myself but it was confirmed by several reliable witnesses. I had helped to comfort him and had heard other co-workers talking about what they'd like to do to the guy that said the awful things to Marc. I later confronted the other young man and asked if he had been mistreating Marc, he admitted that he had. I then explained that it was wrong for him to do this and that Marc had many friends in the thrift store we all worked at and some of them would go to great lengths to defend Marc. I counted myself among these friends but felt it was better to warn the guy to stop then have good people get into trouble over this mess. After I talked with him he changed his behavior but I have run into this problem everywhere I went. In another job I got to know a Walmart door greeter named Bob. At first you might think the guy is a but of a loon because of the way he walks and talks, but once I started to get to know him I found that Bob is sharp as a tack. Or rather

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