Bil and Computers

Bil does not use the computer.  I once encouraged him to go online with me, several years ago.  I showed him the Weather Channel site, hoping it would spark interest.  Although weather is a special interest for him, he wasn't interested in any type of interaction online. 

Seems there is quite an online community of people with autism-writing blogs, journals, you name it.  Many people with autism, apparently, take to the very visual media of the Internet, with little need to worry about committing a faux pas.

I wonder if Bil has any interest in communicating like that-all I had shown him was websites.

I don't know if it is worth it to try or not, in all honesty.  It will be enough trying to work our way through all the other issues we will have to face with him (and are starting to face.)  I don't know where to start.  Or if it is worth starting.  The one computer in Mil's house is upstairs next to her bedroom.  It is territory he does not enter unless she asks him to help i.e. bring up laundry or do some other chore for her.

Then it is right back to his little room in the finished basement.  If we bought him a computer I fear it would be a new object.  We've seen how he reacts just when an old beloved clock radio or air conditioner dies and we have to replace it.  It's a major event.  So....maybe not.

We will be seeing Bil later this month, when he comes up to visit with him Mom and sister in law.  And maybe he'll be staying with his other brother next year if my mil visits family in Florida.  Maybe I will bring my laptop to one of these and test the waters.

Is it bad to want to broaden his horizons?  Is it some kind of judgment at the hands of a well meaning neurotypical in law?  Or...is there someone trapped inside that mostly expressionless shell, begging to be let out and be heard?  And no one hears because we don't know how to listen?

Maybe we will never know.