Scottish man with Asperger's, CP pursues his bookstore dream

From the Manila Bulletin:

When customers step into the Broughton Street Book Shop in Edinburgh, the rather gangly young man behind the counter hands them a pamphlet, without making eye contact.

The leaflet explains that his name is Brian Rafferty (pictured), he is the shop’s proprietor and he suffers from both Asperger’s syndrome–a form of autism –and cerebral palsy.

“With the help of my family and friends I have opened this second-hand bookshop and intend to support myself, and give a purpose to my life,” it reads. “I don’t think I am unemployable.”

But it was Brian’s apparent unemployability that led his parents to take the extraordinary step of leasing the shop, appealing online for book donations–they received thousands of volumes–and setting their son up in business. After sending out 70 CVs and applications for IT jobs, inputting data or stock control last year, the 21-year-old failed to get a single interview.

“With each job application, I wrote a covering letter outlining Brian’s condition, which we weren’t obliged to do legally, but I felt we ought to – what purpose would it serve not to mention it?” says his mother, Sandra, 49, who works as UK sales director for an Italian pharmaceutical firm. “I have no idea whether the lack of response was due to his Asperger’s or the recession–a combination of the two, probably.

“Brian has a lot to offer. He’s a real grafter, and although he’s not so good at interacting with people or working under pressure, he is great with computers and numbers and never gets sick or takes time off.

“At school he worked part-time for a hotel for four years, serving breakfasts and doing some chambermaiding, and they were very impressed with his commitment and reliability. If you give him a list of things to do, he won’t stop until he’s done them all.”

Asperger’s is at the mild end of the autism spectrum, and impacts on relationships and social imagination, which creates problems in understanding unwritten rules and social norms that other people take for granted.

“He wanted a job at a bank or building society, and after conventional methods didn’t get him anywhere, he went around shops with his CV and letter, but nothing came of it and he became really disheartened.

I travel a lot for work, and I would phone him up during the day and find he was still in bed because he had no reason to get up.”

Among the donations were first editions of Harry Potter and the ninth and tenth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, dating back to 1875 and 1902 respectively and worth more than £600 for each set.

Support for the Broughton Street Bookshop has also come, unsolicited, from one of Scotland’s leading businessmen, Kwik-Fit founder Sir Tom Farmer, who was so impressed when he heard about the venture that he not only performed the opening ceremony in March of this year, but has offered to act as a mentor to Brian.

“The shop means a lot to me,” Brian says. “I can’t get a job but I want to do something useful with my time. I love it when people come in to buy a book and stop for a chat, I’ve made quite a few new friends.”

“My dream is to eventually buy the shop for him, and a one-bedroom flat,” says Sandra. “That way we could move towards old age knowing we didn’t have to worry about Brian.”