Imagine viewing New York City for the first time through the window of a helicopter. Now imagine someone asking you to recount everything you saw after only observing the complex skyline for a mere 20 minutes. Talk about needing a good short-term memory.

Stephen Wiltshire of London can do just this. He is an artist who draws and paints detailed cityscapes, and is recently recognized and famed for sketching a landscape of the Big Apple after a 20 minute helicopter ride. Even more amazingly, Stephen suffers from autism, a developmental disorder that affects the brain’s social and communication skills.

Stephen was mute when he was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of three. He began communicating through drawings at a young age and gradually learned to speak at the age of five with the help of his special-needs teachers. Stephen’s special talent was discovered when he drew Albert Hall after a class field trip without the help of a photograph.

Wiltshire can look at the subject of his drawing just once and reproduce it accurately with the amount of detail down to the number of windows on a building. While many individuals with autism lack social skills, some, like Wiltshire, make up for it in memory retention and repetitive task completion.

“Drawing the view was an amazing experience and I am very proud of my work,” exclaims Wiltshire, commenting on the impressive drawing he created of London’s cityscape.

Stephen’s uncanny ability to memorize landscapes and draw them impeccably has been credited on television programs such as ABC News and The View. His accomplishments have given hope to autistic people everywhere, especially as he was featured on Beautiful Minds: A Voyage Into the Brain; a documentary on a number of similarly gifted people with special needs.

With today’s economy, it is very difficult for anyone to get a job. One can only imagine how much more difficult it would be to get a job in his career of interest while struggling with a physical or developmental disability.

However, people like Stephen Wiltshire can be seen not as people with disabilities, but rather as people with amazingly different abilities.