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Forgetting a dentist's appointment and misplacing a friend's phone number are part of a collection of mildly irritating nuisances most people face on a daily basis.

But for Rachel Cohen, a 25-year-old with Asperger's syndrome, a missed appointment or unexpected problem can throw her into a state of panic and anxiety.

Ms. Cohen's autism disorder means that she must wage a lifelong struggle to manage the daily tasks that come as second nature to most people, such as recognizing the faces of family and friends, remembering appointments and keeping track of her money.

But a new program that pairs people with autism and related disorders with wireless handheld devices is offering fresh hope to Ms. Cohen and others who face a constant struggle to function in society.

Based out of Toronto's Geneva Centre for Autism, the learning program is a pilot project that aims to take advantage of technology to help autistic teens and adults gain independence and manage their affairs.

While millions of people use wireless handheld devices to keep in touch with friends and colleagues or manage schedules, the autism centre believes the technology can offer a unique opportunity to improve the lives of people who suffer from autism and related disorders.

Autistic adults find it much more difficult to keep track of appointments, organize their schedules and manage their daily affairs, and can become extremely agitated when things don't go according to plan. Autism experts believe handheld devices could help them stay organized and alleviate stress.

"For a person with autism, they have a heightened need for structure and routine and predictability," said Margaret Whelan, executive director of the Geneva Centre for Autism. "[This program] is giving strategies to calm and get control of their own environment."

The centre began using handheld devices several months ago and has found they offer a significant benefit to the individuals using them. Now the provider, Palm Canada, has donated 100 devices and accessories to expand the program to help the centre determine how successful it is and whether it can be expanded.

Ms. Cohen was one of the first to be given a wireless device and said it has significantly changed her daily life.

"It just keeps me organized so that I can remember stuff," she said. "If I put something on a paper, I lose it, and then I have one paper here and one paper here and then I miss my appointment and I don't know where my money went and I don't have anybody's phone number."

The device reminds Ms. Cohen when to take her medication, provides a place for her to keep a list of scheduled appointments and to store menus and shopping lists that she makes with the help of a support worker. She also uses it to type a pet column that she writes for the newsletter distributed in her building.

As well, Ms. Cohen hopes to use the device to help her overcome the difficulty she has recognizing peoples' faces. She plans to store pictures of people she knows beside their names as a cue to help remember them.

The handheld devices are particularly useful to some for their typing functions, Ms. Whelan said. Some autistic individuals find it very difficult to write by hand, and being able to type messages allows them to be much more expressive.

Ms. Whelan said the program is important not only because of the new learning and coping strategies it offers, but because it could open a door to increased support for autistic adults. Much of the focus on autism is centred on children, which means there's a severe lack of services for adults, she said. This learning project could be the first step toward a new set of services for adults, Ms. Whelan said.

"[Adults are] really not on the radar screen yet," she said. "But they need to be because these thousands of children that have recently been diagnosed and have increased such heightened awareness of the disorder, they're all becoming teenagers and then adults."