Life with Aspergers

As we wind down April, the month of "light it up blue", "autism awareness" and "autism acceptance", I wanted to ponder the other side of the equation. At the beginning of the month, I talked about how those of us on the spectrum needed to represent ourselves . Now I want to look at what we really need from people who aren't on the spectrum.  As usual, the best way to answer that question is to pick a group which already has good accommodations and look at how this could apply to autism. Beyond Acceptance, the example of the blind.  My comparison point this time is blind people. I'm not suggesting that nothing more can be done for them but rather that their needs are understood and catered for well beyond simple "acceptance". Our social care of visually impaired people is impressive and something that other groups should strive to match. So, how are the visually impaired being looked after by society? Braille: It's not jus...

Over the years, April has been associated with the "Light it up Blue" campaign launched by the group "Autism Speaks". The campaign originally advocated awareness and then acceptance.   It's something that I've posted about more than once before on this blog.   Autism Politics: Puzzle Pieces and Rainbows  - March 2012 How to do More for Families with Autism than just being "Aware" of it - April 2014 Doing Better than Light it up Blue - April 2017 In recent years, the campaign has changed from something that people with autism were wary of to a cause that is actually opposed by the majority of them. Autism Doesn't "Speak" There are many reasons for this shift but in my opinion, the fact that "autism speaks" is entirely controlled by people without autism is probably the major factor. It's not that they've never had people with autism on their board; they've had some famous people including John El...