Nearing the end of NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman, the subtitle seems more appropriate: “The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurdiversity.” Finally, I’m making connections between various meanings of the title and the text. The Legacy of Autism Autism, at least for now, is an undefined disability, a handicap with symptoms in…
Category: Advocacy
Posts on advocacy, including organizations and public policy.
We lack diversity in the autism community. Think about what you see, online and in the media. I see upper-middle-class parents, able to afford iPads and tutors and official diagnoses. I see parents who have the resources to fight for IEPs and physical accommodations. I see self-advocacy leadership that has…
The goal of teaching writing led me to scholarship on technology, design, disability, and economics within composition and rhetoric. Years ago, when I entered graduate school, I imagined helping students and teachers connect via technology. I wanted to study “writing across the curriculum” and online writing labs. These interests led…
As a professor, sometimes I am faced with conflicting impulses: positive advocacy vs. negative reality. Like many advocates, I wish to remind people that most autistics are not violent, bullies, or any more risky than other people in classrooms or workplaces. If anything, people with special needs are more likely…
Increasingly, I am aware of the “communities” to which I don’t belong. An overused word in the humanities, “community” is more than a group of people with some minor similarities. A community has to have some manner of unified sense of purpose. I belong to several organizations without any desire…
Summer is conference season. I honestly don’t follow the “autism community” and did not know there was an autism conference for individuals with ASDs. The “Autreat” is currently underway, but I thought I’d mention it so people could learn more about the sponsor and consider future events. Autism Network InternationalAutreat…
Anosognosia is the state of denying a serious disability. In the most serious cases, it is a mental health disorder, causing the deaf to insist they can hear or the blind to insist they can see. Obviously, not a good thing and potentially dangerous. I have received e-mails critical of…
As I read articles on, interviews of, and blogs by the family members of people with special needs, I keep encountering apologies and guilt. This is particularly true of parents and spouses who feel guilty for wanting personal time. The sense of being trapped by a routine is a regular…
The Autism Hub is the best guide to autism blogs on the Internet. However, it is primarily a way to track the latest posting and topics on blogs. It is not really meant to discuss the nature of blogging or the technology challenges. To help autism bloggers keep in touch…
People excuse parents and caregivers for abusing and even murdering autistics. Colorado mental-health counselor charged with murdering infant son – The Denver Post Police: Autism was motive in Colo. child’s killing BOULDER, Colo. — Police say a woman accused of killing her infant son did it because she believed the…