Aspies For Freedom

Hi, I wish to combat our negative image in the media.  Does anyone know of any groups I can join who are trying to do the same?  Does anyone else even agree with me?

*grins* That's half the reason this site exists, depending on what you mean by the phrase.

Welcome aboard!

Okay, that's good to know.  So what action is currently being taken to try to change our portrayal and how can I help?  If nothing serious is happening, do you have any good ideas?

Okie doke - well, currently I'm trying to get a celebrity "letters of support" campaign going, and I could definitely use some help with that. Another idea that will be up and running as soon as there's a few more people involved is the "Nerd/Autistic Alliance" website. Also, we have a member here setting up an "NT Speaks" website, as a parody of "autism speaks" - I think we'll hear more on that soon.

Other than that, there's quite often news articles posted with links back to "comments" forms - which get out to quite a few people. There's quite a few networked blogs around, too.

There's also indirect things you can help out with - for instance, setting up offline autistic rights groups will enable us to do a lot more than we can currently. Or if you wanted to do something locally for Autistic Pride Day (18th June), that would be good too.

Ultimately, what I'd like us to aim for is a large networked set of offline autistic rights groups, capable of organising world-wide events & protests when needed, and capable of fundraising for ads, etc...

I am a student at the Albert Nerkin School of Engineering at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, located in Manhattan, New York, USA.  Theoretically, this school should be "Aspie central", however I only know of three aspie students (myself included) out of a student body of 550.  Though that is slightly higher than the global average, the other two aspie students and I agree that there are probably about 10 others who keep their condition secret.  Additionally, I know of one aspie professor and have heard rumors that another also benefits from the condition.  Now that you know more about who I am, do you have any advice about what I can do?

I think one of the problems is that the center for all our arguments is our intelligence, which to most people doesn't carry a lot of weight.

For example, nerds have gained a lot more acceptance over the years. Nerds are of course smart, but it's much more likely the reason they've gained acceptance is because their often very kind, as apposed to bullies who act like douche bags.

On comedy sites aspies are typically depicted as being whinny. This is because NTs don't see things from our perspective, so to them we don't have enough weight to back up our argument. To ease that stereotype we need something people on the spectrum have in common, that NTs could understand or relate to.

I would like to address Logical point that "I think one of the problems is that the center for all our arguments is our intelligence, which to most people doesn't carry a lot of weight."

That's not what I meant when I pointed out he lack of stress of intelligence in the reports on Asperger's.

I was using that as one of several examples of how psychologists tend to discuss our disadvantages more than our advantages.  They do so by relating the parts of our behavior that depend on nonverbal intelligence much more than the parts of our behavior relating to our verbal intelligence.  Sorry to keep this post so short, but I have a class in a few minutes.  I'll reply in more detail later.

Do you have a support group within your university? That helps gain spectrum exposure. You should be entitled to set up a society at university.

I am a student at Cooper Union, a school with only 900 students.  All student groups must have at least 20 members.  I doubt that 20 of the 900 of us are open Aspies.  Additionally, there is little that our school can do to pressure psychologists to write more positive reports on Asperger's.

However, it occurs to me that I may be able to involve myself in any neurodiversity groups present at NYU, a larger nearby school.

hmmm that sucks re the minimum limit on 20 students. But getting involved with the nearby neurodiversity society is a good idea. You may find that any autistic outreach groups in the area will also support you. Another good way is writing articles for the student newsletter.

With 900 students you should expect a minimum of 9 aspies with a clinical expression of Aspergers, and a whole lot more with sub-clinical "symptoms". But! In the maths, engineering and physics faculties there's almost certainly clusters, and you may well find aspies over-represented. On long-term way of improving our image is to get good grades, get a good job and have a sucessful career...

Zarathustra, where do you get the figure that there should be 9 aspies out of 900 students?  I thought the prevalence rate was 1 in 275.  However, courtesy of the negative press we're getting, most of the Aspies who can keep their condition secret choose to do so.  
As far as I know, I am one of only three open Aspies, though there are many students I have not yet had the opportunity to meet.