Having thinking about images that represent autism lately, and writing on wikipedia about that, I decided to view google images to work out an approxiamate ratio of positive to negative.
It was 5-to-1 negative to positive.
Negative being the jigsaw puzzle piece, 'broken child' pics, images of crying children, and t-shirt images of 'epidemic warnings'.
Positive included posters of autism culture, and 'I am not diseased' pic.
It would be good to think that in the future positive images will at least balance the negatives.
It was 5-to-1 negative to positive.
That's a pretty good improvement actually. When I first started looking for information about autism two years ago, just about everything was negative.
We're making a difference. :smile:
One of the biggest things that gives Autism/Aspegers a negative image is the fact "normal" people spend so much time trying to come up with ways to "cure" it, so people get this idea it is "This Horrible Disease ™". People associate disease with ineffectiveness, digust, malfunction and lots of other negative concepts, as long as people are pouring in funding and charities trying to "fix" us of our "terrible disease" people will see autistics in a negative light.
I think in the next decade we'll see Aspergers particulary go through the same pattern as homosexuality did, from where it was considered a disease to be cured, to a condition that requires special rights and laws and public acceptance.
Hi Ryuujin, you said "I think in the next decade we'll see Aspergers particulary go through the same pattern as homosexuality did, from where it was considered a disease to be cured, to a condition that requires special rights and laws and public acceptance."
I hope that will be the case, it's what we are working towards achieving.
If accepting diversity means that I have to accept that some people with AS want a cure and some people might not want to disclose their AS, I can struggle to accept these people as well.
We can see the parallels to the Bi/gay/lesbian/trans struggle.
But gays are still disriminated against in many places even with legal protections and the recognition that homosexuality is a difference not a disease. Being gay in some parts of the US can still be dangerous maybe even more so now they many of them have come out of the closet.