Aspies For Freedom

Off topic but on the side of the page there is a video of a boy that I am asuming is an autistic.  They have sad music playing and talk about how he is learning to read write and respond by working with his teacher.  Dose anyone know why this is suposed to be a sad tragedy?

The link to see who wears thsoe is broken to me and I can't see
(praying pleae please that Sir James Paul McCartney doesn't decide to do a thing like ths, he's known for getting into 'causes')

Don't know what the puzzle pin is, but I heard on the telly that Dr Phil says something like, "...Cure Autism Now, which I (ie he) think is a wonderful organisation."

http://www.nsasa.org/ ASA%20Puzzle%20Ribbon%20Logo%20TM.jpg

The puzzle ribbon is the symbol of curebie associations. We guys here shun it like the light from the twilight force. (Reference to my favourite Zelda game so far) The puzzle stands for "autism is a puzzle", due to the fact that unnecessary facts such as "cure" and "cause" are unknown and hard to find. (And they won't be found, for they don't exist!)

Our symbol is the rainbow infinity sign. The rainbow stands for diversity (as in neuro diversity) and the infinity symbol stands for "may Autistics last forever" or something. Did I interpret it correctly?

This is the "puzzle pin". It's the symbol of "autism awareness", in the same way that a pink ribbon stands for breast cancer awareness. That in itself is pretty neutral; but the symbol itself is used exclusively by people who want a cure for autism. The "puzzle pieces" are also quite offensive to autistics, because they imply that we are incomplete "puzzles" which have to be put together--that is, cured.



An alternative autism-awareness symbol is the rainbow infinity symbol, which you can see at the top of the page on these forums; the rainbow represents the autism spectrum and the infinity symbol is, I think, associated with thought and logic. (In any case, that's what I associate it with.)

To me, the cool thing about the infinity symbol is that, long before I knew anything about Asperger Syndrome, I created a rainbow infinity symbol of my own, with a "rainbow" pattern of red, purple, and blue fading into each other, to represent myself on a forum... it even had a single-twist in it, so that it was also a moebius strip.

I guess that means the rainbow-infinity theme really is an intuitive representation of the Autism spectrum to us, or at least both to me and to the person who invented it..

I can't think that an autistic person would ever use puzzles to represent themselves, unless they had a puzzle obsession... autistic people seem to have pretty good self concepts, even though our self-esteem might be low (wonder why?).

We could easily use a puzzle to represent the rest of the world, though!

No idea. Someone ought to, though.

Regarding an idea for a rainbow-infinity pin: Obtain a piece of rainbow-colored ribbon; twist it into an infinity symbol; and hot-glue it onto a safety pin. Naturally the join where the ribbon ends meet should be at the back.

This pin will not last as long as commercially made jewelry, but (if you already have the hot glue gun, and can buy only a short piece of ribbon) will cost less than a dollar.

I could work on a decent jpeg of the rainbow-infinity symbol, as I have been trying my hand at it. I think a .bmp would be clearer, though, because I have only very primitive image-editing software and cannot specify the size of my .jpg files.

Incidentally, if anyone here does wear rainbow infinity-symbols, they may want to be aware of the symbol's similarity to the rainbow ribbon worn by people supporting sexual diversity--gay, lesbian, etc.--and this may be misinterpreted by a viewer, causing awkward situations at best and a lost opportunity at meeting a romantic partner, at worst. Of course, if you actually are gay, there won't be a problem (though the symbol could still lose its meaning).

I would suggest to anyone worried about keeping that distinction clear, that there ought to be words along with the symbol--"Autistic Pride" or some such. After all, there's no use in a symbol if people don't know what it means; and this is a very new symbol.

ishah thomas (new york kincks coach) and jim calhoun (uconn mens basketball coach) both wear it.  digusting.

That has been a concern of mine.  (I'm hetero.)  At first, I thought the color gradients were supposed to simulate irridescence.  (e.g.  You'd use irridescent thread if you were to have one embroidered.)  I can imagine having to constantly explain the difference.  Does it lose meaning if it's a one-colored infinity sign?

Nope, I think it'll still have the same meaning.

I saw one of those "puzzle ribbons" today on the back of a minivan.  From a distance, it looked like an accumulation of bird droppings.  I just thought I'd share that little observation.  

I had mentioned that I would not be comfortable sporting anything with rainbow colors (the rainbow theme and its variations already being taken).  However it seems fitting in a way, because IMO there are many parallels.  Basically, since aspies might embark on the same journey toward acceptance that gays and lesbians did years ago, maybe we should try to learn from veterans of that movement.  (They used to call that a disorder, remember?)  I could go on, but that would be getting off-topic.  I'd still prefer either one-colored or irridescent for infinity-themed items.

I been asked by a student at my school when I gave my autism presentation to his fraterity what symbol I like better and I told him that I like the infinity symbol better than the puzzle ribbon. I believe that the puzzle ribbon is an insult and I hate doing jigsaw puzzles.

Given their use by Autism Speaks, I'd say that's a fair analogy.

A few things:

1): I don't think many celebrities would read over every single letter they recieve, let alone listen to one person out of thousands
2): Sometimes those ribbons are inaccurate (the pink ribbon for breast cancer emphasizes feminity, while men can also get breast cancer)
3): People aren't exactly supportive of autistic people. I have a few NT friends who pick on HFA kids in my school (such as Jose, you can read my thread on him)
4): Hi, I haven't been around in a while (oh, say, two months).

For point 4, welcome back!

For the other 3 points, they're all reasons that an attempt to contact these people might not work, but none of them are reasons not to try.