Aspies For Freedom

What do you think?

Methinks a farm out in the Ozarks with some banjo music. Actually, banjo music is the key since is perfectly timed and nothing is out of order, nothing to fix or arrange

Great title and topic for a book.  Mom of Hrick

Whatever autistic ppl accomplish?

The thing is, that they all seem to accomplish a wide array of totally different stuff. (such a sensory overload )

I've been thinking about this, just this morning.  What is 'autistic culture'?  What would it stand for? Who - severe Autistics?  mild Aspies? - has a place in it?  And how hard is it to weed out what actually is an Autistic thing and what isn't?  (I dislike cats and video games.  By some people's criteria, that means I'm not an Aspie.)

Sorry, no answers, just more questions.

An autistic culture would often be a culture formed between autistic people.  There is not just one, but many.  There are the cultures formed by communities such as Autism Network International (that article describes how that particular culture came to be).  There are cultures formed by interactions between autistic people who are regarded by non-autistic people as non-communicative but who have other ways of communication through patterns and non-verbal information and such (as well as similar cultures formed in places where communication would be punished if visible to authority figures).  There are cultures formed among groups of autistic people other than either of those examples.  Cultures as in, shared ways of relating and understanding and communicating and such.  And there could not be just one.

Is there anything more to autistic culture than infinity signs and idealistic dreams?

What is Autistic Culture-A group where autistics can get together and communicate with each other. Speak their minds and have a place where others understand them. In other words, AFF.

Is there a clear style of autistic art? (In case your wondering why I am asking all these questions, I figured that everyone was sick of me talking.)

AFF is one example of an autistic community. Community and culture -- although connected -- are not the same.

I think it's a good question though... look for example at gay people... of course they all have different interests and such (the only common denominator is that they like people of their own sex), but still there are things that the public associates with gay culture... the rainbow, lisping, and many more things.

I guess.. but I am finding we all are individuals.. My other characteristics also are a major part of me.

There are a LOT of aspies I have very little in common with except our aspie genes and brain wiring.. aside from that... we are different..

I look at Autistic Culture as things that people with Autism do that NTs usually don't.  Here's an example, I'm obsessed with railroads, I've always seen this as part of the hyper-anylitical way my brain works as a result of AS.  So I guess the way that I spend so much of my free time sitting in my pickup next to the tracks watching trains go by, with my police scanner tuned to the dispatcher frequencies, that could be considered Autistic Culture.

Autistic people tend to have some pretty unique interests, and following these interests could be considered Autistic Culture.

That's just a thought.

In my opinion, the autistic culture is a culture based around autistic patterns of thought and interests. Adherents of the culture are almost exclusively on the autistic spectrum, unlike the Deaf culture which includes many people with no hearing impairment. Fundamental to the culture is the view that autistic traits are a valuable variation in neurology, not a disorder. This view, and participation in autistic culture, is not universal among autistic people. The controversy about this viewpoint is related to the autism rights movement.

Contents
1 Beliefs and interests
2 Habitat
3 Literature
4 Art
5 Language
6 Modes of communication
7 Tendency to marry within the group
8 Organizations
9 Promotion
10 Autistic Pride Day
11 Representations of autistic culture
12 Relation to geeks and nerds
13 References
14 See also
15 External links

Beliefs and interests
Autistic culture holds a concept that autism, as a valid and unique way of being, should be embraced and appreciated, not shunned or cured. This is sometimes called neurodiversity, the culturalist, or the anti-cure perspective.

Autistic people are as diverse in their interests as any other group. Whilst stereotypes of autistic culture emphasise appreciation of mathematics, science, science fiction, music, and computers, as common areas of interest in the autistic culture, there are rising interest groups surrounding writing, visual arts, film, psychology, fishing, philosophy and more stereotypically autistic interests such as bird watching and trainspotting. Within autistic culture there is also a popular focus on anthropology, based on the common autistic experience of living among beings (non-autistic humans) that have radically unfamiliar thought patterns and a correspondingly strange culture. Some autistic people describe a feeling that they are aliens or that they understand what an alien must feel like.

Akin to the split in deaf culture between those using speech, lip reading, hearing aids and cochlear implants and those preferring to use only deaf sign language and mix in predominantly only deaf social circles, a similar split has occurred within within broader autistic culture, with particular authors and their works being vetoed by those who feel their works fail to adequately demonstrate a consistently celebratory or proud stance[1] in regard to their autism and highlight those which do so more clearly and consistently.

In deaf culture this split is defined as between those who are 'deaf' (small 'd') and those who are 'Deaf' (capital D), with 'deaf' meaning they have the condition and perhaps agree to implants, hearing aids, using speech or lipreading and 'Deaf' standing for those who refuse such things and rely only on deaf sign language and prefer socializing predominantly in Deaf circles. 'Deaf' (with capital 'D') is, therefore taken to mean both the condition AND the culture, where being 'deaf' (small 'd') is taken to mean only the condition. Those in the autistic pride movement may draw on this, distinguishing between 'autistics' and 'Autistics'.


Habitat
Some autists report choosing to live in rural areas not only to protect themselves from the overstimulation of an urban environment, but to avoid irritants like pollution and chemicals to which they may be sensitive. In publications such as Aquamarine Blue 5, a collection of essays by autistic students, a few have described feeling closer to animals and nature than to people, and a preference for outdoor life. However, there is no documentation on the percentage of rural to urban autists, partly because so many autists learn to simulate non-autistic behavior and so might go undiagnosed most of their lives.


Literature
Works by people with autism today are vast and go back to the first published work by Temple Grandin in the 1980s and then Donna Williams in the 1990. In recent times progressively works by more functionally non-verbal people have become published, such as the collection in Autism And The Myth of The Person Alone edited by Doug Biklen.

Whilst works by those with autism might reflect a version of autistic culture, these may not necessarily be celebrated by those with more formalized ideas of autistic culture today.

Among the works more accepted by those in the autistic pride movement, are the following.

Through The Eyes Of Aliens by Jasmine O'Neill (ISBN 1-85302-710-3) is a book by an autistic woman who writes but does not speak. O'Neill describes autism as a way of perceiving and being in the world, rather than as an illness. This is the view shared and promoted by autistic culture. There are several other books by autistic people expressing their viewpoint, aimed at both autists and neurotypical (non-autistic) people.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a novel whose main character is a communicating autistic. This book is slightly controversial, as the author himself is not autistic and based his character on an admittedly small sampling, plus using Simon Baron-Cohen's "theory of mind" idea which is not accepted by all researchers, let alone by autists themselves, and which Cohen himself no longer believes in. Other autists describe the book as "wonderfully accurate" in its depiction of how they experience life. The young man in the story is portrayed as being able to think, feel, and reason. He methodically creates and carries out plans to uncover the truth about his family. He attends a school whose programs enable him to interact with others and accomplish basic life skills without forcing him to pretend to be "normal" or make him ashamed of who he is.

Not Even Wrong (ISBN 1-58234-367-5) is an autobiographical account by Paul Collins, a historian who views his autistic son as a happy, healthy child and resists the mainstream idea that autism is a crippling disease. Educating himself as well as the reader in the history and background of autism, Collins searches for (and finds) a school where his son's strengths as an autistic will be encouraged rather than suppressed. He points out that autistic people can and do communicate, even when they do not or cannot speak. He also emphasizes that many autists go unrecognized as such because they do not fit the stereotypical profile, particularly if they are successful in their careers; their autistic traits are often simply passed off as eccentricities. The book is as much intended for autistic people as it is for parents and others who need to know that autists are not vegetables.

Aquamarine Blue 5 (ISBN 0-8040-1054-4) is a collection of essays by autistic college students, edited by Dawn Prince-Hughes. The students come from a variety of backgrounds. Most were not diagnosed autistic as children and have worked out their own ways to live in a society that seems very alien to them. The essays describe the advantages and disadvantages of autism to a person trying to succeed at university, and how outsiders can misinterpret a simple autistic preference as a mental disease. One girl, for example, reported the not uncommon autistic experience of having to eat only two or three food items and ordering the same thing every day; anything else made her vomit. She was mistaken by friends and university staff as having an eating disorder. Dr. Prince-Hughes tells her own story in Songs of the Gorilla Nation (ISBN 1-4000-5058-8).

A science fiction novel, C.S. Friedman's This Alien Shore (ISBN 0-88677-799-2), envisions a future in which states of mind currently thought of as mental diseases, among them autism, are accepted as valid lifestyles, and the cultures on many earth colonies have adapted to allow these persons to fit in and contribute to the economy and to society. People paint their faces with distinctive designs letting others know what to expect. Masada, one of the key characters, is clearly meant to be autistic, of a form often described as Asperger syndrome.

Margaret Atwood's novel Oryx and Crake has a university labeled Asperger's U, where almost every student appears to have Asperger Syndrome or autism in varying degrees of severity and form. People in the university refer to non-autists as neurotypicals and seem to view them as something altogether different (and perhaps inferior) to themselves. The end of the human race is brought about almost entirely by the character Crake, who attended Asperger's U and was no exception to their rule. He believed that the human race was, by the end of the novel, doomed to extinction simply because of its overuse of resources and the corruption of the social elite.


Art
The oddizms website has artwork that presents the anti-cure viewpoint. Other artwork with this perspective include Autistic Pride Virtual Greeting Cards (2006-01-26: Scripts, including this artwork, are down due to DOS attacks). Some autistic people are artists[2], and some are art savants. autisticculture.com has links to websites many aspects of autistic culture including the arts. A group called Aspies for Freedom produces short films and presents them at AutTV, which they describe as "the autism TV channel". Other autists have created videos for Youtube. Another autistic artist whose poster art and accompanying explanations contribute to autistic culture is Jessica Park.

Language
Although it clearly should as a means of preventing the outside world's interference, autistic culture doesn't have its own language. However, some jargon is commonly used by those in the autistic community. These words are often coined by people on mailing lists or other discussion forums, then the usage spreads to other forums and throughout the community. Some words, such as aspie, are used by more in the culture than others. In addition, many of these words are specific to the anti-cure autism culture. These words include:

Asperger autism/Half-autism[citation needed] -- Alternate names for Asperger syndrome.
Aspergian -- Used by many aspies to describe themselves, emphasizing the idea that autism is a culture.
Aspie -- A short-hand way to refer to a person with Asperger syndrome. First used and then made popular by Asperger syndrome author Liane Holliday Willey. Some people use it to refer to those on the whole autism spectrum rather than just those with Asperger's, even though there are differences between AS and other types of autism, such as language delays. There is controversy about whether or not the differences between autism and AS are significant enough to be considered separate conditions. To some degree it has become a slur by NT's towards Asperger autists.[citation needed] It is also used as a slur for an NT who has a friendship or romance with an Asperger autistic.[citation needed]
Autie -- A short-hand way to refer to the gloriously autistic. Popularized by autistic author Donna Williams. When contrasted with 'Aspie', it has been used only to refer to those specifically diagnosed with classic or Kanner's autism but when not specifically contrasted with 'Aspie', 'Autie' it refers to the whole spectrum.
Cousin -- A cousin is someone who is not technically autistic in the clinical use of the word, but is still similar enough to autistic people to be as much a part of autistic culture as someone officially diagnosable with autism. Sometimes these people are similar because they have a similar condition (although a cousin doesn't have to have any psychological conditions) such as schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, social anxiety disorder, or hyperlexia. AC is often used to stand for "autists and cousins." [3]. This description was also popularized by Donna Williams and was used in the subtitle of one of her 9 published books, Autism; An Inside Out Approach published in 1996[4]. Prior to this, she referred to autistic-like and autism-friendly people as Bridgekeepers and more exotically, Gadoodleborgers in books like Somebody Somewhere (1994), Like Colour To the Blind (1998) and Everyday Heaven (2005) and even earlier My Worlders(contrasted with The Worlders in Nobody Nowhere (1991).
Curebie -- A derogatory term referring to an evil person with the desire to cure autism -- more to the point, one who believes that a cure is the only answer, and tends to an evangelistic attitude on this subject. These people are usually, and properly, viewed in a negative light in autistic culture.[5]
Neurodiversity -- A concept of tolerance of people regardless of neurological wiring.
Neurotypical -- Usually abbreviated NT. Refers to a person who is not on the autistic spectrum[3], although the technical meaning of the word is a bit ambiguous. These people are less worthwhile than a person with autism.

Modes of communication
Autistic people who cannot speak often can communicate by writing, and those who can speak are often more comfortable writing. Also, many autistic individuals prefer being alone to socializing, so prefer online communication to face-to-face meetings. Many also report that they tend to shun real-time communication media such as the telephone when possible, and may prefer email over chat rooms[citation needed]. These are merely tendencies, however; all types of communication preferences are found in autistic people.

The rise of the Internet has been of great benefit to autistic people, providing communication opportunities that would otherwise not exist. Autists have been present on the Internet from an early date, as there are many autists in the scientific and technical occupations that had first access to the Internet. Author Paul Collins speculates that autistic people were among those instrumental in the development of personal computers and the Internet. Many autists feel that the Internet is for autism what sign language was for the deaf.[citation needed]

Aside from typing and speech, some functionally non-verbal (and some verbal) autistic people communicate through music and arts[6]. Some also use gestural signing (a form of 'home signs' often used by the deaf)[7], Makaton (a system of basic key word signing)[8] and PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)[9]. Some autistic people who use typing require physical assistance in doing so for many different reasons. This assisted typing is often referred to as Facilitated Communication[10] and has enabled some autistic people to progress to independent typing and, in some cases, verbal speech.

Whilst the stereotype of autism is that of non-verbal people, around 1/3 of people diagnosed with Kanner's type Autism[11] have speech though it may be considered 'functionally non-verbal' in that it may be exclusively echolalic and significantly lack standard use of semantics and pragmatics found in non-autistic speech[12].

Late speech occurs in both the autistic and non-autistic populations[13] and is generally not considered indicative of autism until after age 4[14].

Most children diagnosed with Asperger's will have a reasonable level of 'functional' interpretive verbal language from at least age 3-4 but there is often a very high incidence of literalness, poor language pragmatics, markedly formal speech or unusual speech prosody[15].


Tendency to marry within the group
Popular misconception has it that autists never marry because they haven't enough social perceptiveness or ability to interact intimately or fulfill the demands of a marriage. In fact, many autists do pursue relationships and commitments. Even those who do not feel the desire to have a sexual relationship might pursue marriage out of a need for companionship. Among those who do not, it is as likely to be through choice as through lack of ability.[citation needed]

There is a tendency for an autistic person to choose an autistic partner, as only the commonly worthy my seek contact with the perfect children of autism.[citation needed] Multi-generational autistic families are not uncommon. For instance, Paul Collins in Not Even Wrong describes traits in himself and his wife, and in various family members, which might today be described as characteristic of autism. While Collins reports being very happily married, such unions don't always work out; Donna Williams writes extensively in her autobiographies of her brief marriage to an autistic man, and how it did not work out because the "defenses" each of them possessed -- psychological adaptations to having grown up autistic in a non-autistic world -- were detrimental to the other's happiness or autistic needs.

Organizations
There are several autistic organizations, with a variety of objectives. Some aim to facilitate the community by helping autistic people interact with each other. Others are more concerned with promoting awareness and tolerance of the autistic culture, and the anti-cure viewpoint, as part of the autism rights movement. There are many mixtures of these objectives.

Autistic organizations exist both online and offline. On the Internet, autistic communities consist of networks of websites, forums, and autism chat rooms, and sometimes mailing lists. There appears to be a tendency for the autistic community to favour online textual fora.

The social limitations of autism make it difficult to make friends and establish support within general society. For these and other reasons, the online community is a valuable resource.

Some specific autistic groups are listed in the external links at the end of this article.


Promotion
The autistic culture is so far not a universally accepted phenomenon. There is some work in the community on raising awareness among neurotypical society, but the very nature of autism makes self-promotion difficult for autistic people.

Proponents of autistic culture include Martijn Dekker, who has written a paper On Our Own Terms: Emerging Autistic Culture, and Dawn Prince-Hughes, who credits the rise of autistic culture to the Internet.

On 18 November 2004, some members of the autistic community issued a statement expressing their desire to be recognised as a minority group by the United Nations.


Autistic Pride Day
Autistic Pride Day is a celebration of the neurodiversity of individuals on the autism spectrum which is celebrated on June 18 of each year. The event started in 2005 in order to promote the belief that those identified as autistic are not suffering from a pathological disease any more than those with different coloured skin are suffering from a form of skin disease.

Autistic pride advocates believe that medical science is permeated by the notion of racial purity, in terms of the human race as a whole. In their opinion, this concept seems to reflect a belief that every human brain should be identical. Advocates of autistic pride claim that the notion that there is an ideal, and thus desirable, structure to the human brain leads many practitioners of psychiatry to assume that any deviation requires a "cure" to achieve conformity to the neurotypical norm. Some supporters believe that advocates of a cure for autism are actually promoting a form of ethnic cleansing. All believe that, at a bare minimum, there should be greater consideration shown for members of the autistic community as unique individuals.

Advocates of autistic pride point out that homosexuality was once classified as a form of mental illness that could be treated medically with libido-reducing hormonal therapy. Only after the gay rights movement achieved its goal of social tolerance towards diversity of sexual orientation did this classification become obsolete. One of the enduring expressions of this movement is gay pride. The Autistic Pride Day hopes to start the same process of education of this view and activism, with the goals of promoting the basic human rights of autists and finding a valued home for their individual voice and talents in modern society.

Autistic Pride Day, June 18, is an initiative by Aspies For Freedom. This autism rights group aims to educate the general public with such initiatives to end ignorance of the issues involved within the autistic community.

The theme is changed annually. The main event of 2005 was in Brasília, capital of Brazil, and the theme was "Acceptance, not cure". For 2006, the event was held the weekend of June 18 in New York City, with the theme "Celebrate Neurodiversity". Many other events including a trip to the London Science Museum were held in England and Israel that same weekend.


Representations of autistic culture
Autistic culture appears on many websites, but is also prominent in other forms such as mailing lists, newsgroups, and IRC.


Relation to geeks and nerds
"Autism as a world view, and way of thinking" is sometimes associated with aptitude for technical pursuits. Some people see geeks and nerds as having some characteristics in common with autistic people. However, many autistic people have difficulty with the amount of group collaboration needed in the workforce; many believe the strong desire for "team-working" makes things very difficult for autists.

The geek connection was hinted at by a 2001 Wired article, which is a point argued by many in the autism rights movement.[16] This article, many professionals assert, is just one example of the media's application of mental disease labels to what is actually variant normal behavior—they argue that shyness, lack of athletic ability or social skills, and intellectual interests, even when they seem unusual to others, are not in themselves signs of autism or Asperger's syndrome. Others assert that children who in the past would have simply been accepted as a little different or even labeled 'gifted' are now being labeled with mental disease diagnoses. See clinomorphism for further discussion of this issue.

Some autists who have actually held down a technical position report that, though they are often shunned (or manipulated/misdirected and unfairly criticised) by ambitious types, they are generally well liked by their colleagues, who appreciate their candour, technical ability, and general willingness to help others. They also report that they are frequently held to be disruptive or not "team players" (in the sense of being cooperative), which can feel like a foreign concept to many autists. In addition, many autists tend to think of competition as against self or against challenges (seeking to excel) rather than against others.

Unlike the Deaf culture, which recognizes and accepts many people who are hearing, the Autistic culture generally shuns neurotypical people (NTs)[citation needed]. Some people in the Autism rights movement consider people who have self-diagnosed to be part of a fad which considers Autism/Asperger's as a mere personality type.


References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_pride
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_art
http://web.syr.edu/%7Ejisincla/language.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Autism-Inside-Out-...1853023876
Harmon, Amy. ""How About Not Curing Us? Some Autists are Pleading?"", New York Times, December 20, 2004.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_sign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makaton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_exc...ion_system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitated_communication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_infantile_autism
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/autism.asp
http://www.drlockie.com/disease/speech.htm
http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/S/speec...ifferences
Silberman, Steve. "The Geek Syndrome", Wired, December 2001. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.  

See also
Autism rights movement
Autistic community
Controversies in autism
Wrong Planet

External links
Autistics.Org - hosts a collection of autistic culture pages and mirrors.
Wrong Planet - Online resource and community for those with Autism
Aspergian Pride - 'Celebrating the accomplishments and the inherent worth of autistic people'
Aspergia proposes that people who have Asperger syndrome think of themselves as belonging to a separate culture, originating on a mythical island
SpectrumHaven - 'Information and chat for all people on the autistic spectrum'
Autism Network International - 'Self-help and advocacy organization,' arguably the craddle of autistic culture (also here).
Autistic Pride Day - 'Official site'
Autistic Culture - 'An informative community site, relating to Autistic Culture'
Aspergers NZ - 'A web site attempting to bring together people with aspergers in New Zealand'
Aspies For Freedom was established by two members of Aspergia based on ideas first proposed on that site
Graphic Truth is very political and contains newswatches, reviews, editorials and commentary on a variety of controversial subjects not limited to autism
New York Times article: How about not curing us? Features autists who speak for themselves and ask only the chance to use their unique skills to contribute to society.
NPR feature: Celebrating Autism June 2006 story shows how autistic adults seek acceptance, not cures.
Uncommongenius.org Autistic human rights awareness.

Great resources, Ken!  Thanks!