A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step; and this a great first step Amy!

I think we should also generate a statement (seperately?) that makes clear we are discriminated against, in the main, not due to any odd behaviour on our part, but rather because of the odd expectations the establishment impose on others. I can't see many NTs thinking too hard about issues based on how we see the world, but if we focus on things that a lot of NTs also see as pointles and stupid (especially in the work place) then they may well take notice?

The more I study the more sure I become that AS has become so distorted as to be beyond recovery, and the core issue is the classic definition of autism and the difference in outlook and attitude it implies (I'll see if I can get some of the early works on this, but as we are talking pre 1920 here, there's not much on the web; does anyone live close to a medical library? Here's some names to check when looking for relevant papers: Doncaster Humm, Guy Wadsworth and Aaron Rosanoff which should be enough to get one onto other luminaries?).

It should be core to our movement to emphasise this as it is uniformly positive; autism is essential, autism is part of being human, there's not the slghtest possibility that we would be where we are today (for better or worse) without autism (and it's equally clear that most of the World's problems come from the activities of the low autism types; it's a great shame the Neandertals didn't survive independantly from those grasping greedy "modern humans" ). The problem, once again, is the word itself; but I really don't like "Aspergian" either!

As for the question of categorising; imagine the degree of "colour" that's been used for discriminatory reasons in so many societies, or the caste systems such as that which is still rife in India. Surely if such pointless and arbitrary distinguishing features can be defined for the purpose of discrimination, then surely "autistic mindset" is sufficiently powerful a designant to use to protect us from discrimination? There's a downside (isn't there always?) insofar that, if this is to be valid, then we must begin to distinguish ourselves from those DSM Aspies who are not autisitic (let them keep the label if it makes them feel better, it's the non-auties who seem to care about such things) and I note that very few of you are prepared to tackle this issue. You think it's cruel? Discriminatory? Why, when if we can succeed, we can then help others of that kind, and will have helped them by setting a precedent! Until we acheive such seperation we'll get nowhere, to the detriment of both parties. This in part is why the DSM evolved such a woolly method of diagnosis, to prevent those of us who have the smarts from actually enforcing recognition! As long as we continue to accept this artificial imposition then we're stuck where we are.