Saturday, March 22, 2008

Stereotypes, Labels, and Assumptions

You hear folks making broad, sweeping statements about people with autism all the time. It drives me nuts! There seems to be very little energy put into discovering autistic people's individuality. I've learned over the years that making assumptions about people with any kind of disability label is harmful to both them and the community they live in.

Where autism is concerned it's actually doubly negative. The reason I write this is that autism has been on the rise for some time now, so it's important that these dangerous assumptions not be thrown around carelessly. As more autistic people come into our communities we are going to have to understand that although there may be some commonalities among them, there are even more individualized traits.

I found this story from the Lodi News-Sentinel out of California today. I'm going to step out on a limb here by going on record as saying what is happening in this young MAN's life has a team of people messing him up. From his well intentioned parents who treat him like a little kid, to his support people that seemingly go along with his parents, to the newspaper making these ridiculous assumptions about all people with autism.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A motivating discussion is worth comment. I think that you ought to write more about this
subject, it might not be a taboo matter but typically folks don't discuss
such issues. To the next! Best wishes!!

Take a look at my page: stick packaging