Back in April 2009 I wrote a blog about Asperger's Syndrome / Autism and how it could also be viewed as a special ability rather than a disability in certain environments. At that time I was helping out with an Asperger's Volunteer Group and had been shocked with how isolated, unrecognised and unvalued the people felt there. These people all had very valuable skills but were not being given a chance to shine. The blog post I wrote back then has now become the most popular post on this blog so it was only right I do a follow up.It is real injustice that society does not respect people who communicate and see the world differently. It could be argued that this is in fact some sort of discrimination on the same level as race or gender. If gender or race discrimination occurs then something can be done and there are laws in place to prevent this from happening. However, you can't stop people discriminating or in some case maliciously targeting people who communicate differently or do not understand social dynamics in the same way.
This sort of prejudice and ignorance goes widely unrecognised and ignored leaving perpetrators to roam free as they choose. The people on the receiving end feel isolated and get next to no support from anyone. Indeed in many cases there is literally no place to turn for people with Asperger's Syndrome.
People with Asperger's Syndrome are often looked upon as being blunt, awkward and socially dysfunctional, however, I would argue that it is in fact people's attitudes in general society that are the biggest factor. 'Normal' people or neuro-typicals (NT) just don't have the awareness (or possibly in some cases the intelligence) to realise that there are people other than them who have a different neurological make-up and hence communicate and view the world differently.
People with Asperger's Syndrome have a wide array of positive skills that are almost never recognised as I talked about in my previous post on this subject.
People with Asperger's Syndrome have a wide array of positive skills that are almost never recognised as I talked about in my previous post on this subject.
In the worst case scenario some vindictive people exploit their position when they recognise that a person has AS traits and take to bullying and mocking them for being different.
In my eyes this is no different to racism, homophobia, class discrimination or sexism. Why can't society respect people of a different neurological make-up? These people are human beings and should be treated as such....
In my eyes this is no different to racism, homophobia, class discrimination or sexism. Why can't society respect people of a different neurological make-up? These people are human beings and should be treated as such....
