For the Year 6 unit on social inequities, Max and Emmit chose to inquire into Autism and the way Autistic people are treated. You’ll need to read these moving reflections by the boys (published with their permission) to appreciate what it meant in this particular context…
When the unit began, I was thinking of doing my exhibition on lack of water in India, but then one day a guest speaker came to the school and they talked about Aspergers, saying it was a disability. Being an Aspergian myself, I decided to raise awareness about how Aspergers is not a disability, in fact in some cases, it is a gift.
I thought hard about a lot of questions I could use. At first, I was going to do kids that are bullied at school due to their Autism, but then I decided that a bigger problem in the Autistic world was the lack of access to jobs by Aspergians.
When I was looking for information it was hard find any real solid evidence such as graphs or statistics, people on the internet just wrote things like ‘Aspergians may sometimes have difficulties trying to find jobs’ but no real facts on the subject. I do not think this is very good, because I have no real facts to show anyone and I will just have to tell you my non-backed-up evidence like:
Some Aspergians are thought to be disabled because people sometimes put ads on TV or other types of media telling the public that Aspergers is a disability and makes the bearer ‘stupid’ or ‘weird’. Not only is this not true, but it is the complete opposite of the truth. Some Aspergians excel way beyond ‘normal’ people.
If I had any solid evidence I would put it all in this recount, but unfortunately, I don’t. This probably frustrates me as much as you, but there is nothing I can do. Thank you for listening though.
For my inquiry, I had to choose a social inequity and take action on it. I chose autistic inequities. This affects me as one of my best friends, Max, who is also my research partner, has PDD-NOS, a form of high functioning Autism on the Autistic spectrum scale. We would like to take action so Max and other people like him don’t face prejudice and discrimination, when really they are normal good people, capable of doing great things.
There are many problems and inequities regarding Autistic people. With the right support services in place, all autistic people are capable of living meaningful and fulfilling lives. However, negative media coverage and deliberate pity campaigning have created the public opinion that autism is a ‘tragedy that needs to be stopped’, and that people with Autism have no hope of achieving anything. Unfortunately, the media, shows kids throwing tantrums and parents complaining about their lives. It is rare to see Autistic kids on TV in normal activities and even rarer to see autistic adults.
What they don’t realize is that Autism is what makes them who they are, regarding character, beliefs, tastes, and many other traits, and that there is no ‘normal’ person behind the Autism. And thus by trying to cure them, you’re really just trying to destroy who they are.
This is very damaging to Autistic people and their image to other people, as it worsens social avoidance, pity, employment and workplace discrimination, and makes parents believe in false hopes of a cure instead of actually helping their kids. Money is spent on research in genetics, rather than proven support services and therapies.
Max and I aim to raise awareness about this issue and inform people that Autism is not a disease.
Let’s help them raise awareness.