This project is to correct some stereotypes about autistic people like myself. I will list them and tell you why they are very wrong. 1. "We will never understand autism" Of course we'll understand autism. We understand it from the experiences of autistic people, as long as we actually listen to them instead of trying to cure our condition, which is something we don't want to happen. Which is a perfect segue to my next stereotype to debunk: 2. "Autism should be cured and Autism Speaks is a good company" Wrong, wrong, wrong. Autism should not be cured, because it's part of who we are as a person, both metaphorically and physically. Would you cure a racial minority of their race? I think not. Autism Speaks tries to do just this, and they also do things like ABA, which can be harmful to autistic people's mental health. (Yes, we have mental health like you do.) 3. "But aren't autistic people stupid?" Gosh, no! We have the same variation of intelligence as you all do. There are even theories that Albert Einstein was autistic. And that's not to say that we're all geniuses, either. Just as many of us who are geniuses are of average intelligence as well. 4. "Autistic people are naive and can't communicate at all" Okay, this one's obvious. I'm autistic, correct? But I'm writing this to you, my audience, all the same that a neurotypical person would. Communication skills vary between autistic people. This is because every autistic person's autism is different. 5. "Autism has levels/you can be more or less autistic/autism is a spectrum" You can't be more or less autistic. Plus, although the model of autism many people use is a spectrum, I learned from somewhere (I forget where) we like to think of it as a proverbial digital color wheel. It's not just "more" or "less" autism. We don't have different amounts; we just have varying autism.
