Who knows the ribbon?

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Who of you knows and has recognised the autism awareness ribbon?

Who of you didn't know about it until now?

Who recognised the ribbon but didn't know it is connected to autism?

Please don't feel it's a problem to admit you didn't knew it until now, I want to see how many of the autistic community know the ribbon and associate it with autism.

I wonder if it is a widespread symbol that would be recognised by some in public or not.

For the sake of simplicity, if you have NLD, AD(H)D and autistic traits or some other combination that is strongly related to autism consider yourself 'on the spectrum' for this poll.

Saw it on the back of a truck recently. Knew immediately what it meant.

This is a new thing to me.
Wonder where you get them?

I'm not very fond of the puzzle symbol for autism. It seems to cast us as inscrutable puzzles--i.e., far away from everyone else, can't be understood, a problem to be solved... Autism itself as a problem to be solved, as an unknown rather than a relatively well-researched phenomenon... can't know what we're thinking, can't understand what we're saying, can't know what we're doing... worst of all, a person with pieces missing...

"I'm a person, not a puzzle!"

Agree. Don't know who said it first though.

All of the "puzzle" connotations seem to be of alienation and inscrutability. I don't like this. We are people, part of the world like any other human being. Neither autistic people nor autism itself is a "puzzle".

Prefer the rainbow infinity symbol, personally. It shows support for autistic people themselves. It is the difference between wanting to get rid of autism, or "solve the puzzle", and wanting to help autistics. Social model, disability advocacy versus medical "disease" model.

Im a person...NOT a puzzle.

The puzzle ribbon reminds me of Autism Speaks because Autism Speaks uses puzzle pieces as one of their symbols.I am somewhat offended by the puzzle symbolism the same way a Jew would be to a swastika and lightning bolts or a black person is to white robes and hoods with red iron crosses on them.

I suppose I get it. The puzzle = something to be solved is a common association of people.

Well, I personally think that's a rather wrong association and one that isn't making a lot of sense. The non-autistic world should stop thinking that maybe?

Because it implies a puzzle needs to be solved as in 'solve the problem and it's gone' when actually a puzzle is all there, all looking-perfect, nothing needs solving to find a solution but the person who doesn't know what the complete puzzle shoes will need to reassemble the tiles to suit their perspective of seeing things.

People who don't know how to interpret autistic behaviour just do not see how the autistic person totally makes sense in their way, until they get to know autism and figure out how it interpret the behaviours to get the complete picture.

I had one a magnet ribbon on my van and someone took it off last week sometime. grrrrrr.

Probably an annoyed autistic. I can't say I've never been tempted.

I never really took offense to the ribbon. I only wish that true "autism awareness" actually existed in more abundance.

I saw the ribbon before, but didn't know it was connected to Autism.

Hmm... so many interpretations for this one I believe. In one sense it could mean we're puzzles, but in another it could mean we're already complete, so people need to leave us as be.

Well, although I see many interpretations for it, I have to agree on the formal with this one, just as it seems to say I'm just a puzzle to the world, needing to be solved and done with instead of just being accepted for who I am.

Wow... and I thought the axiom, "Just be yourself, and everyone will like you," society uses applies to everyone. Guess society is a hypocrite at times the moment it notices a group of people different from themselves. Oh well...

I didn't recognize the ribbon, but I recognized the puzzle piece motif.

I'm not very fond of the puzzle symbol, either. I am not a puzzle, autism should not be seen as a puzzle to figure out, and the different colours of each piece of the puzzle represents segregation, in my mind, and that's where I stand.

I've seen the ribbon before. There seems to be a fair few around here on car bumpers, along with "I someone with Autism" stickers as well. I've known what it means for a while. I actually have a bracelet with puzzle pieces (not in the shape of a ribbon) with the words "Connecting the Pieces" but I actually got that just to be contradictory, so perhaps it shouldn't count. I wore it periodically if I was feeling really, really overwhelmed; only one person ever noticed (her niece was on the spectrum).

The puzzle thing doesn't offend me. Puzzles are complicated and require logic, not social skills, to put together. They might be a out of order, but they're still whole in the box. They're just different, that's all.