Outward Symbol for Others

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My partner is partially sighted and for a long time wouldn't use his symbol cane when down the pub because he didn't want people to immediately judge him. Because of this he regularly had hostile responses when bumping into people etc coz they thought he was just a thoughtless hairy drunk! As soon as he decided to bring his symbol cane with him outside observers had the information they did not have before, in this case that his eyes didn't work properly and therefore their reactions changed accordingly.

I would like to know if anyone thinks a symbol i.e. a small AS pin etc would give outside contacts the awareness to adapt and understand that we're not being rude, we're just being. The other side is that it may make people pre-judge. What does everyone else think about this?x

Considering that I'm thinking of getting a T-shirt printed in large letters proclaiming my Aspergian nature....

... well, I've made my point there.


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I should note though that I've noticed a lot of people around here are afraid that ignorant mundies would treat them as ret*d if only surface-aware of their different nature like that though..... As such, I would imagine they are not the sorts likely to proclaim their nature in such a way, and would rather be simply thought of as socially difficult.

Eventually I think an outward symbol would be beneficial, but until it's widely accepted it would only serve to alienate us further and make already difficult social encounters even more so before they actually happen.

In my situation, the people who need to know already do, and those who don't wouldn't be able or even try to understand and label it as nothing more than a cry for attention.

maybe a hat. Im shaw people will do it more if there was a greater understanding in the public.

I like the hat thing! I'm new to all this, you guys and gals are very inspirational!

im very forgetful so maybe a tattoo instead

seriously though, i have doubts it would be taken too seriously. people are generally bombarded with all sorts of things of this nature - coloured wrist bands anyone? - so im slightly skeptical

I just ignore people when they try to treat me like an idiot. They must be the true fools, to be treating decent people like fools. Those people don't know any better.

That would be the politer way of expressing my opinion on the matter.


[i.e. ret*ds make poor judges of retardedness.]

An AS pin would be a good way to raise funds. There are already AS bumnper-stickers, t-shirts, and other moichandise. But what letter of the alphabet should the pin be modelled after?

Q.... just because they'd never get it.

What would it mean, though? An arbitrary letter to designate Autism? The letter A would be the logical choice.

Q could be taken to mean Queer.

And A is frequently taken to mean Anarchist .... which in my case, to be fair, is true.

I don't think letters are the way to go, unless you're going for another language. Better yet, several.
What do you suppose you could spell out effectively using Greek, Russian, Japanese Katakana, Norse Runes, etc?

I wouldn't want to bring attention to having AS, maybe some of the more pedantic aspies want
to have the label as an excuse for their behavior, but for me, its better not attracting attention.
Having another label is not something I want, what AS means to me, is that I have an answer
to why I am, the way I am, I really don't want special treatment because of this condition.