Is autism a culture?

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I read somewhere the other day that autism has it's own culture but I can't think where I read it. It also didn't explain what it meant. What does it mean? I've heard of deaf culture before but I still don't really know what that means.

Does anyone know?

could mean many things, or nothing.
i think it's fair to say autism/ASD's etc have their own culture, because there are enough people with the various "gifts" that communicate with each other & to a certain extent decide "what's hot & what's not" in Autie/Aspie culture..

Just means there is a subculture associated with the syndrome/condition/whatever you want to call it.

Well, WrongPlanet is a nexus for autistic culture. It's by and for spectrum people, and creates a sense of shared experience. There was an article in Salon magazine not long ago entitled "I am a person, not a puzzle" that quoted folks who have arisen as spokespeople from sites like this one, and WrongPlanet is actually mentioned in the article.

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/0 ... c_culture/

Well autism / AS is not a culture, it is not a choice.

But a culture is associated with AS / autism / ASDs becuase those with ASDs have started to make contact with each other, we have also found that we get on with our own kind well so things like WP have appeared.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Thank you arielhawksquill for that article it was very interesting. I agree with some aspects of the article, though not all. Thanks for your responses I understand a bit more now.

We discussed this at my last AS support group. One person called himself a "culture of one."

The truth is, when we get together, we are totally open and talk more. It's because we know we don't have to censor ourselves as much. We tolerate stims within our culture. We understand our social aptitude and continue to work towards making friendships within our community... at least many of us do.

We even have our own language at times (neurotypical for instance.)

There may be something to this. There does seem to be differences in thinking and perceiving. For folks not like me, I just tell them that I am different, not like someone from a different country, but like someone from a different planet. I have taken many tests to find as much about the parameters of my existence, and I have studied what are the average parameters of an individual and of the collective as a whole.

It turns out that I am quite different in seeing, interpreting, thinking, and experiencing. Enough so that I think if there was a collective of many me-s, then one could deduce that how this collective interpreted, thought, and experienced life could be a culture of its own. At the very least, it could be considered a movement.

Since we or most of us have our neurological wiring in common, we come here and talk to each other and have built up a community. There are things we say here that in many cases we are uncomfortable talking about with heurotypical people who are not familiar with us. Yes, I would say that there is a culture in the autistic community.

A subculture is a smaller group within a larger culture with their own unique stuff. I don't really know of too much of an aspie subculture. Maybe things like wrong planet count for something.

I think it's not entirely correct to say there is an autistic culture, as there are many different autistic cultures out there. But I do believe that in a group of autistic people, autistic traits will inevitably be a significant part of the groups culture...

I am a parent with two children on the spectrum as well as a doctoral student researching this very phenomenon. What I have encountered so far is that there appears to be a growing movement towards an autistic culture or community much like the deaf community has.
It seems to me that with the elevated prevalence rates coupled with a need for advocacy, the creation of a community or culture is as inevitable as it is needed. What does everyone here think?