Bias Against People on the Spectrum

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Hello all

This summer I'm taking a class called Stereotyping and Prejudice. I have to write a paper/give a presentation on "curing" a bias against a particular group. I have decided to write said paper on bias against people on the autism spectrum. I would really appreciate it if some of you could give me examples of times in which you have been biased against due to your neurological condition. In my PowerPoint presentation, I may quote some of you, so if you wish to remain anonymous, please let me know (when I cite the forum on the paper I'll just provide a link).

I'd just like to mention that if I suggest any type of supremacist notions I will receive a 0 on the paper, so please don't do any of that (I've seen it on this forum before--Even if there wasn't a penalty for it I don't believe in the supremacy of one group of people over another).

The last time I plan on checking the forum will be sometime this Sunday, as the paper is due Monday at 11AM American Eastern Time (Monday 16:00 GMT).

Thanks a lot for your help!

Here are most of the biases I know of against autistics and autism, and there is more; PM me for the rest if this isn't enough or you don't like them, as I have modified the list elsewhere since I posted it on that blog.

Some people always thought being autistic was having heavy cognitive issues that express on peoples faces and walk and body language so they are 'warned' that the person exhibiting those issues wasn't right, and they are saved the embarrassment of trying to communicate with them. I think the short hand word they use is 'ret*d'.
How dare I look 'normal' when once you get past the normality, I am really out there. It's like I 'betrayed' them, or something.

At work, I get the stink eye from people that are so entrenched with their superiority to an autistic they can't believe I do the same job as they do, as it is really difficult. I watch them go through changes as they either think I am being given a 'pass' because I am autistic, or start to wonder if they are such hot shots if I can do the job just as well.

People who think I am taking up a job a 'normal' person could have since I should be on disability or something. Sheesh! if only! I have no idea how others get that sort of thing, I have had to work for my living all my life
There is an 'Autism Speaks' public service announcement that gets a lot of play time. The gist of it is how much of a burden and a disappointment it is when you find out your child has autism ( quote" That look on my wife's face told me something was really WRONG, I will never forget how I felt when she told me "Our child has autism.") OK, OK, I get it, I wasn't exactly thrilled when I realized I was autistic either. But, I shudder every time I hear it, thinking of some child with autism hearing the radio spot for the first time - must be like learning there is no Santa Clause and mom and dad have been only half truthful with you.

oh, yeah. Some people also think that the better you can be like 'normal' people the happier you will be. Just pretend to be normal and you will become 'normaler' and then everything will be alright. Wrong, so wrong, but then you have to be nice to the well meaning idiots that are trying so hard to help you, or they get an attitude about you coping an attitude. I find most of my 'social time' is just making other people feel comfortable around me. And that is so boring.

Merle

It took me a while to realise this - I was expending so much energy trying to be normal I had none left to cope with life in general. Since accepting myself as myself I've become a lot calmer and more productive. However, after mentioning my AS to my Uni advisor, he immediately replied "well don't tell anyone about that! They'll think you're a weirdo and you'll never get a job."

Blimey. Never mind my high distinction average or strong work ethic or anything. Just mention autism and I'll be shunned from the medical profession for life, apparently.

It took awhile to accept my problems.... I later realized that my problems could just be my greatest strength to understand a world that doesn't want to be forgotten.

Try not to let it slip out in an unguarded moment of abandon, that you have better things to do with your time than fulfilling the prophecies of your Uni adviser. However he has given you a great insight on how your eccentricities might be viewed by the bulk of your Uni and your prospective career paths. Start referring to your odd quirks as just residue from past medication trials you so nobly volunteered for had gone awry.

They will instantly see you as a brave lad that will give his adulthood to the practice of medicine. . . and a good job.

but seriously, dude, you gotta step up and do your damnedest to meet their requirements, AS is considered necessary to suppress when among neurotypical folks because frankly, after the initial interest and the charm wears thin, they are bored with it and want you to blend in pretty seamlessly.

Merle

Thanks to all who helped!

Oh, don't worry, stepping up is not a problem. I've been stepping up for almost thirty years. It's almost killed me but it's paying off.

Accepting myself as myself is less about exposing my eccentricities and more about forgiving myself for having to hide them. And determining which is my priority, a successful career or social life; I don’t have enough energy for both.

In short, I agree with you. Completely. There are many who are idealistic about ‘being themselves’ and being accepted as such, but for now, ‘being myself’ must be done in the privacy of my own company, and a diagnostic label has afforded me that, without guilt.

I merely mentioned AS to my coordinator because I was trying to explain why certain frequencies do my head in. It was a mistake and one that will not be repeated.

I appreciate your advice...and your wit.

One other young lady I knew from my college kept saying she was very surprised that I went on a school senate retreat because there's a couple hundred people there. Truth: being around so many people, unless maybe we're all condensed, does not overwhelm me though talking just for social reasons does.

I have also done many things, though struggled in most of them, that people with autism, specifically PDD, are not expected to do. I was a cheerleader in high school. I went to cosmetology school. I was a teacher education and later a business major in college, and am almost done getting a bachelor's and hope to eventually have more education than that. Though I do stereotypically get very involved in them I have many different interests rather than just one. I help out in the children's and youth ministry at church. I now have a boyfriend (whom I haven't revealed I am on the spectrum and am suspicious he is a little bit too.) I like going to loud little local music shows (high-pitched noises do irritate me though, but not loud, low ones) and being semi-friendly to many of the musicians. Everything else, from not speaking at all til the age of 4 and being either very socially slow or awkward, thinking very visually whenever I want to or accidentally, and being hypersensitive, screams autistic.

Well, I was asked not to sub at a particular school any longer because the other teachers said I had "no personality" and didn't talk enough to them. Not directly discrimination against AS (they didn't know I had it) but clearly a reaction to the symptoms of it.

I had my brother tell me that AS is just an excuse for people who want to be a-holes. That seems to be the popular understanding of it, though. Example: http://www.cracked.com/article_17522_6- ... et_p2.html

As a student I've found that it's also better for teachers to think that you're 'lazy' or 'unmotivated' than autistic. The only teacher's I've trusted with this information after my freshman year have been English teachers, because history science and math teachers suggested I should be bumped down to regulars classes from accel and AP. [English has been my best subject because I always write well even when bored.]

I told my English teachers because there were also more group projects - if I said I had a communication disability they were more likely to let me work alone or with a predetermined group that stayed constant. [Myself, my friend Casey, my friend Amanda. They both knew I was autistic and it didn't change their opinion of me.]

I told my history teacher that I was autistic in my Freshman year, and he suggested a special ed version of the accelerated course and apparently advised my counselor that I would prefer that class [even though I shot it down]. He tried to put me in regulars the next year even though I had a B in the class and 100% on the final.

I kept my science and math teachers out of the loop because of the conversation my history teacher started.

People can be very ignorant as to what autism actually is. It is debilitating for some people in some areas but I wouldn't say it across the board destroys lives even for "low-functioning" autistics. [I put low-functioning in quotation marks because it's not a real diagnosis.]

It's very hurtful to overhear conversations in which people compare autism to cancer or AIDS; I certainly don't feel wrong, and I don't know why others think that I should. I used to pretend to be normal, like wearing a mask I could take off around my friends and at home, but that got too tiring and I gave up.

Hope I got this in time for it to help.

Not for the paper but I still have to make a PowerPoint presentation. Thanks!

I got 47/50 on the paper, not including the extra five points for going to class the day we got it back.

People have been verbally abusive to me because I appear to be "ret*d", or "not all there", based on how capable I am of doing normal, masculine things, that other people can do or grasp easily...Also I have been assaulted but that's a little more complicated. In everyday life, I find I get stigmatized by random strangers based upon how self aware or coordinated I am. If the appearance is of being lower functioning, which happens, they could judge. I have also had bias from professionals, who fail to understand that my disability goes further than what they might see. As I have mental health problems as well, there is a lot of overlap. The best thing I can say, is that as long as I can control myself, and handle my social skills, it wouldn't really matter what other people think.

Good to hear.

I take a lot of Cracked's articles with a grain of salt. They published an article trying to say that major bands were copying other bands, without acknowledging the thing called a coincidence. They 'copied' songs from pretty obscure bands from years ago. While there are probably some people who use it as an excuse for inappropriate behaviour, I personally try not to be like that. The way I see it, it's an explanation, not an excuse.

I just looked at the article (I'd read it before, but I didn't remember this part with too much detail). They said that the people who are d***s are just the ones who are claiming that they have AS.