Is the puzzle piece symbol generally represent autism?

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Hi Folks,

Is the classic puzzle piece symbol a general representation for autism, or is it more specifically associated with Autism Speaks?

Regards,
Rob

I don't particularly feel it represents me, or anything I have ever experienced.

I do not feel like I'm a missing piece of a world that I'm supposed to fit into, that's the attitude of the insensitive neurotypicals that have abused me all my life, insisting that I MUST fit into their expectations, come hell or high water.

I think the Alien better represents how I've always felt - a visitor accidentally marooned here in an unfamiliar culture, among an irrational, primitive species.

But then, neither Autism Speaks, the general Mass Media, nor any other Autism Group ever asks us what we think. As far as they're concerned, only low-functioning nonverbal autistic children have the disorder. Once you're an adult, you're not cute enough to facilitate donations anymore, so to their minds, you just cease to exist.

Well said.

The puzzle piece, in my opinion, represents an NT view of autism.

Because we have difficulty understanding NTs, we are called socially impaired.

Because NTs have difficulty understanding us, they call us puzzling. They should call themselves autistically impaired instead of calling us puzzles, if they are being fair - i.e. they have an impairment of their autistic skills, just like we have an impairment of our NT skills. Their lack of autistic skills is not our fault, it is not a characteristic of us, but of them.

We are not a puzzle. NTs are projecting their own impairment - their lack of understanding of autism - onto us, as though it is our fault. Yet when it comes to our dfficulty with understanding them, they think it has nothing to do with them being puzzles. Oh, no!

So I think the puzzle piece should be used to represent NTs. They are rather puzzling. Obviously it is their fault that they are (reverse discrimination!).

I dislike it.
We're not cypers, we're people.

I'm not good at coming up with symbols though, so I'm not really sure what I would like an 'official' autism symbol to look like.

personally i prefer a cartoon triceratops

[img][600:600]http://slowbuddy.com/wp-content/gallery/cartoon-pictures/triceratops-cartoon-picture.jpg[/img]

NTs do not, as a rule, think of autistics as cute; also, there is a positive, though archaic, quality that might perhaps be cherished if it were felt to be something important the rest of them have lost.

I do not know who started it but from what I can see it has become a the most common symbol for Autism. While it might be logical in that we do not know a lot more then we know about autism emotionally it does not feel good at all to to have that as a the symbol for a large part of who I am. How NT of me