Mum outraged autism being referred to as an acquired taste

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Author and self-described comedian, Kathy Lette wrote an opinion piece on Thursday in which she shared that her son, Julius, 29 and her friend, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, both have autism.

“Autistic people are the garlic in life’s salad, and therefore not to everyone’s taste. But how dull life would be without them – a case of the bland leading the bland,” she writes.

As a mother of an autistic person, (my son, Teddy, who is 7) I understand what Lette was trying to express.

My son has made my life infinitely richer and deeper because he is in it. I too, am delighted by him and grateful he’s not “bland”.

But to compare autistic people as a whole to “garlic” is offensive. Here’s why.

Autistic people do not exist to add flavour to society any more than people who use wheelchairs add spice.

Such language is othering, and seems to suggest that people on the spectrum can be fun additions, like Rainman (Dustin Hoffman) in his cute grey suit counting cards at Las Vegas.

My autistic son is not flavoursome - he's human