...Is there is an autistic look?
“I’ve had people say to me, ‘Oh you look fine, Lianne’,” one woman told us.
Another woman added, “I think what they mean is: ‘I have these preconceptions and you’ve just broken them’. But, how it actually comes out is quite stigmatising”.
“Everyone thinks all autistic people don’t speak, are rude and are geniuses - that simply isn’t the case!” one man explained.
Another man told us, “I am rubbish at maths, alright?!”
As one woman observed, “There are some people with Savant Syndrome who have these amazing gifts they’ve been given. But I think a lot of these ‘special abilities’ just come from being very, very interested in something.”
Some autistic people have highly focused interests, so they might know an awful lot about a certain topic - but it won’t necessarily be maths or science.
Saying this does suggest that you might struggle to understand others - but that’s not the same as being on the autistic spectrum.
“We don’t have that instinctive understanding of body language that others have,” one woman explained.
Another woman told us she believes it’s wrong to claim there are only five senses. “There’s a sixth. The ability to understand everybody else’s thought processes,” she suggested. "We don’t have that ability.'”
“I actually believe that autistic people feel too much empathy,” one woman told us.
Another woman told us, “if anything, we feel things harder!”
It’s true that, although people with autism can sometimes struggle to relate to other people, a lot of the time, people with autism can find the world overwhelming and unwelcoming, so it certainly isn’t that they don’t get the feels!
One woman told us, “when I was a kid, I got really badly bullied, and my teachers said to my parents, ‘if she tried to fit in more, she wouldn’t get bullied’,” the clear implication being, 'she brings it on herself because she’s different.'
Yeah, this is just wrong.
All of the people we spoke to unanimously agreed that there were definitely some benefits and they wouldn’t change who they are…
“You want us on your general knowledge team,” one woman said.
“It’s like you’re permanently on a roller-coaster, because you see all these things that other people don’t see,” added another woman.
Another man put it simply by saying, “we have a genuine gift that we can bring to the world.”
We’ll take that. Now you know, people!
Watch the full video: Things Not to say to an autistic person
Want more? Check out more of our Things Not To Say
videos.
An earlier version of this article was published on June 21, 2017