Autistic Artist

Single Attention!

I had an excellent conversation yesterday with Branson, my honorary brother. Branson knows about autism and has worked with disabled adults.

So when describing a recent perseveration of mine, Branson said "Have you ever noticed that when a neurotypical does it it's called "persevering," but when a autistic person does it, it's called "perseveration?"

Rory Hoy talks a little about autistic perserverations in his short award winning film, Autism and Me.

I just loved it.

And here's a newspaper article about Rory and his film.

Are They Even Human?

Here is a further twist to the Du'a Khalil Aswad story. Cao has pointed out that Du'a Khalil Aswad was Yazidi, and the Yazidis were labled by Saddam Hussein as “Devil Worshippers.” Thus the Yazidis are themselves seen as evil. Quit a lot to think about, isn't it?

Are Women Even Human?

I wanted to link to Joss Whedon's moving manifesto because it's important. But then I thought that maybe this discussion didn't fit here because it's not directly about autism. But then I realized it concerned the same issue as my earlier post Are Autistics Even Human?

Logic and the Average Aspie

I very much enjoyed reading Bev's post: Logically Speaking. Bev reports she had some trouble in her philosophy class despite her logical leanings.

Are Autistics Even Human?

When I was getting my degree in Anthropology one of the first things we learned about war was that it was much easier to kill people if you dehumanize them first. So, for example, comic books of the World War II era depicted Japanese individuals as inhuman monsters.

Today, it is politically incorrect in the USA to dehumanize those of a different race. However, there are those who claim that autistics are not really seen as human, even within the medical community. This sort of dehumanization would be unacceptable if it were applied to virtually any other group in our society.

I found an interesting blog called Autism Demonized which chronicles such dehumanization and its consequences for autistic people.

Todd's Visit

Todd Jacobs made a presentation regarding autism service dogs last week at the U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. He visited Sacramento with his friend Pamela (photo at left) and service dog Glindy (photo below left). My husband and I were the lucky ones to escort them, including taking them out to dinner. I very much enjoyed their company and speaking with Todd and Pamela.

What interested me most, personally, was when Todd mentioned to me that with his dog he was able to go out socially, shopping with his loved ones for half a day. To me that would be a major accomplishment. Like Todd, an hour or two in such an environment is so taxing that I’d be exhausted the rest of the day. In fact, were I to go to another town to make a presentation such as Todd’s, I’d be so tired, I’d have to rest an entire week afterward! But Todd said that his dog provides feedback and a focus that greatly reduces the over-stimulation.

See my review of Todd's presentation at my dog blog.