How Do We see Autistic People in Our Daily Lives?
By Ahmad Amirali
Sunday is the day of relaxation for many people, including myself. So, I had nothing to do except surfing the internet this Sunday, and there I found a topic for this article. I was surfing randomly on websites where I found an interesting article on Autism. It was full of information and recent researches, and I found it fascinating. But after reading it, a random thought struck my mind, and I wrote ‘Autistic people’ in the google search panel. In Images, the very first picture I saw was Donald Trump (I laughed out loud). However, the very thing that made me question people awareness about this disease was the picture of a devil or a demon, and then I just scrolled down and found funny pictures about autism and autistic people. This made me wonder How we see Autism and Autistic children in our daily lives?
Generally, people tend to establish an opinion about autism with really specific ‘check-box’ descriptions. For example, autistic people are nonverbal, autistic people always like Math and science and nothing else, autistic people do not feel emotions, or they don’t know how to reciprocate empathy or love. However, the real picture is far more different than these ‘STEREOTYPICAL MYTHS’. I know many kids with autism who love being creative like drawing and painting (I mean serious painting), poetry, pottery etc. Long story short, many autistic people consider autism as an ability rather than a disability.
One of the things people of autism are good at it is ‘Imagination’. Yes, unlike people without autism, autistic people have a world of their own in their mind. They don’t have the urge to do anything. Instead, they find the way whatever they want to do and get on with it. Simply, the term ‘thinking out of the box’ can be fit perfectly for them. Sometimes, too much imagination creates problems for them, and there they needed assistance. Does it mean that autistic people are normal or other than normal? Before answering that question, let me ask you one more question ‘What the definition of ‘Being Normal’ is to you? Being a teacher and a ‘Normal’ human being, I consider autistic people as normal, in-fact, extraordinary normal than most of the human’s I know personally.
Rosie King, a 16-year-old bold and brash girl, is one of the autistics and very much normal person who share the same issue which I discussed above. She believes that people are so afraid of variety that they try to fit everything into a tiny little box with a specific label. She wants to know: Why is everyone so worried about being normal? She sounds a clarion call for every kid, parent, teacher and person to celebrate uniqueness. It’s a soaring testament to the potential of human diversity.
Let’s explore her TED talk and try to understand what she tries to convey to the world of ‘Normality.’