Please don't shoot the messenger - I'm on your side!
I'm sorry I didn't read between the lines and work out that you've tried to get published. It would make sense that you had. I'm really sorry that it's a closed shop, too - that's wrong, and something should be done about it. Why should your knowledge and expertise be any less valid than anyone else's?
I think something we have to our advantage is an innate knowledge of how we "tick" (even if it is only on an individual basis) and a good dollop of common sense. I wish others had the same. I know it's a different topic but I despair of architects, sometimes - a friend of mine calls them "architwits" and I know why...
I've just had a plan to look at which clearly shows I could do their job with a little bit of training - I've got the intelligence.
They've shown a wheelchair user on this plan for some flats, but there's no way on earth that they could get into the bathroom - the sink is in the way of the lavatory. These people are paid loadsamoney. I think a change of career beckons...
Helen
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Arnold [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 24 June 2008 18:02
To: Bryant, Helen; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: new book - Representing Autism
Part of the oppression involves the publishers, that is to say if one were to study the literature
put out by autistic authors, we are confined to genre literature, that is the self narratting zoo
exhibit, or the author of social or other similar survival guides which are in part about denial of
ones authentic right to be autistic.
The fact that one needs to be an outsider to have the credentials for credibility (yes one is not
accredited if one is the thing itself) in order to have a valid opinion about it.
Do you think I have not tried to publish?
The only way for me is self publication and relative obscurity as was the case with my answer to the
cultural phenomenon of Autism as a DVD, which was out there before Nadesan and Grinker and present
company.
If there is one train going to your destination and the seats are all taken by those who call
themselves your allies, they are still taking your seats.
As yet there is only one train, there is not that multiplicity where the inauthentic academic
colonist can be a co-traveller without interfering in our right to travel. When the railway has
expanded, then you may join, but make sure you do so with the right ticket even then.
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bryant, Helen
> Sent: 24 June 2008 11:23
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: new book - Representing Autism
>
> Maybe you should write one yourself, then? I'm sure you're
> sick of people just thinking "Rain Man" or
> piano-playing/artistic/mathematical - pick your "savant" -
> geniuses (genii?!) when anyone ever says "autism". The only
> way to change things is to do something. Not everyone is as
> articulate as you are, so they may not think to do it, or
> even be able. You write compellingly, and I'm sure it'd be
> of interest to a much wider community than just us disabled
> types or "experts". I agree with you about "nothing about us
> without us", and I had the same thought about people
> representing people with my own disability, who don't have as
> much knowledge as someone who actually has the condition.
> Parents do know a lot, and they experience a lot because of
> their child, but they can never know what it's like to be me,
> hour by hour.
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