Guest | Neurodiversity

Author Archive

Imagine, just as an exercise, that beyond the one percent of the population diagnosable with autism, there is another four percent whose cognitive style is describable under the less rigorous category of the Broad Autism Phenotype, or BAP—a total of five percent for whom an autistic experience of the world is the norm. Again just as an exercise, imagine the weight that norm would carry if the total autistic population were ten percent (roughly that of gays and lesbians). Imagine it again at twenty percent, and then forty—still a minority, but a sizable one, and one that can begin to rival the remaining sixty percent as “the” defining neurology for the population. Imagine it at fifty, and then sixty—at what point might the diagnosed autistics mysteriously become more “able,” living in a world where the social and environmental standards were increasingly defined by their own phenotype? Imagine the world they’d be living in were their numbers to combine with the B...[Read More]

Mark Stairwalt on 09/3/10 | 2 Comments | Read More

On Puzzles, Privilege, and Missing Pronouns

When I read blogs by the parents of autistic children, I often happen across the puzzle metaphor. It finds its way into statements such as “My autistic daughter is such a puzzle” or “We’re s...[Read More]

Guest on 08/27/10 | No Comments | Read More

My Children Want You To Know

My children want you to know that being of few words does not mean being of little intelligence. My children want you to know that being socially awkward doesn't mean they cannot be wonderful, kind...[Read More]

Guest on 08/19/10 | 1 Comment | Read More

Am I More Than My Autism? I Refuse to Answer the Question

In the past week, I’ve read two articles in which mothers of autistic children wrote that their children are “more than their autism.” Something about this assertion has been bothering me, and...[Read More]

Guest on 08/17/10 | 3 Comments | Read More

Be the Change: How to Shift Autism into the Mainstream

I have a neighbour who can’t say "autism." Both of us having two young kids, we had a casual chat on the lawn the other day as neighbours often do, about the usual stuff. Except of course, the ...[Read More]

Guest on 08/12/10 | 7 Comments | Read More

Disabilism and the Demonization of Autistic Children

This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces. ...[Read More]

Guest on 08/6/10 | No Comments | Read More

Embracing the Social Model of Disability

In my last article for The Commons, I wrote about the distance I often feel from the non-autistic world, saying “[I]f you are a typically abled person, we live worlds apart. You see, I am auti...[Read More]

Guest on 07/22/10 | No Comments | Read More

No More Disorders: Debriefing from DSM Diagnoses

Over the past few months, I’ve found myself moving further and further away from the mental health profession and its view of the world. It’s always difficult to know how these things begin, esp...[Read More]

Guest on 07/12/10 | 1 Comment | Read More

Theorem of Compassion

The old trope that autistic people are so withdrawn that they cannot connect to the world, and thus they are inherently selfish and disconnected from people ... they cannot empathize with people ... t...[Read More]

Guest on 06/28/10 | No Comments | Read More

A Changeling’s Alternate Reality Story

A tale of becoming, in others' eyes, something not quite human... You ought to have known better than to walk out of your house, late at night on Halloween, while dark wisps of cloud were briskly blo...[Read More]

Guest on 05/3/10 | No Comments | Read More

Passing For Neurotypical

Officially, we don't exist. The hordes of psychological "experts" who regularly comment on the supposed near-impossibility of productive, independent lives and successful marriag...[Read More]

Guest on 04/23/10 | 2 Comments | Read More

Social Anxiety and Autism

I am aware I have a subtly different style of communication and can see how it contributes to social anxiety. I tend to stare at the floor and listen. This way, I can usually get the context of a ...[Read More]

Guest on 04/22/10 | 2 Comments | Read More

The Road Less Travelled

We all know them, there is a certain tribe amongst us neuro diverse people who speak of cure and curse what they might have been but for the 'demon' of autism that possesses them. They tend to be r...[Read More]

Guest on 04/19/10 | No Comments | Read More

Tips For Socially Awkward Geeks (According to Stanford)

Or perhaps more accurately, according to a certain student at Stanford. Wait, shoot! I broke the rules! Philip Guo has a write-up of rules for the successful social interaction of geeks. Real...[Read More]

Guest on 04/14/10 | No Comments | Read More

Mark Ty-Wharton Speaks

You might not expect an adult diagnosed with autism to be a public speaker, especially an adult with a long history of social anxiety, who gets caught out by the occasional bout of depression. And wh...[Read More]

Guest on 04/12/10 | No Comments | Read More

A Tale of Two Rivers

The following is an informal continuation of Laurence Arnold's musings on autism as geography, featured recently in this space under the title Rainbows End. I suppose I ought to comment on the curr...[Read More]

Guest on 03/25/10 | No Comments | Read More

I Am ——— . . . Who Are You?

I am told I am "sick," that I am "disabled," that I am "abnormal" and that a cure is being searched for for my "condition" and others who suffer from it. So I ponder and back I trace to when I coul...[Read More]

Guest on 03/24/10 | No Comments | Read More

Rainbows End (a landscape model of autism)

I am not a scientist; indeed like Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain I only recently discovered that I have been a Whorfian [1] relativist all my life. I am in a sense a consumer of numerous scientific and...[Read More]

Guest on 03/22/10 | No Comments | Read More

Melting Down an Autism Stereotype

[caption id="attachment_1580" align="alignleft" width="315" caption="Three Mile Island nuclear plant"][/caption] By now, I expect we've all seen plenty of articles, books, and other media depicting...[Read More]

Guest on 03/18/10 | 2 Comments | Read More

Ghost Dance

The Native American tribes of the Northern Plains, forced onto reservations and near starving in 1890, were drawn in large numbers to a new religion called the Ghost Dance. Led by the shaman Wovoka, t...[Read More]

Guest on 01/25/10 | No Comments | Read More

Autism, Mysticism, and the Natural Self

There is a common phrase that “there is a fine line between genius and insanity.” I think that line is just the lines imposed by the extreme sensitivity of unorthodox people. Specifically, I a...[Read More]

Guest on 01/20/10 | 3 Comments | Read More

About Shift Journal

Autism has been here all along.

Considered as an evolutionary condition with far-reaching social implications, its full presence and impact remain hidden in plain sight, unrecognized and uncredited.

Part neurological mystery, part social construct, and part secret society unbeknownst even to its own members, autism does not lend itself to explanation by those who hold it apart from society, from themselves, or from consciousness itself. Definitions are revised, overhauled, and abandoned all while efforts to explore and examine this condition on its own terms are only now gaining momentum.

Shift Journal aims to showcase and encourage such efforts. Entertaining the notion of autistic as a legitimate way to be in the world, from the crossroads of theory, society, and personal experience, Shift welcomes relevant contributions from all comers.

Mark Stairwalt

Editor and Publisher

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New or established writers wishing to contribute original or previously published posts may use the submissions page or contact us directly.

Autism Speaking

Who Speaks For Who?
“There is a lot of talk in the autism “communities” about who has the right to speak for autistic people. What this usually means is something more like who has the right to speak up for autistic people.” ~ Bev … Continue reading → […]

The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism

Autism, An Equal Opportunity Disorder
Frances Vega-Costaswww.viviendoenotradimension.comdimensionautismo.blogspot.comAutism is a very complicated disorder and not only affects each individual differently, it strikes anywhere in the world. Never in my life would I imagine that I would be a special education advocate nor that would I use the “A” word almost on a daily basis. Almost ten years ago t […]

Journeys with Autism

Left Brain / Right Brain

Damages awarded in the Poling case?
A document has recently been posted the Court of Federal Claims website, describing an award in a vaccine injury case. The document is redacted, but the following paragraph indicates to me that this involves the case of Hannah Poling: Respondent has conceded that petitioners are entitled to compensation due to the significant aggravation of Child’s [...] […]

Countering…

Neurodiversity – The Book

Review of Neurodiversity in Publisher's Weekly
The following review of my book Neurodiversity appeared in the April 26, 2010 edition of Publisher's Weekly: Neurodiversity: Discovering the Extraordinary Gifts of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Brain Differences Thomas Armstrong. Da Capo, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7382-1354-5 "Armstrong (7 Kinds of Smart), an educational consultant turned author, a […]

Neurodiversity.com

OSR: Off The Market [11]
The following message attributed to Boyd Haley, addressed to wholesale distributors of OSR, and posted to several autism discussion lists, reveals that Prof. Haley has elected not to challenge FDA’s June 17, 2010 determination that OSR is a drug subject to the same regulations for premarket approval as any other drug sold in the United States, and that CTI S […]

Incorrect Pleasures

Edward Heath and Asperger syndrome
Below is the text of an entry for my enormous list of famous autistic or possibly autistic people that I am going to add some time, whenever I find the time. What do you think? Any errors?Sir Edward “Ted” Heath KG MBE (1916-2005) former Conservative Prime Minister of the UK from 1970 to 1974, leader of the Conservative Party from 1965-1975, Deputy Chief Whip […]

Action for Autism

MMR Settlement - too little, too late
Justice delayed is justice denied and for Robert Fletcher justice was denied for over seventeen years. He was 13 months old when he received his MMR vaccination. Ten days later he had a severe convulsion and went on to develop epilepsy and severe developmental delay. His mother, Jackie Fletcher told the Daily Mail, ‘Robert is [...] […]

Neurodiversity