Since World Autism Day (April 2nd) is quickly approaching, I found it appropriate that i talk a little bit about autism in terms in human dignity. Did you know that about 1 out of ever 110 kids has autism? According to, Autism Speaks, autism is more common that childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined. Austin is a broad term typically used to describe a variety of disorders formally known as Autism Spectrum Disorders. Some of the disorders grouped into this category include Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified), Asperger's Syndrome, Rett Syndrome, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, there is a variety of characteristic that children with autism may have, some of which including impaired social interaction, inability to respond to their name or make eye contact with others, engaging in repetitive movements such as rocking or twirling, and many more. I found this video called 10 Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew and it speaks a little to how dignity can be linked to autism.
The part of the video that really hit me, especially in terms of dignity, was the beginning. So many children with autism are labeled "autistic." More importantly, the video also raises the question, "are you a person with thoughts, feelings, and many talents?" More often than not individuals with mental illnesses are defined by those mental illnesses and not by the unique personality characteristics that make that individual a person. People with other illnesses such as diabetes are typically not identified just for having diabetes, so why is someone with autism typically identified for having autism? Not recognizing someone for being a person is essentially stripping away their dignity. This kind of goes along with Kateb who, I believe, would say no one should feel as if he or she is any more or any less a person than he or she really is. We need stop judging people for being different and instead embrace and value people for their differences, especially if that difference is a mental illness.
Thank you for this. Although awareness has definitely been raised in recent years, autism still remains a 'gray' area for most. I think videos like the one you posted are important for communities as a whole to see.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Steph, it was a very powerful video that I think shows that we need to look at the individual, not at the mental illness. The example that you presented about a patient with diabetes not being defined by their illness highlights that medical conditions are treated differently than mental illnesses.
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