Wired Magazine is running a feature on Amanda Baggs, author of the Ballastexistenz blog. Amanda has autism and, through her writings and short videos, is working to change popular perceptions of people like herself. Here’s how Amanda sums up the message she hopes to spread:
We’re here. We’re weird. Get used to it.
The article goes on to suggest that our current view of autism as a disease might one day seem as misguided as the scientific community’s historical classification of homosexuality as a mental illness.
Without the Internet, Amanda would never have been able to spread that message and gain the attention of researchers and journalists. The disability activists of past decades could only dream of having that kind of metaphorical loudspeaker. Twenty years from now, someone should write a book about digital culture and its influence on the disability rights movement.
