hi our culture is plagued by stereotypes
which I’m sure most of you can agree can
have some of the most detrimental
impacts on people’s behaviors most
specifically stereotypes surrounding
disabilities such as autism spectrum
disorder can be especially harmful as
autism is the most as autism is the most
common and fastest-growing developmental
disability in the United States and
although it only affects point four
seven percent of students its prevalence
has increased by two hundred and eighty
nine point five percent over the past
ten years autism has become such an
integral aspect in our society but the
misconceptions surrounding it are
preventing it from being accepted and
understood considering that most of the
information the public knows about
autism is from misrepresentations in
books and films it is imperative that
these projections are questioned and
scrutinized so we are better able to
recognize and accept the autistic
community especially since these
representations in the media have
attributed to the harmful disparity
surrounding what most people assume what
autism is like in the reality of what
autism is like gain a deeper
understanding of autism would increase
chances of an early diagnosis and
support lower instances of bullying and
improve employment prospects
now the autism Research Institute stated
that the five main myths surrounding
autism are that one autistic individuals
never make eye contact to autistic
individuals are unable to verbally
communicate 3 they are unable to show
they aren’t so and respond to affection
for they do not smile and 5 they’re not
receptive to cues from other individuals
however each autistic individual is
unique and as different challenges and
behaviors in fact oftentimes autistic
individuals have very heightened senses
and emotions but are unable to interpret
them so when people assume that some of
these myths are true such as that are
stick individuals are unable to verbally
communicate or feel empathy it hinders
the kind of opportunities that they able
to receive only 14% of adults with
autism have jobs due to the negative
connotations that come with it do the
negative connotations that come with it
stereotypes affect everyone not just the
autistic individuals or the family
members of autistic individuals
psychologists doubt reshma explains that
there are two main stereotypes when it
comes to autism the first being the
scholarly type accompanying mine
exceptional and spectacular mind like
Einstein the other perhaps were
stereotype is the in a sense we’re all
autistic type that suggests that autism
is more a personality behavior or not
even a disorder at all
wealth is both completely misrepresent
autism they do so in different ways
however both of them complicate the
efforts for people to recognize the
intricacy of autism once again each
autistic individual is different and
when people make assumptions about them
it is harmful to each autistic
individual so how do we prevent this
type of discrimination in the autistic
community unfortunately the hard truth
is that the majority of people feel
uncomfortable around people that they
don’t understand because they don’t know
how to treat or handle them and without
meaning to people can isolate these
people and treat them differently people
act upon their preconceptions and assume
their stereotypes are true when the fact
is that each autistic individual has a
unique form of their disorder when
dealing with something that we have no
personal experience with then it’s
easier to prejudge it dismiss it
entirely or categorize it as something
negative and it takes concerted effort
to get over those barriers no autistic
person has the same issues or abilities
so when these stereotypes try to fit all
these millions of completely unique
individuals into two categories it only
makes situations tougher for them people
don’t even realize that if they just
tried to understand autism and the
autistic community they could learn so
much from them they’d be able to
perceive the world from different points
of view for example one of my favorite
books of all time the bestseller the
Curious Incident of the dog in the
night-time by Mark Haddon
bro tres the point of view of an
autistic boy I see struggles to find his
role in the world throughout the book he
tries to become more independent from
his father and fixates on solving the
murder of his neighbor’s dog
unfortunately because of his autism
everyone assumed that he had committed
the crime because he was considered
different so it was easier for them to
assume that he had done it in reality he
was actually quite fond of the dog and
in the end he proved that he didn’t do
it
this book was especially insightful
because people learned about what it
might actually be like to be autistic
and not people’s perceptions of autism
can actually harm the autistic
individual this book was personally eye
opening for me because my older brother
is on the autism spectrum as well he has
a specific combination of various
autistic traits such as inappropriate
social interactions obsessions with
specific topics an inability to
understand social emotional issues or
non little or phrases my brother loves
video games more than he loves me and
that’s just a fact
he is inappropriate and rude and loud
he’s almost never affectionate or nice
to me and he constantly gets frustrated
at me for everything but the toughest
part about his autism is that my brother
is ashamed to tell people he has it
because he’s afraid that they will make
assumptions about him and call him
retarded my brother can understand that
there are stereotypes that he might fall
into for being autistic but he can’t
even comprehend that it’s common
courtesy to remember your own sister’s
birthday doesn’t that tell you how
impactful these stereotypes can be I
believe that not only is an imperative
for our society to look past these
stereotypes but it is imperative for the
people to become to interact with and
become more accepting of the autistic
people it is humanity’s duty to try to
better accept and understand the people
in it because that is how we grow it has
been really difficult for me to go up
with a brother who doesn’t necessarily
care about me
and has difficulty functioning like
other people but I couldn’t imagine my
life without him my brother has brought
me serendipity because I got to go with
a brother who is unique and
extraordinary and
taught me how to become more tolerant
and open-minded my brother has passions
and aspirations he can be unbearably
frustrating but I don’t know who I’d be
without him I learned so much just
overcoming some of the many difficulties
that come with an autistic sibling
autistic people have so much to say but
people aren’t really listening
stereotypes hurt so please if you
learned anything from this talk is that
you should be more open be more open and
try to understand thank you [Applause]
which I’m sure most of you can agree can
have some of the most detrimental
impacts on people’s behaviors most
specifically stereotypes surrounding
disabilities such as autism spectrum
disorder can be especially harmful as
autism is the most as autism is the most
common and fastest-growing developmental
disability in the United States and
although it only affects point four
seven percent of students its prevalence
has increased by two hundred and eighty
nine point five percent over the past
ten years autism has become such an
integral aspect in our society but the
misconceptions surrounding it are
preventing it from being accepted and
understood considering that most of the
information the public knows about
autism is from misrepresentations in
books and films it is imperative that
these projections are questioned and
scrutinized so we are better able to
recognize and accept the autistic
community especially since these
representations in the media have
attributed to the harmful disparity
surrounding what most people assume what
autism is like in the reality of what
autism is like gain a deeper
understanding of autism would increase
chances of an early diagnosis and
support lower instances of bullying and
improve employment prospects
now the autism Research Institute stated
that the five main myths surrounding
autism are that one autistic individuals
never make eye contact to autistic
individuals are unable to verbally
communicate 3 they are unable to show
they aren’t so and respond to affection
for they do not smile and 5 they’re not
receptive to cues from other individuals
however each autistic individual is
unique and as different challenges and
behaviors in fact oftentimes autistic
individuals have very heightened senses
and emotions but are unable to interpret
them so when people assume that some of
these myths are true such as that are
stick individuals are unable to verbally
communicate or feel empathy it hinders
the kind of opportunities that they able
to receive only 14% of adults with
autism have jobs due to the negative
connotations that come with it do the
negative connotations that come with it
stereotypes affect everyone not just the
autistic individuals or the family
members of autistic individuals
psychologists doubt reshma explains that
there are two main stereotypes when it
comes to autism the first being the
scholarly type accompanying mine
exceptional and spectacular mind like
Einstein the other perhaps were
stereotype is the in a sense we’re all
autistic type that suggests that autism
is more a personality behavior or not
even a disorder at all
wealth is both completely misrepresent
autism they do so in different ways
however both of them complicate the
efforts for people to recognize the
intricacy of autism once again each
autistic individual is different and
when people make assumptions about them
it is harmful to each autistic
individual so how do we prevent this
type of discrimination in the autistic
community unfortunately the hard truth
is that the majority of people feel
uncomfortable around people that they
don’t understand because they don’t know
how to treat or handle them and without
meaning to people can isolate these
people and treat them differently people
act upon their preconceptions and assume
their stereotypes are true when the fact
is that each autistic individual has a
unique form of their disorder when
dealing with something that we have no
personal experience with then it’s
easier to prejudge it dismiss it
entirely or categorize it as something
negative and it takes concerted effort
to get over those barriers no autistic
person has the same issues or abilities
so when these stereotypes try to fit all
these millions of completely unique
individuals into two categories it only
makes situations tougher for them people
don’t even realize that if they just
tried to understand autism and the
autistic community they could learn so
much from them they’d be able to
perceive the world from different points
of view for example one of my favorite
books of all time the bestseller the
Curious Incident of the dog in the
night-time by Mark Haddon
bro tres the point of view of an
autistic boy I see struggles to find his
role in the world throughout the book he
tries to become more independent from
his father and fixates on solving the
murder of his neighbor’s dog
unfortunately because of his autism
everyone assumed that he had committed
the crime because he was considered
different so it was easier for them to
assume that he had done it in reality he
was actually quite fond of the dog and
in the end he proved that he didn’t do
it
this book was especially insightful
because people learned about what it
might actually be like to be autistic
and not people’s perceptions of autism
can actually harm the autistic
individual this book was personally eye
opening for me because my older brother
is on the autism spectrum as well he has
a specific combination of various
autistic traits such as inappropriate
social interactions obsessions with
specific topics an inability to
understand social emotional issues or
non little or phrases my brother loves
video games more than he loves me and
that’s just a fact
he is inappropriate and rude and loud
he’s almost never affectionate or nice
to me and he constantly gets frustrated
at me for everything but the toughest
part about his autism is that my brother
is ashamed to tell people he has it
because he’s afraid that they will make
assumptions about him and call him
retarded my brother can understand that
there are stereotypes that he might fall
into for being autistic but he can’t
even comprehend that it’s common
courtesy to remember your own sister’s
birthday doesn’t that tell you how
impactful these stereotypes can be I
believe that not only is an imperative
for our society to look past these
stereotypes but it is imperative for the
people to become to interact with and
become more accepting of the autistic
people it is humanity’s duty to try to
better accept and understand the people
in it because that is how we grow it has
been really difficult for me to go up
with a brother who doesn’t necessarily
care about me
and has difficulty functioning like
other people but I couldn’t imagine my
life without him my brother has brought
me serendipity because I got to go with
a brother who is unique and
extraordinary and
taught me how to become more tolerant
and open-minded my brother has passions
and aspirations he can be unbearably
frustrating but I don’t know who I’d be
without him I learned so much just
overcoming some of the many difficulties
that come with an autistic sibling
autistic people have so much to say but
people aren’t really listening
stereotypes hurt so please if you
learned anything from this talk is that
you should be more open be more open and
try to understand thank you [Applause]
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