the definition of autistic then we can
come to see it as a spectrum and we have
a spectrum of people but we are not
fussing about and we need to be because
these people are the mole hills that
should be mountains in society I didn’t
make a fuss I was not fussed about and I
suffered but I did not and do not suffer
from being autistic I suffered from the
ignorance of others I suffered from
anxieties I suffered from depression I
suffered from being unrecognized
underutilized unfulfilled and
conventional now in school I was a bit
of a doodler my experience dueling was
one of those things with told people you
weren’t listening it probably wasn’t
uncommon to hear something like stop
doodling pay a tent but if we can pay
attention to what something seemingly
trivial can offer us because the skills
foundation for do link and openness to
new worlds like comic books graphic
design architecture admittedly my life
took a very different paths but this is
not about me this is about working with
what you’ve got what I call imagining
multiple dimensions this is about the
unrecognized underutilized unfulfilled
unconventional people of the future I
presented here as a speaker to speak
about these people as one of these
people but speaking only goes so far and
that’s why I want to
do I want to do things about these
people with these people when I want us
to do something right now I want us to
make a fuss just have a good old fuss
because we fussed about so many other
things we fuss about customer service we
fussed about the weather we fuss about
our loved ones we’re now health is
concerned we fuss about that 12 doctors
indeed we need to fuss in the context of
education because if we see unusual
behavior or a bruise and we don’t fuss
we may be allowing abuse to continue
fussing does not discriminate fussing
unites us and I believe there is a
prominent link to most if not all
fussing we fuss because we want what we
think we deserve rightly or wrongly we
fast because we want what we think we
deserve better pay better environment
better working conditions better
neighbors just generally better lives
but this brings me to my second question
which is what does better mean because
i’m not sure i want better to mean
inclusion out of sympathy or fitting
into a neurotypical normalized template
of success because if we’re inspiring
generations we don’t need clones we need
to imagine multiple dimensions of
success I want to tell you a short story
now because in the process of gathering
notes and experience for this talk I met
a local family including my autistic son
now nursery comes along for their son
and like any nursery should for anyone
in my view they wanted to improve his
reading capacities
fine but for why they wanted to connect
with him was ineffective those that
symbolized education in his world were
not making connections with him but that
did not mean that he was not making
connections with the world you see he
loved trains and whilst his family could
have easily dismissed fist love as a
distraction from the core curriculum of
life they chose to take it from his
world utilize it and maximize it and
created the engine ABC at the engine ABC
was an organic alphabet book co-produced
with their son where every letter of
that alphabet correlated to a train
reference they personalized the activity
and he thrived because of it he made
significant advances in his reading
capacities but the journey didn’t end
there you see we can go further if we
take the red signal green signal system
often seen in the world of trains we can
now use it as a way to navigate social
complexities is that appropriate to
leave or stay in assembly where a signal
would be no you need to stay where you
are green signal would be yes you can go
it’s also a communication system if you
need to go then you can silently maybe
she’ll a card it has forensic nor green
signal to indicate how he’s feeling and
it also can ensure road safety so okay
to you cross the road at signal no green
signal yes but if we further that
dimension of function we can also use it
as an emotional register how are you
lets it be known that this is just a
mere snippet of a much broader picture
if I feel that it demonstrates that if
we imagine multiple dimensions of
communication of success of function of
our very identities and we can be
anything but trivial and it ties in with
what my friend Jack Whitfield said speed
illustrator from Cornwall when I asked
about the relationship between art and
his autistic identity he said that when
we can streamline something beautiful we
can then really appreciate the
individual beautiful path of something
and therefore make more sense of it I
returned to an earlier fort we fuss
because we want what we think we deserve
and now my final question what do
artistic people deserve I believe that
they deserve to be appreciated for their
individual beautiful parts but also
meaningfully integrated as a whole and
that is why we should make mountains out
of molehills because autistic people are
worth fussing about [Applause]