I’ve seen lots of posts with quotes about autism, but not many have lists with quotes exclusively from people on the spectrum. Below is a list of some of the quotes I’ve found about autism said or written by people on the spectrum.
“What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool? You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.”
“English is my second language. Autism is my first.”
“Our duty in autism is not to cure but to relieve suffering and to maximize each person’s potential.”
“Autism is a way of being. It is not possible to separate the person from the autism. Therefore, when parents say, ‘I wish my child did not have autism,’ what they’re really saying is, ‘I wish the autistic child I have did not exist, and I had a different (non-autistic) child instead.’ Read that again. This is what we hear when you mourn over our existence. This is what we hear when you pray for a cure. 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.”
-Jim Sinclair (from the Autism Network International Newsletter, 1993)
“What I myself and others who have benefited from inclusion have gained is more self-determination and a confidence boost with being included in the classroom, campus, and community.”
“Clearly explain to us the way the world actually works, as well as how people pretend it works.”
“My advice to any young person with autism growing up is to know that you don’t need a lot of friends, you need people who accept you for you and all the dumb stuff you will do learning and growing.”
“I often hear people say ‘oh I do that too!’ when I describe how my Asperger’s affects me. I think they don’t realise they’re trivialising the things that really affect us. My inability to do more than one thing at once is often described- humorously- as ‘a man habit.’ And my response is usually ‘…yeah, let’s go with that. Let’s pretend that it’s not literally a development disorder.’
(Although if it’s not malicious, we should be quick to forgive. After all, what should they think they’re supposed to do? Remind us of how isolated and lonely we are?)”
“With regards to my identity, I see myself as a part of humanity, so therefore I am a person first – personally, my autism affects my visual and auditory perception, language processing, cognitive processing, learning difficulties, etc, but these are PART of me, not the totality of my BEING.”
“Without question, one of the most important sexuality issues people on the spectrum face is neurotypical people (parents, therapists, professionals) believing that we don’t have sex and/or are not interested in sex. There is a persistent narrative that categorizes individuals with disabilities as being either completely asexual (that is, not interested in any sexual activity) or hypersexual (sexually promiscuous, deviant, out of control), and both of these are extremely damaging.”
“I think the best thing parents can do is to help their child understand their strengths and challenges, what they can do when they meet a challenge, and to engage in successful self-advocacy.”
“Do not ignore your child’s symptoms. If she cannot stand certain fabrics, stop forcing her to wear them because you like how they look. Stop trying to make them “normal.” It will never, ever happen, and they grow up feeling like less of a person and feeling like they can never be accepted because even their own parents won’t accept them.”
“When a doctor or another person refers to me as being on the ‘high-functioning’ end of the spectrum, that doesn’t really make sense to me. Does that mean that I’m almost ‘normal?’ What pops into my head is ‘There’s Ben, he’s that dot right there!’ Like they’re graphing the whole thing. I don’t really understand what they are basing their decision on. What is normal? Do people think it is a compliment to be considered ‘high-functioning’?”
“Autism is a part of me, and it always will be.”
-Lydia Wayman
“I have unique gifts because of my autism that I would not have without it.”
-Angela Andrews
“Don’t be afraid to be unusual because the skills unusual people have are often highly sought after.”