There is a phrase that goes around the internet that says, “Autistic people are different, not less.” I never understood what this phrase meant until I stopped and thought about it. There is actually quite a lot of deep insight behind this phrase that many people (including me!) do or did not understand.
What is ‘different’?
‘Different’ is commonly used to describe being autistic. It means that a person might:
- have unusual strengths or uncommon interests in comparison to other people
- find doing things that other people consider ‘normal’ and “straightforward” things very hard
- think about a situation in a different way to most people
