I AM autistic but I HAVE immune deficiencies, I HAD cancer (apparently I can’t actually un-have it, its called remission) , I HAVE Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome… I also HAVE visual perceptual disorders, I HAVE language processing disorder, I HAVE mild learning disabilities.

I do not feel I AM these things, they are not ME, they walk alongside of me, often as parts of my autism, and whilst I AM autistic, just as I AM immune deficient, and I AM mildly learning disabled, Autism is not the sum total of who I am, it does not define my entire being or personhood, even if my personality traits are achetypally relatively ‘autistic’, I remain a person WITH autism… someone who HAS autism and, ok, IS autistic. The rest is war mongering militant separatist fascist crudola

– says Groucho
“PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER”. Read the rest of this entry »

  At the age of 25 I scored just under 70 on an IQ test.  That’s in the mildly mentally retarded range.  But by then I already spoke 4 languages, could scan volumes of books, play instruments, and could recite back long auditory strings outside of the ability of most humans.

I also already had an honors degree in Sociology, a degree in Linguistics.  So how could I score so low? Read the rest of this entry »

Paul Swann is a Commissioning & Planning Officer with Department of Adult Social Care at Wrexham County Borough Council in Wales, UK. In the run up to an evening lecture I’m doing in Wrexham on Tuesday 9th Sept 2008, I offered Paul to set me 5 questions for an email interview. He did a wonderful job, setting in depth questions as good as any of the 100 or so journalists who’ve interviewed me over the last 20 years. Here’s out interview: Read the rest of this entry »