Amanda Baggs "Retarded"

Äskettäin epähenkilökokemus huipentui siihen kun otettiin kännykkä pois!

The words here are from a presentation I gave to staff who work for people with developmental disabilities. It's about the dehumanization inherent in the system they worked in, the results of which they were likely to encounter in the people they worked for. It's drawn from my experiences and the experiences of other self-advocates I have known in the system. The experiences of dehumanization are universal enough that most of them apply far beyond the target audience.

Wired-lehden asintuntija ei uskonut, että Amanda kykenisi puhumattomana tekemään Internetin videonsa, mutta erehtyi. Kuinka vammaiseksi ihminen leimataankaan kommunikaationsa erilaisuden takia! Kuinka ns asiantuntijatkin aliarvioivat ihmistä tehden hänestä epäihmisen.

"I tell her that I asked one of the world's leading authorities on autism to check out the video. The expert's opinion: Baggs must have had outside help creating it, perhaps from one of her caregivers. Her inability to talk, coupled with repetitive behaviors, lack of eye contact, and the need for assistance with everyday tasks are telltale signs of severe autism. Among all autistics, 75 percent are expected to score in the mentally retarded range on standard intelligence tests — that's an IQ of 70 or less.

People like Baggs fall at one end of an array of developmental syndromes known as autism spectrum disorders. The spectrum ranges from someone with severe disability and cognitive impairment to the socially awkward eccentric with Asperger's syndrome.

After I explain the scientist's doubts, Baggs grunts, and her mouth forms just a hint of a smirk as she lets loose a salvo on the keyboard. No one helped her shoot the video, edit it, and upload it to YouTube. She used a Sony Cybershot DSC-T1, a digital camera that can record up to 90 seconds of video (she has since upgraded). She then patched the footage together using the editing programs RAD Video Tools, VirtualDub, and DivXLand Media Subtitler. "My care provider wouldn't even know how to work the software," she says"

http://www.wired.com/print/medtech/health/magazine/16-03/ff_autism