Press space, or use the arrow keys to go through the images. (Or click/tap if you're on mobile.) -------------------------------------------------- This is a really important message that I want to share: Autism is not a joke or an insult. Calling something/someone autistic has very similar issues to calling things “gay” (in a derogatory way). Being gay is not an insult, and being autistic is also not an insult. Autism is not a negative thing, it’s neutral. Using the word “autistic” as a derogatory term is extremely offensive, rude, hurtful, and ableist. I’ve heard lots of people share their experiences of people joking about autism, or using it as an insult, and that’s not ok. One personal experience I can share is from when I was about 10 years old, before I was diagnosed or even really knew what autism was. I loved playing Roblox, especially Theme Park Tycoon 2. Because I’m very sensory-seeking when it comes to light and colour, I always made my theme park as bright as possible. It was neon green, pink, and indigo/deep blue, and all the lights in my park were pink because at night they would work kind of like blacklights. (I promise this will all be relevant soon.) Anyway, one time when I was playing, two boys came over to my park and started saying mean things about it. They called it ugly and said that it hurt their eyes (which is understandable, but they also could have just not looked at it and stayed at their own parks). I really liked my park, so that made me upset. I started replying to them and saying that they didn’t have to be there if they didn’t like it. They kept arguing back and it made me very frustrated. Eventually they said, “Why are you so angry? Are you autistic?” I don’t really remember what happened after that, or what I said, I just mostly remember being confused because I had no idea what “autistic” meant. I think I was pretty offended by it, but mostly because I didn’t know what they just called me, all I knew was that it sounded mean and they were trying to insult me. It turns out, they were right. I am autistic, but I now realise there’s nothing wrong with that.
