Autist/biography

Abstract

Autism narratives are neurotypical in their need situate neurotypical readers and the importance of autism, but not of autistic people (Yergeau 2010). As autistic people are theorised as arhetorical and inherently unaware of the perspectives of others (Yergeau 2018), we are assumed unable to have or tell our own stories. Instead, the focus is on our "symptoms" and how we affect the lives of those around us. Even our own life writing is read diagnostically, expected to read more like a textbook that happens to be about ourselves (Baggs 2003). Professional audiences do not imagine we would write about what is important to us, as non-autistic people do. What if Autistic auto/biographical writing were read otherwise?