So far the movement has been dominated by people diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and other forms of high-functioning autism (although some prominent self-advocates, such as Amanda Baggs, do not speak and define themselves as “low functioning”).7 Asperger as a formal diagnosis has disappeared from the DSM-5 and is subsumed as the high-functioning end of a new “Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
Jane Meyerding, autism advocate and author of Mapping Charlie, among other books.
Amanda Baggs
On the book notes, Vidal and Ortega write of Amanda Baggs:
Amanda Baggs, who speaks through a voice synthesizer, became one of the best-known autism self-advocates after posting, in January 2007, her video In My Language (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc). There is controversy over whether Baggs is really a person with autism and if she really made the video herself.
You can watch the video below, as well as find a website that further explains the controversy:
Inspired by the homonymous book by Fernando Vidal and Francisco Ortega, this timespace presents the authors' genealogy of the cerebral subject and the influence of the neurological discourse in human sciences, mental health and culture.
