• Public

  • Public
  • Groups
  • Popular
  • People

A girl is staring unnervingly at the reader as she says, “I am staring into your soul!” The panel text reads: Imagine if we talked about neurotypicals the same way researchers talk about autistics: “Aggressive obsession with eye contact”, “Inflexible adherence to unwritten social rules”, “Inexplicable compulsion to project negative subtext into simple conversations”. The next panel shows the autistic girl standing in front of a blackboard which has “Bad Researcher Detention” written on it. She looks strict as she says, “Silly, right?” Two researchers are in detention, teary-eyed and apologetic. “Sorry,” one of them sobs. The next panel shows a diverse group of autistic people and the three kittens from the first page, an infinity symbol above their heads. The text reads: We need to have a serious conversation about how we research and talk about autism. And above all, autistic voices need to be the ones leading the charge. Let us head the research! Let us share our experiences!