18 June 2008

June 18 is Autistic Pride Day



"Autistic Pride Day is a celebration of the neurodiversity of people on the autism spectrum on June 18 each year. Autistic pride is pride in autism, about shifting views of autism from "disease" to "difference". Autistic pride emphasises the innate potential in all human phenotypic expressions and celebrates the diversity various neurological types express."

In honor of which, I've embedded two videos. The top one is a three-minute report on an autistic high school basketball manager who got an opportunity to play in his team's last game - with amazing results. This report aired on the national evening news about two years ago; it's a truly heartwarming video, not because of the young man's athletic performance, but because of the response of the crowd (and the other team).

The bottom video is a five-minute report on a British savant who draws a 5.5 yard panoramic picture of the city of Rome after seeing it for the first time on a helicopter ride, with precision down to the detail of the number of windows or columns in each building. An awesome skill.

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