This forum thread serves 2 purposes. 1. I’m suggesting new disability categories. I really want to get the disability articles organized here on wikiHow!
2. I have a question about the Autism Spectrum category. Down Syndrome: http://www.wikihow.com/Recognize-the-Signs-of-Down-Syndrome
http://www.wikihow.com/Prepare-for-the-Birth-of-a-Child-With-Down-Syndrome
http://www.wikihow.com/Help-a-Down’s-Syndrome-Child
http://www.wikihow.com/React-if-Your-Friend’s-Baby-Has-Down-Syndrome
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Friend-With-Down’s-Syndrome
http://www.wikihow.com/Pick-a-School-for-a-Down-Syndrome-Child
http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-with-Diagnosis-of-a-Rare-Chromosome-Disorder-in-a-Child
(I think the last one could apply to Down Syndrome, since Trisomy 23 is not common. However, I’m open to your opinions.) My sister has Down Syndrome, so I intend to write articles about it sometime in the future. Dyslexia: http://www.wikihow.com/Recognize-Signs-of-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Teach-a-Dyslexic-Child
http://www.wikihow.com/Understand-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Beat-Adult-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Whether-Your-Child-Has-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Cope-with-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Hide-That-You-Have-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Test-for-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Support-an-Employee-with-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Support-a-Child-with-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Conquer-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Understand-and-Prevent-Reading-Failure-and-Dyslexia
http://www.wikihow.com/Enable-the-OpenDyslexic-Font-on-Wikipedia
‘’‘And my question.’’’ Would it be possible for the “Autism Spectrum” category to be moved to become a subcategory of “Disability Issues” (i.e., so it would show up next to the Deaf, blind, etc. categories)? This would move it from “Disorder” to the more accepting label of “Disability” (implying that Autistic people are challenged but not broken). I ask this because it fits in better with how Autistic people view themselves. Autistic people have long arguedthat they deserved to be helped and accommodated rather than erased, that they are not an epidemic or a disaster, and that they have [[Experience Autistic Culture|their own culture]] (hey, we even have an article on it). I think that moving the Autism Spectrum category would help reaffirm wikiHow’s values of inclusivity and the power of the individual to speak for themselves. Here’s one summary: http://autisticadvocacy.org/policy-advocacy/position-statements/
This move would not require the renaming of any categories or the moving of individual articles. I really appreciate your help working with me so far, and I hope that we can make the Disability Issues category great! Thanks for your time.
…So apparently the whole “three quotation marks” thing only makes text bold when you’re editing an article…
I agree with everything you say. We need to make that move.
I think that this is a pretty good move since I have friends who make fun of these things and me but this sounds like we could let people understand what it is probably like being one of those three things
@WarriorOfEden
I realize that too. There’s “How to Survive Socially when You Have Asperger’s Syndrome” but it’s not a very in-depth article. I’m Autistic myself, and I’ve studied both autism and human interaction a lot, so I might take a crack at it (even though I’m pretty bad at making friends, ha ha). @Poseidon14
I’m so sorry to hear that your friends do that. That’s really rude and hurtful of them. WikiHow doesn’t have much information on how to deal with this, but I did find http://www.wikihow.com/Stand-up-to-Bullies
in the bullying section (which is pretty good). If your friends are making fun of you, or of disabled/disabled-looking people, then this is absolutely not okay. You can look them in the eye and ask them to stop, and/or you can get an adult to help. Nobody should have to put up with that alone—not you or anyone else. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.
Yes…I approve! That would be great!
I myself am autistic. I have a long-term friend, who ended up having going to a different school last year. He also had to go to that same school this year. The next time that we both meet will be when we are freshmen, which willl be next year.
Keeping friends while Autistic is a good article idea! I’ve struggled with that myself. Maybe after some research I could pull that together. We do have articles on spotting symptoms. http://www.wikihow.com/Recognize-the-Signs-of-Autism
handles children and infants pretty well, and http://www.wikihow.com/Recognize-Autism-Symptoms-in-Yourself
discusses teen/adult symptoms.There isn’t a major difference between Classic Autism and Asperger’s, which is why they were merged under the DSM 5. Classic Autism comes with noticeable developmental delays during childhood, but in teen or adult years, there may be no difference. It would be a gross oversimplification to suggest that there are only 2 kinds of autism, so I don’t think such an article would be useful.I appreciate the suggestions! Hopefully we can make wikiHow more helpful to Autistic people too, and not just their loved ones.
MissLuna Rose I have a son with profound autism and he does not have any discussions with anyone because he simply cannot do it. Asperger’s is mostly on the other end of the spectrum (like Temple Grandin) but there is so much more in between. Autistic Spectrum disorder is only an umbrella term used to describe all of the differences in autism from mild to severe. It does not mean that it is not a disability. Although my son is twenty he is still very much like a two year old and can only speak and help himself minimally. He is not able to able to write a wiki article for example, have a discussion, or integrate into regular school classes any more. His autism tends to be regressive. Let’s not forget about these people just because we might be able to do these things whether we are able or not. I have to fight for my son daily, I want him to have a better quality of life and for people to have more empathy towards him. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for him as he is perfect enough for me. Information is needed for those autistic people that are more able, yes, but it is also needed for caregivers as there are also many autistic people that are much less able. Autistic people also represent a cross section of society in the same sense that everyone else does. It is not always true that developmental delays disappear in the teen and the adult years. In fact my experience has been quite the opposite in more severe cases of autism like my sons. I am convinced that my son has so much value locked up inside of him and that he simply cannot get it out. I know that he is a lot smarter than people think he is and I know that his thinking is beyond 2 years of age despite what the experts say. We have done everything possible to help him including the suggested ABA therapy, but he knows that he is not a dog and is unwilling to do any task for the sake of recieving a smartie. I want my son to have a good quality of life and want him to be respected for being a good human being as there is nothing wrong with being autistic. We all are what we are. My daughter is on the autism executive at her Unniversity, she is the communications coordinator. She has done some performance art using sound with my son, it is posted on her own website. Her group also does regular activities with the autism community so to speak. They have quite a few parties, get-togethers and dances. She often tells me stories about the incredibly talented autistic people she meets, some are wonderful artists, (she happens to be in the Fine Arts program) and good at so many other things. They are all friends, and there is no judgement, only acceptance and everyone is free to be themselves. Let me know if there is anything I can contribute that may be helpful to you as I am also part of the the wikiHow community. I just joined a short while ago. Our society needs to be more inclusive of everyone. I am able and willing to help you to get the message out there. You are all amazing and so much brighter than I am. Thanks for your time. Audra Chadwick
Audra, please see your talk page for my response.
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Very interesting topic. I’d like to help with the “make friends as someone with autism” article! @MissLunaRose
: Then I think that “How to Survive Socially when You Have Asperger’s Syndrome” sounds very exclusive to me and should be renamed. It almost implies that you normally “die” socially of Asperger’s. In contrast, it sould encourage poeple with Asperger’s Syndrome to not fear social contact, and encourage non-apsergers people to seek contact to those in an adequate and friendly, but not overwhelming way. Thinking of it, maybe those two-sided view represented in two articles isn’t so good after all. Maybe it should be “How to build and maintain an Austist - Non-Autist friendship” so that the article can be read by both parties implying that they are different, but the same after all. Now of course, as Audra said, there is a spectrum of severeness and really heavy Autism can lead to severe disability. For those cases where people have to have other people caring for them (As is Audra’s case), I’d maybe request the article “How to help autistic people finding and maintaining friends” For example, when i was little i used to play with an autistic boy with quite heavy symptoms. For my mother at the time, (and probably also for his mother) the information on what to tell *me* would have been very useful, as it’s hard to explain to a child how to treat an autistic child adequately. My 2 cent’s, i’ll try to learn much more about this before posting the next time, i hope i didn’t hurt anyones feelings.Btw, MissLunaRose, I find it very good what you’re trying to do herekeep on!
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There is another disability that has yet been noted and it’s one I have. Dyspraxia, Dyslexia and Dyspraxa are commonly mistaken for each other and are 2 different things. Dyspraxia is uncommon while Dyslexia is more common and there are other differences too! There are NO articles relating to this disability whatsoever, maybe soon there will be
@McDonalds1
Good for you! @NatarianQueen
We have 2 dyspraxia articles, http://www.wikihow.com/Understand-What-Dyspraxia-Is
and http://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-Someone-with-Dyspraxia
However, this isn’t nearly enough! Feel free to start some dyspraxia articles, and I would be happy to look over them for you and possibly add illustrations to them. (Just ask!) If we get enough articles to make a subcategory, then I would definitely support doing so. @Tellis
Let me see about starting an article about befriending autistic people. I’ll get back to you on that. Perhaps rather than “Survive Socially when You Have Asperger Syndrome,” the article should be named “Maintain a Social Life if You’re Autistic” (which is more general). The article is also in desperate need of an expansion, so I might work on that eventually. I might try to focus more on starting new wikiHows for autistic people. This has been a little hard for me, since I’ve been floundering so much that I’ve been hesitant to write for autistic people, for fear that I won’t have anything useful to say. (Describing how to treat an autistic person is so much easier in comparison.) Nevertheless, I’ll try to write some new articles for autistic people!
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Okay I will start new ones but it is going to be hard… I might have it myself but my experiences with it have been mostly bad or rough… I don’t know what I can do for articles about the condition I have
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I agree too… I see a lot of articles saying how to make friends with people who are Autistic but no articles saying how to make friends while having Autism yourself. I sent in a request for this specific thing and yet to see any article made
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There are other things need to be done as articles too… How to keep friends while having Autism How to tell the difference between Autism and Asperger’s (if it’s not already done) How to spot the symptoms of Autism at any age (if that hasn’t been done either)
