What's in a Slogan?

Since the launch of our T-shirts online, AuKids has come to the attention of a wider autism community. In certain quarters, our upbeat take on the condition of autism has attracted criticism. Although only one person was forthright enough to share her views on this with us, we’ve no doubt that she represents a number of people who feel the same.

Their view would be that positive slogans on T-shirts such as ours are misleading, and that we have little idea of how hard autism is, what a struggle it can be for both individuals and their parents. They think that by adopting positive slogans, even funny ones, we make light of it and skew the public’s view of a condition that can have a devastating impact on a child and their family.

Those people feel that autism is a disease – have even compared it to cancer. They wish it to be eradicated to prevent further misery to millions and they feel that ‘celebrating’ it is tasteless and offensive. I’ve no doubt that they also think we’re in denial and out of touch. Maybe they feel that we’ve not had enough direct experience of autism.

There is nothing flippant about our decision to be positive and funny. It’s calculated.

What we know from history is that no one can learn tolerance and understanding in a climate of fear.
We are inviting people who we come into contact with on a daily basis to engage and accept autism. Then perhaps they will get to know the true individual better – and better understand the condition.

We don’t want them to feel that autism’s frightening. People refuse to accept something they’re frightened of and that’s what keeps them from learning tolerance. Segregation and isolation comes from fear – we’ve seen it with homophobia and racism and the same applies to disability.

Autistic individuals can have challenging behaviour, of course, no one’s denying it. That behaviour only becomes more challenging when others can’t understand the reason for it. The starting point is always to see the person and not the label ‘autism’ and to try and understand what it might be that they’re experiencing.

Every slogan we have made carries an underlying message. We know that people learn through humour, that’s why AuKids is often amusing to read. We also know that people who can laugh in the face of adversity are those who survive it.

So, what's the thinking behind our slogans? 

‘God created autism to offset the excessive number of boring people’ – this encourages people to value difference and positively promote it, not simply to tolerate it, an ethos laid out in the Equality Act 2010.

‘I was born with autism, the cheeky smile is all my own work’ – firstly this tells people that it’s a condition you’re born with. Secondly, it tells them that the individual with autism is much more than just the autism itself, and encourages people to see that a child with autism is still just a cute, cheeky little child.

‘I’m not difficult, I’m exotic’ – This is because our name AuKids, sounds like the plant orchid. Any long time fan of the magazine will know that the reason we called AuKids by that name is because like orchids, autistic children can be considered hard to manage. Actually, if you give them the right environment and you understand the conditions they need in order to develop, they can thrive.

‘Stand aside: I have the special powers of autism’  - this isn’t to be worn only by child geniuses!  The message is that everyone with autism is special in their own way and that autism is simply a different way of being wired up. Most of our kids are unique in the sense that they may be good visual thinkers or have other powerful skills, even if they are lacking in others. We’re encouraging people to take an overview of the whole of autism, not just its downside.

‘Autism: If it’s good enough for Einstein, it’s good enough for me’. Those who seek to cure autism are perhaps failing to recognise that many key figures in history were on the autism spectrum. Genetically, autism is so complex that you can’t simply pick and choose which bits to eradicate. Maybe one day we will be able to. For now, we’d rather not throw the baby out with the bath water.

So, we may look like we’re being flippant but as most of our readers will already know, there are strong beliefs behind these T-shirts.

We live and work with autism at its most challenging, but it’s only by being positive together – and encouraging others to do the same – that we’ll be able to live in a fully inclusive society.