Why We Need Autism Lit
July 24, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The Edinburgh Book Festival 2006 is the largest book festival in the world. This year’s festival will include a number of authors who have written about their own experiences with autism; the Scottish Society for Autism and Autism Initiatives are sponsors. Authors include Marti Leimbach (Daniel Isn’t Talking, Stephen Venables (Ollie) and Kamran Nazeer (Send in the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism.
In the July 20th Scotsman, Tiffany Jenkins wrote an opinion piece, “Festival theme is another chapter in the sad tale of autism industry.” In ‘Autism lit’ has its place in bringing understanding and positive response, Professor Aline-Wendy Dunlop, the Director of the National Centre for Autism Studies, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, responds:
In our teaching on our well-respected multi-professional postgraduate courses in autism, we invite students (who are in the main practitioners working with people with autism, their families and carers) to read and review a personal account as part of their studies with us.
Why? Because we find a quite different insight into autism is the outcome of this task.
The rise of “autism lit” does mean that I have a lot more books to read—and I am glad for the opportunity.
Go here to find out about the schedule of autism authors reading at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2006.
Go here to read ‘Autism lit’ has its place in bringing understanding and positive response by Prof. Dunlop.
