The text-based nature of online interaction eventually provided the foundation for something that Leo Kanner couldn’t have imagined: the birth of the autistic community. But two things had to happen first. Kanner’s notion that autism was a rare form of childhood psychosis would have to be permanently laid to rest. Then, as Asperger’s lost tribe finally emerged from the shadows, autistic people would have to overturn the notion that they were the victims of a global epidemic.
