Untypical: How the world isn’t built for autistic people and what we should all do about it

by Pete Wharmby

The trouble is, we tend to get rather carried away, and I believe that it’s fair to say that we often forget that our level of love for, say, Super Mario or knitting is not shared by those we’re talking to.

‘I sort of feel like I’m being rude imposing myself onto others … I much prefer to text or email as then the person can just get to it when they’re free rather than a phone call which is demanding attention now.’

Autistic inertia is an inability to change task or focus – imagine a person totally wrapped up in doing one thing, like reading a book, who finds themselves incapable of putting the book down in order to go and make themselves a nice cup of tea.

When I was training to be a teacher, back in around 2008 or so, an absolutely sacrosanct part of our teaching practice was getting the students to work together in groups. It was seen as a fundamental part of learning, a vital ingredient in every lesson plan.

Trouble was, I absolutely hated group work back at school. Every single time it was forced upon me – especially in those awful science practical lessons, but also in English, maths and geography – I’d find myself mentally curling into a ball and clamming up completely, hoping that the ordeal would soon be over.

Witnessing the age-old misery of a child wandering around the classroom looking plaintively for a group that would accept them became a thing of the past.

think it is fair to say that many autistic people see authority as something that has truly got to be earned, that it’s not enough to simply ‘be’ in charge – you must have demonstrated good reasons why this is the case. And even then, being in charge doesn’t make you any different from a normal human being.

The problem is that the natural assumption made about those of us who have this ‘future-blindness’ is that we’re generally ill-prepared and a bit useless at life. This fails to take into account the fact that (a) we cannot help it and (b) we may well be trying very hard to compensate for these ‘shortcomings’ but are still coming up lacking.