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

by Pete Wharmby

I’ve always said that if I were ever to meet someone truly important – the King, say, or a president of some kind – then the likelihood of me saying or doing something inappropriate is set at around 100 per cent. I don’t know why, but to me anyone in a position of real authority is still, first and foremost, a person. Thus, I think if I met the King my brain would default to: ‘Here’s a friendly seeming older gentleman – feel free to make jokes about the weather and ask how he’s getting on since the death of his mother.’ I wouldn’t be doing this to appear ‘cool’ or rebellious in some way; more that the concept that it’s somehow wrong to treat such a person as entirely normal wouldn’t occur to me at all. I would have to be reminded, and even then I’d struggle. To put it bluntly, the chances of me accidentally farting in front of the King and then joking about it are limited only by the chances of me ever actually meeting the King.