"But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself."
— Ayn Rand
I'm Lindsay Weekes. First, I wrote The Autism Picture Page and kept it online for eleven years. Back in '96, there were hardly any sites where people could see autistic children being themselves. That's all changed. Today, there are thousands.
During a presentation I made back in '95, I said this: "For me to describe myself as ‘a person with autism’ additionally carries the implication that people need to be reminded that I am a person. I take for granted that I am a person, and I take for granted that others take that fact for granted also." That remark is as relevant now as it was then.
This site is far more personal. It contains most of my essays from The Picture Page, revised where I thought that was necessary. It also contains essays not related to autism at all: as well as an essay about returning to the place where I grew up and whatever else I have a mind to put here.
During the last few years I've been travelling, speaking to many parents' groups and working with difficult autistic children in many countries. What can be very difficult is to change entrenched attitudes. Consider this: throughout most of the world, autism is considered to be a catastrophic illness from which society needs to be protected at all costs. Therefore, autistic people are shut away out of sight, often in appalling conditions, and forgotten. But I've gone to some out of the way places and tried, often with positive results. Once autism moves out of the category of "mad" to which it's been assigned, once it becomes known and demystified, the attitudes of many people do change. That encourages me to keep trying. What I'd like is to encourage other autistics to try.
So I've left Australia, probably permanently, as least with no foreseeable plans to return
I've received quite a number of emails asking me whether or not I have plans to ever restore The Picture Page. My answer must unfortunately be "no". I do agree that it was the largest collection of autism pictures ever but as such it took a great deal of time to maintain as the kids grew up, developing in so many different ways at so many different levels. However, I've constructed a gallery which has three autism albums so far, including one which consists mainly of pictures from The Picture Page. You can get there by clicking the link below or here.
Just some corrections: I have never contributed to Wikipedia. I am not on Facebook and given their cavalier approach to personal data, never will be. And to the person calling himself "Skilts" at Big Footy: thank you for describing me as startlingly intelligent; I have to modestly admit that it's true. :-) But that I charge $9.95 for admission to this site?? I wouldn't make much money if I bothered to do that!.
HTML5 is an evolving standard and over time I'm going to make more use of it. If any part of this site looks weird, I suggest you update your browser to the latest version.
This website copyright Lindsay Weekes (eldub_at_mm.st), 2008. Renewed 2011.
On this Site:
At the Swimming Pool(2): What's Wrong with a Little Practicality?.
External Links:
