A Mismatch of Salience: Explorations of the Nature of Autism from Theory to Practice

“Damian Milton has a tremendous facility in presenting his insider views on being autistic and challenging the received wisdom expounded by many neurotypical people. This collection of writings demonstrates this ability. His double empathy argument discussed first in the chapter, So what exactly is autism, suggests that it is not simply a matter of autistic people not understanding the communication and emotions of others, but that in turn, neurotypical people who fail to understand the communication and language of autistic individuals, is a powerful one in reframing views on who has the difficulty. As Milton writes, viewing the ‘autistic person’ as the ‘disordered other’, can reduce an individual’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem. His preference is to talk about embodied diversity and not impairment to capture the many ways of being human.” Dr. Glenys Jones.