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The human being tends to stigmatise and brand anything that isn't in keeping with the majority as wrong, categorising it as a disease or disorder. When put through this unfair test, all different ways of thinking and processing are condemned to failure. This is what autistic people have been subjected to for decades: if you're unable to adapt to society, I'll exclude you from it, and only because you've got a different processing system that doesn't fit in with the way the majority processes information.
For as long as we maintain the archetype of autism as a disease, or at the very least, a disorder, those who look for the easy way out: eradicate and side-line it, will continue to exist. Only through conceptualising autism as a form of neurodivergence and a different way of perceiving the world will we be able to help change how it's seen and understood. This conceptual transformation will come as a result of changing the world, not autistic people.
Daniel Millán López is a graduate in Clinical and Health Psychology from Madrid Complutense University. He's been working with autistic people of all ages for over 15 years. He did his training and gained experience in the field of autism through the Asociación de Padres de Niños Autistas and the Deletrea diagnostic team, among others. He was the director and line manager at the Asociación de Padres de Niños Autistas de Badajoz, where he undertook innovative therapies in the region, such as the creation of therapy groups for children with Asperger's syndrome, the development of awareness programmes, and the launch of diagnostic tools for paediatricians and other health professionals. He currently offers therapy and diagnostic services for people around the world.
