1. Autistic people are never creative.

2. Autistic people are never imaginative.

3. Autistic people are always good at spatial tasks.

4. Autistic people cannot empathize with others.

5. Autistic people can never have intimate relationships.

6. Autistic people can never be good parents.

7. Autistic people can never have friends.

8. All autistic people are highly intelligent.

9. All autistic people are unintelligent.

10. All autistic people are nonverbal.

11. Autistic people who are nonverbal have nothing to say.

12. Autistic people who are nonverbal cannot otherwise communicate.

13. Autistic people who are nonverbal cannot think.

14. Autistic people cannot love.

15. Autistic people belong in institutions.

16. Autistic people have no emotions.

17. Autistic people can never work for a living.

18. Autistic people just aren’t trying hard enough to fit in.

19. Autistic people are never interested in other people.

20. Autistic people do not need community of any kind.

21. Autistic people can never acquire new skills.

22. Autistic people can never lose existing skills.

23. Autistic people cannot reflect upon the mental states of other people.

24. Autistic people don’t make eye contact because they don’t care about what people have to say.

25. Autistic people are always logical.

26. Autistic people are overly emotional.

27. Autistic people are insensitive.

28. Autistic people are too sensitive.

29. Autistic people are empty inside.

30. Autistic people need pity.

31. All autistic people are like Rain Man.

32. The real Rain Man is autistic.

33. All autistic people are like Temple Grandin.

34. Autistic people cannot be happy.

35. Asperger’s Syndrome and autism are two separate conditions.

36. People with high-functioning autism have it easy.

37. People with high-functioning autism are not like other autistic people.

38. People with high-functioning autism are just socially awkward.

39. People with low-functioning autism have no quality of life.

40. People with low-functioning autism have low IQs.

41. Autistic people are a burden on society.

42. Autism is caused by poor parenting.

43. Autism is caused by vaccines.

44. Autism is a mental illness.

45. Autism is a disease.

46. Autism is a disorder.

47. Autism can be cured.

48. Autism should be cured.

49. Autistic people should be removed from the gene pool by pre-natal testing.

50. All autistic people are hermits.

51. All hermits are autistic people.

52. All autistic people think in pictures.

53. Most doctors understand autism.

54. The autism experts are always right.

55. The autism experts are experts on autism

56. Autistic people do not understand autism.

57. Autistic people should believe everything the experts say about autism.

58. The loved ones of autistic people should believe everything the experts say about autism.

59. The general public should believe everything the experts say about autism.

60. If you don’t believe what the experts say, you must be autistic.

61. If you can understand what the experts say, you cannot be autistic.

62. If you understand metaphor, you cannot be autistic.

63. Autism is a walk in the park.

64. If you have a sense of humor, you cannot be autistic.

65. If you can tell a joke, you cannot be autistic.

66. I love being autistic! It’s a blast! All the time!

67. I hate being autistic. It’s a bummer. All the time.

68. Autistic people are all alike.

69. Autistic children could “behave properly” if they really wanted to.

70. Autistic children “misbehave” because their parents enable them.

71. Autistic people do not work hard to get through the day.

72. After all, how hard could it be?

73. Autism is just an excuse to be insensitive and lazy.

74. Autistic girls do not present differently than autistic boys.

75. Autistic women do not present differently than autistic men.

76. Autism Speaks speaks for me.

77. Autism Speaks speaks for all autistic people.

78. Autism Speaks has autistic people on its paid staff.

79. Autism Speaks has autistic people on its board of directors.

80. Autistic people are puzzles with missing pieces.

81. Autistic people are broken and in need of repair.

82. Asperger’s is just the latest trendy diagnosis.

83. Having a trendy diagnosis like Asperger’s makes you popular.

84. Autistic people can never be athletes.

85. Autistic people are always clumsy.

86. All autistic people are completely incapable of eye contact.

87. Autistic people cannot carry on a conversation.

88. Autistic ways of being are inferior to neuro-typical ways of being.

89. Autistic points of view are inferior to neuro-typical points of view.

90. All autistic people line up objects in rows.

91. All autistic people are loud.

92. All autistic people stim.

93. All autistic people like to spin.

94. If you can make a YouTube video, you are not autistic.

95. If you can publish a blog, you are not autistic.

96. If you can post comments to a blog, you are not autistic.

97. If you don’t have an “official” diagnosis, you are not autistic.

98. If you can read this list, you are not autistic.

99. If you are reading this list, you must be autistic

100. Autistic people never like lists.

© 2009 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg