时间:2019-01-30 作者:英语课 分类:英伦广角


英语课
Now it's not a disability but a way of life. That's how some people with autism are challenging the conventional view. As new research suggests as many as one in fifty-eight children may have the condition. Now autistic people are using the Internet to fight for their rights to be accepted as they are, rather than be treated or cured. Jenny Clainman reports.

Who's got a bank account. Everybody got a bank account?
Truly, yes. Yep.

At this workshop in Surrey, people with autism are learning social skills that will give them the confidence to participate in everyday society. Autism is a developmental disability which affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. The National Autistic Society runs workshops like this so that autistic people can deal with the non-autistic world. But some people with autism are saying they shouldn't have to fit in with mainstream 1 society. They claim that autism is just a different way of being, rather than a disorder 2 to be treated and cured, and say they shouldn't have to change for all benefit.

Amanda Baggs is an autistic campaigner from Vermont. She is profoundly autistic and can only communicate with words by using a computer. Amanda posted this video on YouTube to show up the assumptions non-autistic people make when they see people with severe autism.

The way I naturally think and respond to things looks and feels so different from standard concepts or even visualization 3 that some people do not consider it thought at all. But it's a way of thinking in its own right. However the thinking of people like me is only taken seriously, if we learn your language.

Amanda's video is a YouTube hit. 300,000 people have seen it since she posted it in January.

It is only when I type something in your language that you refer to me as having communication. I would like to honestly know how many people if you met me on the street, would believe I wrote this.

Amanda uses the virtual online universe "Second Life" to meet up with other autistic activists 4. They call their group the Autistic Liberation Front. Amanda is proud of her autism. In a world where you can choose to be whatever you what to be, she has spent months giving her avatar the same ticks and mannerisms that she has in real life. New research says that as many as one in fifty-eight people in the UK are born with autism. The Autistic Liberation Front fear that as science increasingly understands the causes of autism, this may lead to prenatal genetic 5 engineering and selective abortion 6, which they brand as genocide.

I tend to liken it to it to Martin Luther King in the sort of Black Pride's Movement.

Joshua Muggleton is 17, and has Asperger's Syndrome 7, a high functioning form of autism. He has his own blog and recognizes how the Internet has empowered autistic people. The Internet has been to the autistic community what sign language has been to the deaf community, a channel of communication that allows them to speak for themselves.

What I and l and a few other people tend to use, is the word disability which basically, is about, is not disability, it’s a difference of ability. I am happy being who I am. If I was cured, I wouldn’t be who I am. I know a lot of my friends who are Asperger's autistic who wouldn't want to be cured of their autism and their uniqueness, just fit in with society's norms.

But the National Autistic Society worries about the implications of redefining autism as a cultural difference rather than a disorder.

There is a real concern that if it is seen as just a personality trait, extreme shyness, a different way of functioning, then individuals won't be able to get the support and the help that they need so badly. It takes the emphasis away from their very complex needs and the fact that they need funding they need support and they need assistance to be able to live the sort of life that most of us would, would expect.

The people who look most set to benefit from the autistic rights movement are those who have constant access to the Internet. Autistic Liberation may mean that people with autism become dependent on computers for their freedom. But for campaigners like Amanda who spend most of their waking hours online, it's a prize worth paying to be understood on their own terms.


n.(思想或行为的)主流;adj.主流的
  • Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
  • Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调
  • When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后,他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
  • It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。
n.想像,设想
  • In 2D visualization and drawing applications, vertical and horizontal scrolling are common. 在二维的可视化及绘图应用中,垂直和水平滚动非常普遍。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
  • Ophthalmoscopy affords the only opportunity for direct visualization of blood vessels. 检眼镜检查法提供直接观察血管的唯一机会。
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.遗传的,遗传学的
  • It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
  • Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。
n.流产,堕胎
  • She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
  • A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。
n.综合病症;并存特性
  • The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
  • Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。
学英语单词
acetyl scarlet
acoustic enclosure
Africarn tapeworm
Albian
antonini
automatic message processing centre
automatic tool identification
be consumed
beet piler
bertoia
bestowage
binary-coded switch
bronchial
calory
castlegates
chromatographic spot test
codebreakers
construction of liferaft
coordinate closure
copy number variation
cover cost
crayola
da kine
daldinia childiae
Dead space.
diathering machine
Digaura
disturbed sample
driven headstock
ethapon
Eulalia speciosa
exuviable
family Diomedeidae
flying bishops
foster-mothers
Fremy's salt
frypan
game-fishings
hallsten
Hemosuccus
heteocladium tenue mitt.
higher oxide
ideological differences
inverse-time definite time limit relay
Japanese cedar
just indignation
kittycats
LABSA
leopoldina
maid-of-honor
Malcolm Campbell
Marsillargues
mean noon sunlight
medium-growing
miaowed
millimeter wave fet integrated circuits
miniswitch reed matrix
mixed complex
monkey engine
Montessorian
multi-panel
multi-role survivable radar
mutual plan
North Thoresby
Nundu
ossa naviculare pedis
paid-in capital from freasury stock transactions
Panorudin
penetrating oil pot
performance disclosure
persalane(c.i.p.w.)
phoenix contact
Poison Creek
poofiest
ppcf
professional institution
Raman spectrum
Rami atrioventriculares
regulated interest rate
Rufā'ah
scaerugus patagiatus
seaborne trade
Sheikh Abdalla Muhammad, Qâret
Shuteria involucrata
slitter crack
spider webbing
spill file
spirare
steatocystoma multiplex
subsequent processing
swash plate type axial piston pump
totally-enclosed cartridge free
trabecula of spongy bone
traumatic deformity of lip
tribole
video look-up table
warming channel and activating blood circulation
weaky
white eye
zeilanite (ceylonite)
zirconio-
Zsigmondy's gold number methods