In My Language

From Amanda Baggs, the author of the video posting on YouTube…

The first part is in my “native language,” and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not.

The following is also from the author on the Google Video posting…

I start out in my “native language,” and provide a translation, or at least an explanation. Then I discuss how thought, language, communication, interaction, awareness, and personhood are defined by people in general, to the detriment of many people, particularly cognitively disabled people, who don’t fit the narrow definitions. Although I’m autistic, this is not an “autism zoo exhibit” or a generalization about all autistic people, but rather a statement about who gets considered a person and who doesn’t, what gets considered communication and what doesn’t, and on what basis.

Here is the google video version (better resolution).

Here is a link to Amanda’s video profile on YouTube

and here is the link to the Ballastexistenz website

I also think that the About Ballastexistenz page is important reading…

UPDATE: Here is an absolutely fascinating Metafilter thread with provocative discussion, and in which Amanda participates under the screen name silentmiaow
Hattip: MemeMachineGo!

Hattip: BoingBoing