Reading Response 18

Heilker and Yergeau – “Autism and Rhetoric”

Summary

In their article, “Autism and Rhetoric,” Heilker and Yergeau attempt to show that autism as another form of rhetoric. They argue that, though the definition of autism is mostly communicative, instead of autism being something “wrong” with someone, it merely means they have a unique way of going about communication, and this can be seen much clearer if you treat autism as a style of rhetoric. The authors both have unique perspectives on this, as Heilker has a son with autism, while Yergeau herself has Asperger’s syndrome.

Synthesis

This article pulls, indirectly, from Wardle’s concept of identity. The authors show that society treats autism as a deficit from the norm, and try to shift the reader’s perception to that of considering autism as a form of rhetoric to see that they aren’t less like people because they are autistic, but that they think different, just like variation between cultures. This idea of giving autism its own identity follows Wardle’s model of adjusting your style of writing; and in this case method of speech; to a new discourse community.

Thoughts

This piece was very interesting. I have friends whom are autistic, and though I have never disregarded them because of it, I have definitely never thought of them in this light. It was very well put together, and the bits where the authors put in a personal thought was very good, because I got to know the authors and their perspectives. Over all I enjoyed it a lot, and feel that I learned something, which is always a good thing.