ATYPICAL Magazine (Issue #1)

ISSUE #1
AUTISM:
CHANGING
PERSPECTIVES

WHAT IS AUTISM?
INTERVIEW W/
VIVIAN BELENKY

SENSORY
PERCEPTION
4 - WHAT IS AUTISM?
5 - SENSORY PERCEPTION
12 - FUNCTIONING LABELS
16 - SYNESTHESIA
32 - INTERVIEWING
VIVIAN BELENKY
FUNCTIONING
LABELS
SYNESTHESIA

Autism is a lifelong developmental
disability that affects
how people perceive
the world and interact with
others.
Autistic people see, hear
and feel the world differently
to other people. If
you are autistic, you are
autistic for life; autism is
not an illness or disease
and cannot be ‘cured’. Often
people feel being autistic
is a fundamental aspect
of their identity.
Autism is a spectrum condition.
All autistic people
share certain difficulties,
but being autistic will affect
them in different ways.
Some autistic people also
have learning disabilities,
mental health issues or
other conditions, meaning
people need different levels
of support. All people
on the autism spectrum
learn and develop.
This magazine aims to
show a fresh perspective
on autism, particularly
in teenagers and young
adults.
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© National Autistic Society

Many people on the autism spectrum report
having difficulties or differences in sensory
perception. For example, in Temple Grandin’s
famous book “Thinking In Pictures” she
describes her sensory experiences the following:
“From as far back as I can remember, I always
hated to be hugged. I wanted to experience
the good feeling of being hugged, but it was
just too overwhelming. It was like a great, allengulfing
wave of stimulation, and I reacted like
a wild animal”. Temple Grandin also highlights
the high variability seen in sensory perception
across ASC: “Over the years I have observed that
sensory sensitivities in autism are highly variable.
SENSORY
PERCEPTION

One child will love to play with running water, and
another autistic child will run away and scream
when a toilet flushes”. Anecdotal reports provide
valuable information and help us to understand
how people with ASC perceive the world
differently, however they are not quantitative and
can not reveal underlying mechanisms of sensory
processing differences.
One important question is at what level
are people with ASC experiencing sensory
differences? Is it at a low-level, e.g. are
individuals with ASC better able to detect small
differences in vision, hearing, smell or taste? Or
at a high-level of perception, e.g. individuals with
ASC might interpret sensory stimuli differently,
such as a light touch on the shoulder (i.e. their
sensory receptors perceive touch in the same
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way, but their brain interprets it as more intense).

SIGHT
UNDER-SENSITIVE
• Objects appear quite dark, or lose
some of their features.
• Central vision is blurred but peripheral
vision quite sharp.
• A central object is magnified but
things on the periphery are blurred.
• Poor depth perception, problems with
throwing and catching, clumsiness.
• Ways you might help include the use
of visual supports or coloured lenses,
although there is only very limited
research evidence for such lenses.
OVER-SENSITIVE
• Distorted vision - objects and bright
lights can appear to jump around.
• Images may fragment.
• Easier and more pleasurable to focus
on a detail rather than the whole
object.
• Has difficulty getting to sleep as
sensitive to the light.
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TOUCH
SOUND
8
UNDER-SENSITIVE
• Holds others tightly - needs to do so
before there is a sensation of having
applied any pressure.
• Has a high pain threshold.
• May be unable to feel food in the
mouth.
• May self-harm.
• Enjoys heavy objects (e.g. weighted
blankets) on top of them.
• Smears faeces as enjoys the texture.
• Chews on everything, including
clothing and inedible objects.
OVER-SENSITIVE
• Touch can be painful and
uncomfortable - people may not like
to be touched and this can affect
their relationships with others.
• Dislikes having anything on hands
or feet.
• Difficulties brushing and washing
hair because head is sensitive.
• May find many food textures
uncomfortable.
• Only tolerates certain types of
clothing or textures.
UNDER-SENSITIVE
• May only hear sounds in one ear, the
other ear having only partial hearing or
none at all.
• May not acknowledge particular
sounds.
• Might enjoy crowded, noisy places or
bang doors and objects.
• You could help by using visual
supports to back up verbal information,
and ensuring that other people are
aware of the under-sensitivity so that
they can communicate effectively.
You could ensure that the experiences
they enjoy are included in their daily
timetable, to ensure this sensory need
is met.
OVER-SENSITIVE
• Noise can be magnified and sounds
become distorted and muddled.
• May be able to hear conversations in
the distance.
• Inability to cut out sounds – notably
background noise, leading to
difficulties concentrating.

BODY AWARENESS
(PROPRIOCEPTION)
SMELL
Our body awareness system tells us
where our bodies are in space, and how
different body parts are moving.
UNDER-SENSITIVE
• Stands too close to others, because
they cannot measure their proximity
to other people and judge personal
space.
• Finds it hard to navigate rooms and
avoid obstructions.
• May bump into people.
OVER-SENSITIVE
• Difficulties with fine motor skills,
e.g. manipulating small objects like
buttons or shoe laces.
• Moves whole body to look at
something.
UNDER-SENSITIVE
• Some people have no sense of smell
and fail to notice extreme odours (this
can include their own body odour).
• Some people may lick things to get a
better sense of what they are.
• You could help by creating a routine
around regular washing and using
strong-smelling products to distract
people from inappropriate strongsmelling
stimuli (like faeces).
OVER-SENSITIVE
• Smells can be intense and
overpowering. This can cause toileting
problems.
• Dislikes people with distinctive
perfumes, shampoos, etc.
Author: Teresa Tavassoli
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TASTE
BALANCE
(VESTIBULAR)
UNDER-SENSITIVE
• Likes very spicy foods.
• Eats or mouths non-edible items such
as stones, dirt, soil, grass, metal,
faeces. This is known as pica.
OVER-SENSITIVE
• Finds some flavours and foods too
strong and overpowering because
of very sensitive taste buds. Has a
restricted diet.
• Certain textures cause discomfort
- may only eat smooth foods like
mashed potatoes or ice-cream.
• Some autistic people may limit
themselves to bland foods or crave
very strong-tasting food. As long as
someone has some dietary variety, this
isn’t necessarily a problem. Find out
more about over-eating and restricted
diets.
UNDER-SENSITIVE
• A need to rock, swing or spin to get
some sensory input.
• You could encourage activities
that help to develop the vestibular
system. This could include
using rocking horses, swings,
roundabouts, seesaws, catching a
ball or practising walking smoothly
up steps or curbs.
OVER-SENSITIVE
• Difficulties with activities like sport,
where we need to control our
movements.
• Difficulties stopping quickly or
during an activity.
• Car sickness.
• Difficulties with activities where the
head is not upright or feet are off
the ground.
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Functioning
Yesterday at the
#autismchat, one of the
things I said was “High
functioning means your
needs get ignored. Low
functioning means your
abilities get ignored.”
I am by no means the
first person to say
something like this. Over
at Autistic Hoya, there
is a good cartoon about
functioning labels.
Labels
I think that over at Just
Stimming, something
along these lines
has also been said.
Cal Montgomery
criticized a lot of the
ways they’re used in a
movie review back in
2005. And of course,
every time
“
High functioning means
your needs get ignored.
Low functioning means
your abilities get ignored.
someone assumes high functioning/Aspergers
because someone blogs, this gets brought up. It
gets brought up because it’s true.
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I have travelled foreign
countries alone, and
done so competently.
That doesn’t mean I’m
not Autistic. It means
that the skills I have
allow me to do that. I
don’t catch a lot of nonverbal
communication.
That’s a skill I don’t have
so well. If the situation I
face is needing to figure
out how to get from point
A to point B by public
transit, I am in good shape.
I’ll function GREAT. If the
situation is a crowded
gathering where I need to
politely interact
(what if the person never
had a reason to live alone/
independence is a myth
anyways, but certain kinds
of dependence are seen
as natural) Is it by ability
to navigate from point A
to point B safely? (what
if the person works from
home, uses PeaPod, and
doesn’t need to go places
with people, I might
manage the length of
the party (or I might
not.) Then I go home
and shut down. My
functioning in that area
is kind of cruddy.
How do you define high
and low functioning? Is
it by how easy it is to
make an independent
living arrangement work
for that person?
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alone?) Is it on being
able to drive? (what if the
person never had money
to buy a car and try to
learn, or if the person
lives in a city where
driving isn’t needed?) Is it
by ability to handle social
situations? (what if the
person just doesn’t care?)
Is it by ability to speak
(sign language/typing/
AAC anyone?)
Is it by when someone
learned to talk? (Once
talking has been figured
out, you apparently can’t
actually tell when the
person learned by way of
other traits...) Is it by the
history of any other traits?
(But wouldn’t that mean
that we’re assuming the
Is it by ability to blog?
(That doesn’t imply
being able to drive,
live alone, or speak,
by the way.) Is it by
whether or not the
person has any selfharming
or dangerous
stims? (I pick at my
skin as one stim, and
yes, I’ve drawn blood.
I have also banged my
head against walls,
though I’ve not done so
hard enough to cause
permanent damage.)
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person’s skills to be static?
That’s just not accurate.)
Is it by IQ? (Does IQ even
really mean anything
useful anyways? It’s
history is basically a mess
of ableism.) Is it by what
society thinks we should be
able to do?
So, what are we defining
functioning by anyways?
We ALL have strengths
and weaknesses. If
I’m high functioning,
you just ignore the
weaknesses, and if I’m
low functioning, you just
ignore the strengths.
Either way, we get hurt
(and ignored!).
(what do they want,
anyways? Also,
society is made of
fail sometimes.) Is it
by what WE think we
should be able to do?
(We’re not going to
agree with each other...
And it’s not as if people
listen to us much. They
should, though.)
Author: Alyssa Hillary
15

Synesthesia is a condition
in which one sense
(for example, hearing)
is simultaneously perceived
as if by one or
more additional senses
such as sight. Another
form of synesthesia joins
objects such as letters,
shapes, numbers or people’s
names with a sensory
perception such as
smell, colour or flavour.
The word synesthesia
comes from two Greek
words, syn (together) and
aisthesis (perception).
Therefore, synesthesia
literally means “joined
perception.”
Synesthesia can involve
any of the senses. The
most common form,
coloured letters and numbers,
occurs when someone
always sees a certain
colour in response
to a certain letter of the
alphabet or number.
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For example, a synesthete
(a person with synesthesia)
might see the
word “plane” as mint
green or the number “4”
as dark brown. There are
also synesthetes who
hear sounds in response
to smell, who smell in
response to touch, or
who feel something in
response to sight. Just
about any combination
of the senses is possible.
There are some people
who possess synesthesia
involving three or even
more senses, but this is
extremely rare.
Synesthetic perceptions
are specific to each person.
Different people
with synesthesia almost
always disagree on their
perceptions. In other
words, if one synesthete
thinks that the letter “q”
is colored blue, another
synesthete might see “q”
as orange.
Research suggests synaesthesia
is nearly three
times as common in
adults with autism spectrum
disorder than in the
general population. The
two conditions may share
common features such
as unusual wiring of the
brain, say UK scientists.
The study helps understanding
of how people
with autism experience
life, says the National Autistic
Society.
THE FOLLOWING ARE
EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE
SYNESTHESIC EXPERIENCES
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Is a negative reaction
such as anger or repulse
to a sound. This is still to
be confirmed as being
directly connected with
synesthesia, therefore its
possible that it could be a
different neurological field.
SOUND
SIGHT
Is the connection between
sound and colour. One sound
can trigger a colour in the
minds-eye. The cracking sound
of a fire camp can be white.

Number form is the ability to
see numbers in space as part
of a mental map or projection,
when the synesthete thinks
about numbers or involuntary
stimuli brings it to action.
SOUND
SIGHT
Those with SSS can see
sequences of numbers in
space. Those that have it
usually have an enhanced
memory, because the relation
of numbers with spaces
creates a more detailed
picture for recalling events.
Refers to the perception of language
symbols being associated to a
sensation/experience of colors. When
it occurs, the mind automatically
connects specific colors to particular
numbers, letters, and words. The
experience is quite memorable,
forming a consistent association in
the person’s mind.

SOUND
TASTE
Refers to individuals who
taste sounds.

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SMELL TOUCH SMELL SIGHT
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SIGHT
SMELL

SIGHT
TASTE

An interview with
Vivian Belenky
I recently got the chance to interview
blogger and artist Vivian Belenky on her
experience as a young autistic person.
What do you do/what do you study?
I’m a physics/astronomy/art studio student, I work in an optics lab
and the associated electronics lab, volunteer at the ER, and take
tutoring work. I intend to go into education and then medicine.
When were you diagnosed with ASD, and if you remember, what
was your response to it/how did it affect you?
I was never officially diagnosed partially due to being perceived
female and my own parents distrust of the psychiatric institution--
also the fact that I suspect my father also is autistic, and assumed
that all my behaviours were normal and experienced by everyone.
I realized in the past year that I was almost definitely autistic,
and while it was a bit of a weird thing to realize about oneself in
adulthood, it fit really easily with my self-image just because it
explained so much about me.
What were other people’s responses to it?
Lots of people were surprised, because I pass pretty well. I beat
myself into being allistic-passing sometime around middle school-
-although I didn’t think of it that way at the time. I just thought of it
as “making myself normal”, so I could be popular and stop being the
reviled bullied kid all the time.
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How did you ‘come out’ to people about it? How do you tell people
now?
I just mention it if it happens to be relevant to the topic at hand.
What are some of the things you struggle with daily?
Sensory stuff. I have severe misophonia and sensitivity to sound
in general. If I’m overstimulated I can get pretty weird about touch,
too. I also find it damn near impossible to concentrate on anything
I’m not interested in--I get around that by finding most things
interesting, but I just cant force myself to put more than marginal
effort into things I find boring. Also, though I’ve trained myself
pretty well, I miss the hell out of some social cues, mostly to do
with deception--it never occurs to me that I might be being lied to.
What autistic traits do you love and embrace?
I don’t know that I’d pick out any specific ones, mostly because I
didn’t realize my traits were autistic. I pretty much like all my traits.
How do you view the world differently from neurotypical people?
I’m bad at detecting deception. Or rather, I detect it, and then
dismiss my niggling suspicion as paranoia, because I have trouble
imagining why anyone would do something like lie. I think I have
trouble perceiving bad intentions in general.
I think in many ways I see things in a more removed/logical way,
although I think that has more to do with my scientific background
than my neurotype--though who knows. It doesn’t make me any
less vibrant and emotional, which I am extremely.
In general it’s hard for me to tell, because I lived my whole life this
way assuming it was normal, and I have no idea how “neurotypical
people” (who are all different, and whose neurotypes also vary to
some degree) view the world.
33

Do you have any special interests and/or stims?
My special interests are usually some kind of fictional thing, which
I liked sort of serially. I was really into this pixel dragon game for
a while too. I don’t know that any of these things are really outside
the bounds of typical interest though? I mostly have body stims.
Rocking, finger tapping, rubbing my earlobe, rubbing my stubble.
That sort of thing.
What do you think needs to change about the way that society
views autistic people?
Every single goddamn thing.
What in your opinion is the biggest misconception about autistic
people?
That “real” autism is a fate so terrible that death would be better.
That autism is a terrible thing, period.
What do you think about our media representation?
All these character tropes that are obviously autistic (e.g.: the
absent minded professor, the ditz, the gifted child) really should be
explicitly autistic. It seems that allistic people observe autistic traits
in people they perceive to be otherwise “normal”, and then write
about them without realizing they are autistic traits. And when
autistic people point this out? Hoo boy the backlash. Allistic people
only seem to write respectful autistic characters when they don’t
realize they’re doing it.
So, yknow, you can find it, but good luck getting anyone to admit it.
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What needs to be put in place to accommodate autistic people (re:
work, industry)?
I’m not particularly qualified to speak on these things on a
systemic level. Personally I would appreciate if common sensory
issues were generally known and respected--flickering lights,
repetitive noise, touching people without their permission-etc.
I’m mostly concerned as hell about autistic children who are at the
mercy of adults who don’t understand them and don’t care to.
What advice would you give someone who has recently been
diagnosed?
Don’t freak out. Nothing is wrong with you. That anyone has ever
made you think that there is something wrong with you is a grave
injustice. Don’t be afraid to tell people what you need, even if you
don’t perceive it as a common thing to need.
What advice would you give to the parents of a recently diagnosed
individual?
(Assuming the individual is a child) Don’t freak out. Nothing is
wrong with your child. Do not treat your child as though there is
anything wrong with them. Do not treat them as an inconvenience.
Your autistic child is exactly as worthy as an allistic child. Your child
may have particular needs that are common in autistic children
and less common in allistic children. But every child has needs of
varying degrees. Listen to your child. Listen to your child. Listen
to your child. If you are not autistic, they will know things about
themselves that might not be obvious to you. Listen to them.
35

Was there ever a turning point where the way you viewed yourself/
surroundings changed and where you changed the way you lived
life in general?
Not really. At some point, I stopped ignoring my sensory issues
and just directly asking people to stop making certain sounds or
doing certain things because it bothered me. I no longer care if it’s
rude to ask someone to not chew gum when it’s reliably going to
cause me to have a meltdown.
What messages do you wish to convey through your art?
I’m interested in colour and expression and emotion. Any
particular messages are going to be specific to the piece, if there
is a message--there generally isn’t an explicit one in my work.
(Sometimes, the message is “hey, lesbians!!!”)
You have a following online… how do you use your platform?
Make stupid jokes and force everyone to look at my drawings.
How have online communities helped you as an autistic person?
Not in any particular way I can identify, although I remember I hung
out on the internet a lot in middle school. But honestly, what the
hell else was I going to do in the afternoons and evenings in middle
school besides dick around on the internet and talk to people
there? I’m a social person. I still hang out on the internet a lot, but
not because I lack community in real life or anything. I did meet
another autistic person on the internet and my similarity to them
helped me identify the fact that I was probably autistic, if that’s
relevant.
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Are there any projects you are currently working on that you would
like to tell us about?
Well, I wrote a book. It’s pretty good I think. De-constructive heroic
fantasy with gay women. I’m trying to get it published and it’s going
pretty well, although glacially slow as traditional publishing it.
What are your goals for 2017?
I dunno, hang out with my girlfriend. Get paid. Get published.
Belenky’s main blog: gayspacejew.tumblr.com
& art blog: gayspaceart.tumblr.com
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ART DIRECTION:
ELIOTT MCKENZIE