I like Alfonso Cuaron, and I believe the intentions behind this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDdcDlQVYtM) are sound. All the same, this video, and some of the horrible comments about it (for example, "No autistic person is insulted by this. Autistic people do not watch youtube videos because none of them can read well enough to learn of the video’s existence") make me very, very sad. Educate yourselves people. Please.
Autism does not always mean the individual will be condemned to some dark and dreary institutionalized existence. It does not mean the afflicted individual is incapable of love or does not have feelings. Autism is not some horrible devestating demon requiring an ominous voice-over decrying how it tears apart families, steals hope, and ruins lives.
Autism is simply a catch-all name for any number of conditions in which the human brain works a little differently, most notably regarding social interaction. That’s it. The connections between thoughts and actions are not classified as "normal," their methods of communicating may not be "normal," but who decides what is "normal" anyway?
At least the video ends on a hopeful note, but even then it loses focus — it becomes about the people surrounding the autistic individual, making them out to be the victims, to some extent neglecting the real victims — those who actually have autism. In fact — especially on the Asperger’s end of the spectrum — not all afflicted victims see themselves as "afflicted" or as "victims" at all. They may require some additional support and interventions to help them learn to socialize, but that may be all that is needed to fit in with society and live productive, happy lives.
Every case is different. Autism is a "spectrum" disorder, meaning there are many different places where an individual can fall on that spectrum — from the severe cases where lifelong support is needed to cases so mild you would not even know the individual suffers autism at all.
Here’s a quick link if anyone wants some real facts and not some overly-dramatized video drivel: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/mental-health-autism.
oh…and I know for a fact that they DO watch YouTube videos!
T.J. McIntyre: A Southern Fried Weirdo 