Poor, Edmund W wrote:
Mark wrote:
I think it's a dangerous and foolhardy
endeavor to single out
autistic
contributors for special treatment - which
is, after all, what most of this discussion about autism entails.
Psychologists - trained professionals - are ethically prohibited from
making such diagnoses without meeting a
patient in person. So, rather, now our admins are supposed to do what
even trained professionals will not.
Furthermore, it's inherently bad policy to treat one particular group
different than others (different, for better or for
worse). Not only is it insulting and likely to cause far more
problems
than it would actually, but it is guaranteed to
be riddled with errors (statistical type I and type II).
I agree with all the above and suggest that
people have been using the words "autistic" and
"autism" loosely.
Respecting the privacy of Wikipedians has been an important principle
from the beginning. Any Wikipedian should have the right to park his
private life at the door when he logs on. That includes the autistic
and those with other psychological problems. We also extend that to
anyone whether famous or infamous. We even allow Moonies. :-) The
only valid basis we have for judging anyone is their behaviour in the Wikis.
(To pick a popular example
from politics, a certain school of thought has
taken to labeling George W. Bush "an idiot" -
although they do not _literally_ mean that his
I.Q. is below that of a moron or imbecile: they
merely oppose his policies. They probably mean
that they regard his _policies_ as "stupid". You
might be able to graduate from university with a
90 or 100 I.Q., but an [[idiot]] literally would
be unable to find his way home from class.)
What's tolerable in the political field is not
good to bring to discussions of Wikipedia
contributors. Bush is fair game: we can all say
what we want about him. Our fellow contributors
should not be targets. We should not apply
hurtful labels to them (see [[Wikipedia:Avoid
personal remarks]] and maybe even [[Wikipedia:No
personal attacks]]).
If Bush chose to become one of our editors it would be his right, and he
too would have the right to remain anonymous. I'm afraid though that if
he tried to sign on as [[User:George W. Bush]] he would have a difficult
time proving that he was not a troll using that name for mischief.
It's easy and common to "diagnose" a
schoolchild
or other person with ADD or autism, simply
because they don't "listen" or "behave". Label
them, pigeon-hole them, forget about really
helping them.
These kind of diagnoses are well beyond the capacity of any contributor
acting on line.
We should simply make it possible for those with
poorly developed social skills to contribute to
Wikipedia, but not by relaxing our standards of
civility. If someone _declares_ that they are
somewhat autistic (or senile, or have
Asperger's) that's fine. Cut them a little more
slack, along the lines of "Be nice to the
newbies."
It would be preferable that they not make such declarations, but if they
do it should not be held against them.
Ec