7. Puzzle piece: symbol for autism awareness
Number seven on our list of autism facts and statistics: autism rates in Amish, countries that don’t vaccinate and more, is the story about the origins of a puzzle piece as a symbol of autism. It goes way back to 1963 when people believed that autistic people have a “puzzling” condition. Truth be told, this is pretty convenient even today after dozens of studies on autism were conducted. Some parents agree that the term “puzzle piece” perfectly describes all the complicated ways autism impacts their children. Autism is indeed a puzzle that many are trying to solve, unsuccessfully so far. However, autistic people have been criticizing the puzzle piece as a symbol of autism awareness because it can also symbolize that something is missing, that they have a problem that needs to be solved. Some of them stated that they are not problems and that they are not incomplete persons, often claiming: “We’re people, not puzzles.” Whether this symbol will remain or not is yet to be seen.
Pixabay/Public Domain
