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