Untypical: How the World Isn’t Built for Autistic People and What We Should All Do About it

Untypical is a more grounded complement to Devon Price’s Unmasking Autism. Wharmby is a British teacher whose later-in-life autism diagnosis prompted a lot of self-reflection, a career change to advocacy, and this book. He is very very upset about how he was treated and how his autistic colleagues are treated. This book is a sincere attempt to share his struggles and solutions.

“What is autism?” is a big open question that doesn’t have a definite answer. My summary of Wharmby’s position is that it’s a constellation of specific patterns, starting with sensory sensitivities, extending to the use of stimming behaviors and special interests to manage internal tension, and psychological overload and meltdown when it all becomes too much. Additionally, the unwritten rules of social interaction are opaque: small talk, flirting, staying a half-hour past clock-out time to show engagement at work, and so on. Difficulties with executive function and task switching are also common. The exact causes are unimportant, except to say that autism can’t be “cured” and isn’t caused by vaccines.

Wharmby’s suggestions are basically ones of extending grace. Recognize the realities of sensory sensitivities and how they can lead to meltdowns by providing people with quiet places without fluorescent lights to recover. Let people socialize on their own time and terms. Have less mandatory highly social athletic fun.

I’m somewhat adjacent to Wharmby, in that we’re almost exactly the same age. And while I don’t have a formal diagnosis, my son does, and that clarified a lot of things about my own life. Most people probably don’t unwind with a quality hour reading about Soviet armored fighting vehicles on Wikipedia. On the other hand, being different hasn’t damaged my life that much, and fitting in has helped me grow. This is a very personal book, and I wonder how it’d read to someone with a lot less crossover than I have.