Autism Acceptance Challenge 14: (Neuro)Queering the Conversation

Today’s Challenge is to interact with puzzle pieces in the wild. This goes for other offensive images and rhetoric too. Here’s an example where a graffiti artist decided not to let Autism $peaks have the last word.

Image from HockeyDrunk

Photoshop? Maybe. But there are plenty of more accessible targets around, especially during April.  

You can NeuroQueer any reachable flyer or poster by adding your own text or art. Here’s Squawkers covering up a puzzle piece ribbon for the Unpuzzled blog.

Squawkers should have added a link to an informational website.

And this is a more recent conversation entered using a Post-It.

Before picture shows a person with Down syndrome and the caption: Because my boss encourages me...I am a valuable employee. After picture says: Whether or not my boss encourages me...I am a valuable employee. 

There are many ways to do this. A transparent “no” symbol on a sticker can quickly flip the meaning of any image. I have also been known to place informational flyers like this next to A$ advertising. Nothing is destroyed or defaced and no one is harmed using these methods. I’m not saying I've never used a permanent marker. Not saying I have. But for those of you taking the challenge, that’s not what I’m suggesting. 

Let me know in the comments if you have used any of these ways of interacting with symbols and rhetoric. What other methods have you used?

Note: I am using the word NeuroQueer in this context to mean subvert. I am using it as a corollary to “queer” as a verb. For more on the basic or actual meaning of NeuroQueer, here is some reading.