It now seems to be generally accepted that autistic people have sensory issues. However while people intuitively seem to grasp the implications and reality of hypo –sensitivities this is often not the case with hyper-sensitivities.
If someone is deaf or blind (hypo sensitive to sound or visual input) there is not a tendency to accuse them of “not really trying” to hear or see or telling them to “get over themselves”. However if autistic people are hyper sensitive to these sound or visual signals and ask for changes to be made so that the environment is not causing us so much distress we are all too often regarded as being “selfish” “fussy” or “difficult”
I’m not quite sure why this is, as there is no difficulty simulating being over sensitive to noise, you would just need to turn the speakers up full blast to feel the pain – the negative impact of too much sound is recognised in regulations, however it seems difficult for most of us to grasp intuitively the degree of difference in baseline tolerance that autism can cause.
If someone is deaf or blind (hypo sensitive to sound or visual input) there is not a tendency to accuse them of “not really trying” to hear or see or telling them to “get over themselves”. However if autistic people are hyper sensitive to these sound or visual signals and ask for changes to be made so that the environment is not causing us so much distress we are all too often regarded as being “selfish” “fussy” or “difficult”
I’m not quite sure why this is, as there is no difficulty simulating being over sensitive to noise, you would just need to turn the speakers up full blast to feel the pain – the negative impact of too much sound is recognised in regulations, however it seems difficult for most of us to grasp intuitively the degree of difference in baseline tolerance that autism can cause.
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