{"id":199931,"date":"2019-04-17T10:15:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=199931"},"modified":"2019-04-14T23:55:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T04:55:22","slug":"five-inspiring-people-didnt-know-autistic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/five-inspiring-people-didnt-know-autistic\/","title":{"rendered":"Five inspiring people you might not have known were autistic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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April is National Autism Awareness Month, designed to promote awareness, inclusion and self-determination, as well as increase support available for autistic people so they can achieve the highest possible quality of life. This is more important than ever, as autistic people continue to be victims of violence and death, either at the hands of their parents<\/a> or through euthanasia<\/a>. And as prenatal testing continues to advance, many autism advocates fear that eugenic abortion will include autistic preborn children<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

Despite increased awareness of autism, it continues to carry for some people a negative connotation, as evidenced by the fact that the largest and most well-known autism charity has been plagued with problems<\/a> and faces an ongoing avalanche of criticism among autistic self-advocates<\/a> for not including autistic people, and for spreading fear and negative stigma and stereotypes about autism. Still, the more awareness grows about autism, the more that negative stigma can be erased, particularly once people realize that some of the most admired people in culture and history are, in fact, autistic.<\/p>\n

Dan Aykroyd<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aykroyd, an actor, comedian, and musician, has openly spoken about how he realized he had Asperger’s syndrome in the 1980s, now considered an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). But far from holding him back, Aykroyd said it has actually helped his career. “One of my symptoms included my obsession with ghosts and law enforcement \u2014 I carry around a police badge with me, for example. I became obsessed by Hans Holzer, the greatest ghost hunter ever. That\u2019s when the idea of my film Ghostbusters was born,” he told the Daily Mail<\/a>. In an interview with NPR<\/a>, he also said it helped him create The Blues Brothers for Saturday Night Live.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were classic recidivists, they could never stay out of trouble, always looking for it, borderline sociopathic hedonists, and I was well armed criminological terms and knowledge,” he said. Aykroyd is one of Hollywood’s most well-loved celebrities, having won several Emmy awards and garnering an Academy Award nomination.<\/p>\n