It's safe to say that you've probably heard of autism, the range of developmental disorders that makes life a challenge for millions of people across the world. Awareness of its existence and methods for helping those who suffer from it have made great strides forward over the past decade, with a much greater understanding being apparent in the world at large. Idiots like Michael Savage notwithstanding, of course.

Autism usually manifests as delayed language development, with the exception of the Asperger variant. Autistic people often have trouble communicating, great difficulty in social settings, intractability with non-essential routines, and can be narrowly focused on highly specific interests. That last one is the basis of many of the autistic savants that you've seen in movies.

Autistic Pride Day was found in 2005 in order to celebrate the nuerodiversity of people with autism. For the organizers, autism is not necessarily something to be cured, but an inherent difference in people who should be appreciated and celebrated rather than treated as an illness. Well, there are at least five musicians whom you could use as examples for this thesis, and they formed the basis of my playlist this week.