ABSTRACT
This chapter compares autistic identity to a railway line various destinations, settling for a time at the stop. The stops are: Difference, Awareness, Understanding, Acceptance, Recognition, and Identity. What makes autistic identity differences noteworthy is that they may have fitted particular patterns that do not fit a neurotypical model of normal. Understanding autistic nature can involve turning every aspect of a person's life over beneath the lens of autism. Acceptance is a settling of one's understanding and lack of understanding of what autism is and individual identity and accepting the two together. The responsibility to do something to challenge prejudice comes about not because a person experience it, but because one witness it. The act of knowing, starting to unlearn and controlling the Autistic Mask and recognising one's Autistic Identity, is a metamorphosis. The chapter provides examples relating to each stops and the authors' own experience. Finally, the chapter briefly describes about the autistic community and its culture.
