Illustrating Autism With the Autistic Color Wheel

What is the best way to describe an Autistic person’s experiences of the world?

How can you describe what is happening inside an Autistic person's mind?

If you take a minute to try and think of a ‘general’ description of Autism, you might realize that it really isn’t that simple. The most common way to conceptualize autism is through the Autism spectrum – a scale which was designed to illustrate the ‘degree’ of autism an autistic person has.

Despite the term ‘spectrum’ being widely used, did you know that this is possibly not the best way to describe Autism?

We’re going to go over the reasons why the ‘spectrum’ is not the best way to describe autism, and introduce a much more detailed alternative.

Behind The Term ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’

You might be familiar with the term ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’ (ASD), the official diagnostic term for Autism. The reason Autism is known as ASD is because originally, it was split into many different types of disorders, which included:

Asperger’s Syndrome
Autistic Disorder
Kanner’s Syndrome
Childhood Autism
Atypical Autism
Pervasive Development Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)

Therefore, ASD is an overarching term to account for all of the above disorders. As you can see, a variety of disorders are included in ASD. Do you think this makes understanding autism easier?

Does the Term ‘Spectrum’ Illustrate Autism Well?

As we mentioned, ASD is an overarching term for what previously was many separate conditions. But, within each condition or disorder, a person could present a number of different ways.

This is where the term ‘spectrum’ falls short, as it implies that autism can be evaluated on a quantitative scale. The perception of the autism spectrum, therefore, ends up looking like this:

Autism spectrum diagram used by clinicians

This misconception of autism implies that one person with ASD can be ‘more autistic’ or ‘less autistic’ than another. Since ASD is an umbrella term for previously separated conditions, all of which are defined by a variety of symptoms, a linear scale does not really illustrate the lived experience of someone with ASD.

You can try it for yourself – how would you compare someone who falls on the ‘center’ of the spectrum, to someone who falls at the right side of the spectrum?

You probably realize you can’t actually compare them. As every autistic individual experiences different facets of life differently, it is impossible to tell what the unique needs of someone with ASD would be based on the spectrum alone.

How About Levels?

Along with the term ‘spectrum’, ASD is also often separated into 3 levels, with 1 being the ‘least severe’ and 3 being the ‘most severe’ form of ASD. Whilst a levels system might be useful in understanding the level of support required for a newly diagnosed autistic and their family, it further pushes the idea of ASD being a 'graded’ diagnosis.

Additionally, almost all research on ASD has been conducted by non-autistic researchers and professionals. Therefore, the spectrum and the ‘levels’ description of ASD are defined based on a non-autistic person’s perception of autism, rather than an autistic’s lived experience of ASD.

So, it is not really possible to understand how an Autistic person experiences the world around them, by just simply labeling them with ASD. Since autism encompasses psychological, developmental, social and behavioral characteristics, there are an infinite number of possible presentations of autism!

A Better Way To Illustrate Autism – The Color Wheel

Autism being known as a ‘spectrum’ disorder allows for a basic understanding and standardized diagnosis for clinicians and families. However, there are better ways to illustrate the unique ways people with ASD experience the world around them. Since there are a number of ways ASD could affect an individual, there is an unlimited number of ways ASD could present itself!

Woman painting a color wheel to illustrate autism spectrum disorder

This is where the autism color wheel comes in. Rather than placing an autistic person on a simple, linear scale, the autism color wheel demonstrates the exact ways each individual with ASD experiences the world around them.

The color wheel charts every unique trait of autism on a radar chart, and also quantifies how strongly that trait influences an autistic person’s life. Instead of generalizing ASD, the color wheel highlights the uniqueness between every individual with ASD.

Why Use The ASD Color Wheel?

The most important feature of the autism color wheel, is that it demonstrates ASD from the perspective of the person with ASD. It allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the unlimited number of ways ASD could affect people with ASD at the individual level.

As an illustration, take a look at some color wheel examples below. Would you say every example of ASD is similar, just based on their color wheels?

Interactive color wheel demonstrating autism

As you can see, every color wheel is unique, and you can quickly grasp each individual charts’ distinct traits just by taking a quick look.

The color wheel is also reflective of the rainbow infinity symbol for ASD – it demonstrates the infinite number of ways ASD could manifest! By using a vibrant color wheel for understanding ASD, it illustrates the uniqueness and individuality of ASD as well.

Create Your Own Autism Color Wheel

To create your own color wheel to better understand ASD, you can use this online test. Please note that the autism color wheel test is used for demonstrating a variety of traits in ASD, and is not a diagnostic tool.

If you want to learn more about using the color wheel to understand ASD, you can read Casey’s perspective in this article.