Just an observation

addendum - just read that an Inquiry is being called for. CAUTION - this artlcle contains distressing detail.

i like to make sense of things to try and understand them sometimes, and not that I am questioning them. 

I had considered if he was diagnosed with aspergers and he said he was himself I have since found out, so it makes things clearer for me. 

You have written things were unanswered we may not know, I thought quite the same and was not doubting if he could be autistic, just that if he used to be severe and was milder now. Now I know he was diagnosed with aspergers so not diagnosed with severe autism.

I think you may have read things into this a bit more than I intended

I totally agree Martin as I said below there are a few academics that have been found to be plagarists who still have thier academic positions.

I've also sigend The Good Law Projects petition of an enquiry.

The media seema to broadcast messages only for neurotypical consumption 

Petition opened into a public enquiry today goodlawproject.org/.../

I think that one of the central issues is this person's autism; if autism affects communication and the accurate decoding of societal norms, should autistic people be hauled over the coals when they get these things wrong? Allistic people regularly embroider the truth, especially on CVs, it is not hugely surprising that an autistic person might not notice the subtle distinction between putting an acceptable gloss on your past and creating falsehoods that can be checked. In a 200+ page thesis, when repeatedly using and referring to other people's work, recognising exactly where, when and how to change wording in order to avoid the charge of plagiarism can be a difficult task, even for allistics.

Cambridge University could have handled this far better and avoided having it turn into a media circus. 

Is his experience only valid if you totally understand it? Is this a standard you use to judge everyone?

As I'm sure you know those of us who were dignosed before 2013 may have been diagnosed as having Aspergers rather than Autism, this change dosen't invalidate a diagnosis of Aspegers or make us less autistic. It was much harder to get a diagnosis back then, I think diagnosis now is a lot more nuanced and personally I wish I could be retested, because my diagnosis was less nuanced.

We all manifest our autism differently and thats what makes it a spectrum.

I'm actually surprised at the questioning of Professor Arday's diagnosis on a forum dedicated to autism and the struggles we face in our daily lives. None of us are under any obligation to share more of ourselves than we're comfortable with and that goes for people in academia and in the public eye more generally. If a sense of "having the right to know" should be used as a reason, then I'd ask who has the right to know what, where and when? I don't think the details of someone like Professor Arday's diagnosis are really anyones business except that of the medical team who's job it is to diagnose and offer support to autistics. I'd also say that the fact that Professor Simon Baron Cohen, a friend of Arday's and one of the worlds best experts on Autism does not doubt Arday's diagnosis should be enough for us lesser mortals. 

I looked online and saw an older video  in an interview with Arday and a presenter. He said himself that he was diagnosed with aspergers, so not severe autism when he was diagnosed. That makes his case more understood by myself.

www.youtube.com/watch

I made a comment about poor Jason a few days ago but it was buried in another thread. Perhaps people are too weary and saddened by other things to comment?

I think what comes out of this, is that there should be an inquiry as to why he wasn't given more pastoral support by Cambridge. Yes, they have to be rigorous about research but that is a separate issue. They must have known how long this had gone on, and the effect it was sure to be having on a shy autistic man, whose whole world was academia. Simon Baron Cohen spoke with Jason a few days before the suicide - Jason said he was exhausted by the whole thing. Surely that must have triggered concern?

I don't agree with you about the autism that one might not normally notice these things.  I had these thoughts when he was alive and kept them to myself. I am not saying I don't believe he was autistic, just that is gaps in what was shared that it harder to understand his case. He appeared to be once more severe and improved  Just the all over picture he gave was someone who had may be improved without putting that in his story so it made it harder to understand it. 

So in effect your extrapolating and projecting those extrapolations onto someone who's no longer here to defend himself, just what others were doing and eventualy what killed him?

Calling him by his first name, Jason, and not as Mr Arday, or Professor Arday or even Jason Arday gives an impression of personal knowlege of the person.

Not all autistic people have poor co-ordination and speaking as someone who's dyspraxic there are things that can get better with the right help and support, many things that manifest in childhood become less of a problem post puberty.

I don't have a problem with eye contact in a professional setting, I learnt to look at people in the eye, I do tend to focus more on their eye colour and iris patterns than anything else, but it is possible to learn how to do it.

I've known a few peope who've taught themselves to read and write, maybe correct spelling and grammar were something he conciously learned?

Of course academic insititutons have to be careful about who they employ and make sure they're properly qualified and just because you come from an ethnic minority or have a disability shouldn't mean you're not subject to the same standards as others. But Professor Arday has had his work re-examined several times and all insistutions involved have upheld his awards.

There have been others who've been found to be plagerists and are still working as academics, as far as I know, none of them are black or disabled.

Plagarism is an increasing problem due to AI generated essays, what isn't plagarism is when someone quotes a piece of work by someone else and gives proper credit and citation to that person and copies what they say exactly. They can then use this to bolster the case their making themselves or to disagree with and make a counter argument. This is normal academic writing, not plagarism.

I think there are a lot of people who don't understand how to construct a university level essay, let alone a dissertation.

I didn't know him at all. I am just writing there was gaps to be able to understand things left out about his autism. 

Like did he teach himself to write and not have a tutor as it is not easy to do this yourself and to become a lecturer to when your English needs to be very good in order to mark others for this to.

The running he did I know severe autistics and some have issues with co-ordination and balance and he did many marathons so I wonder if he had this complication did it improve to enable him to do this long distance running.

There are things not explained which in some cases people have claimed they recovered from a severe autism to have a milder one, but I don't know the case here as it is not been said.

He had good eye contact to which you don't need to have to be autistic poor eye contact-but it can look like he improved with his condition overall if it had once been more severe.

Aside from this-I am sorry that it came to this for him.

True meritocracies are inclusive though. It might have damaged the University reputation had he not been considered/accepted.

There was a lot of polarisation in the media. Everything I have read about this in BBC from the start here was quite a heavy emphasis on the degree of his autism, ie. that he did not speak until he was 11 years old. Some channels seemed to be completely blinkering this out. LIke it was not important. People can only process the information they receive. The public was reactive against his being autistic (which would underline current societal bias) In London people with autism can receive a lot of discrimination just walking on the street. 

Again I am surprised noone was discussing this here. 

The majority of what I have seen have nothing to do with autism. It was to do with the quality of his academic work and his public claims. Plagiarism is a serious issue in academia.

Being a professor makes you something of an expert in your field and your work is published and open to scrutiny. You are also something of a public figure if you play that role and appear on TV, etc.

If the Times questions your claims and work, or the Telegraph, or the Guardian, which many here probably prefer, then there is probably something there.

The extent to which the field in which he worked has adequate academic rigour is a related topic.

Plenty of the responsible attacks have levelled most of the blame at Cambridge for putting him in this position. He could perhaps have holed up and allowed Cambridge's press office to help, pending any inquiry.

One of the top 5 universities in the world needs to be seen to be hiring the best people on merit. If that is perceived not to be the case, then it is damaging to its reputation.

I sympathise with the fact he was under huge pressure.

Did you know him well then, if you did I'm sorry for your loss.

I'm a bit confused why you're talking about his autism in this way though?

Cambridge will definitely review this. I'm not black but I can only imagine how the additional sense of persecution would also have been exacerbated because of his identity. The university's not wanting it to be perceived as a race issue actually blew up the wrong way. But the media and peoples free use of publishing websites to type whatever they want about him - while knowing very little about him is so wring and something that needs policing. 

Autism and linguistics, dyslexia are linked.

I know there is support for conditions like dyslexia. I don't know if I do have that condition. I had to say to myself a job with professional writing I couldn't do as i struggle with English and grammar too much. I had to get an old time friend from school to edit an article of mine because of issues with English etc.

I went to school in the 80s and 90s. We used to play a lot, and somehow I was not too interested in the work. I left a school at 8.5 and didn't pick again how to master English as I should.

I could not be a lecturer where I am needed to mark others English and grammar to  As I mentioned I used to get docked for this in university.  I am not saying it is impossible, but it is for me.

I hadn’t considered that Jason might take his life I didn’t know why Cambridge had it such a public affair. I avoided the case. I found him unsettling to look at. He had eyes that used to stare. I decided not to watch to respect him and wished him well and wanted it to be resolved. I am Black to.

Last I heard was this his former university had cleared his thesis.

I find the case a bit odd to work out with things not explained. He was a non verbal autistic and then taught himself and not a tutor. I have problems with grammar. I didn’t learn perfectly and my spelling and grammar at university I used to get marks knocked off, I got a word processor which helped. Today I use word.

With severe autism if he had that it comes for some with sensory problems like balance and coordination. If he had this he improved.

Some people state online that they were “healed” from their autism and some say they improved like Temple Grandin. I listened to one story and one man said he was non verbal but I was looking at it I thought he was probably very mild now, but not “healed”. That is the extent I know of those stories. There were things missed out from the story like he did he improve from autism aside to of being non verbal to become verbal.

It is very sad for his children. 

One shouldn’t use the condition to cover up errors at the level of university. I think that there needs to be a review of this.

I didn’t know about the conspiracy theory aspect, I read this as labelling him as a fraud, emphasising his autism - questioning the level of difficulty he faced growing up. The worst I have seen of the videos are right wing news channels. The record of what has been written is indelible on the internet. Some of it by his students. Lies...

I've only seen what was in main stream media, but I'm shocked and saddened by his death.

It does seem to have been because of an ongoing and lengthy campaign and part of a rightwing conspiracy started in America of all places to discredit black academics and Prof Arday in particular. He's had numerous investigations that all show his work and PHD to be valid and he was working as a professor before going to Cambridge, but I think its the idea of a black top academic that has set this off. 

I'd like to say that I hope those who have hounded him to death are happy now, only I suspect they are and are looking for the next target.