Stephen Wiltshire is a British architectural artist and autistic savant, as he is known for being able to redraw entire landscapes from memory.
Looking at his drawings knowing such information about his life, will one now look at his drawing with a different perspective? Would people attribute his talents as a “Super Crip”, or as Barbara Hillyer describes as an individual who succeeds “brilliantly beyond what seems to be immovable barriers to their ‘normal’ functioning”. The term itself is problematic, as it feeds into the common “kill or cure” paradigm, in which a disability is seen as something that one should get rid of and overcome, not just as another humanly characteristic as seen through the Social Model.
There is likewise the evident act of “engulfment” (as noted under Performing Disability) when it comes to Stephen Wiltshire’s art. For example, when looking at videos on his drawings, Stephen Wiltshire is referred to as “The Human Photograph”, the “Autistic Savant”, and labeled as the “Autistic Boy Can Draw Landscapes from Memory”. Ironically, not one of the titles mentioned above actually has his own name, thus exemplifying that his identity can be diminished to his disability. Yet, given his amazing talent, he is still considered as an individual with a disability by society.
