ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the theories of design have expanded from planned properties of aesthetic appearance to a process in which the object of scrutiny is only a small part of the dynamism and the reach of design. However, it employs autism to exact a critical examination of the multiple factors that design and branding bring to shape the meaning of predominant medicalized disability texts. Thus, autism, Aspergers syndrome and other syndromes on the spectrum accompany us through analysis of disability design and branding as axiology and as meaning-making. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has an illustrious past and present, with branders as well as branded arguing about its essence as unique, desirable, pathological or iatrogenic. This region of designed disability is complex and raises some points that are similar to the discussion of ASD, including the cause-marketed credit card and the pride T-shirt.
