Rhetorical Analysis: Autism

Andrea Albano
February 18, 2014
College Writing 2

GO BLUE!

Imagine if someone you knew has been diagnosed with autism. You would want to know anything and everything about autism. What is autism, what are the symptoms, or how will it affect you, the person who has autism and the family. There is a web site that answers all these questions. Autism Speaks is a non-profit organization, which helps parents and anyone that has been affected by the disease or want to learn more. But this organization does much more. They spread awareness throughout the world, give people a chance to see that they are not alone they have support; they help raise money to donate to research in the hopes that there may be a cure or treatments. Autism Speaks was found in the year 2005 by two loving grandparents whose grandchild had developed autism. Since then, this organization has grown into the world’s leading autism and science and advocacy organization. Through a rhetorical analysis, we will be looking at this amazing website Autism Speaks in how it appeals to the audience. When examining the website it presents an abundance of information and news. When looking at the website as a whole, there is a lot of information that is on the webpage, with all that information, specific words and pictures standout to us.

Blue boxes up at the top are links that can give more information on autism

To the right is a picture of one of many things that grabs our attention. In this picture, in grey words, is the name AUTISM SPEAKS it’s time to listen. is in the upper left and corner along with their signature logo a big puzzle piece with their awareness color blue. To the right of the logo, there is another organization called Shine a Light on Autism were you can join and donate money and participate in lighting a building blue, the official color of autism awareness. Next to Shine a Light on Autism, on the right is a box with the words Sign up of e-Speaks Updates and below is where you can type in your email address and zip code to get updates and to receive information on autism. Below the logo and the organization name, are nine little blue boxes with white writing in them. In those little blue boxes you can donate money, see what type of research there is help find a cure, and m
ore information on what autism really is, and much more. Right below those little blue boxes are seven different links in blue writing. There is a link where you can write a blog to share stories or to help someone who is going through the same thing. You can also screen your child with an excellent test to see if there are any symptoms of autism.



Visual on the left of a little three year old boy with autism and statics of autism.

  Directly below the logo and organization name and the little blue boxes, is the words DONATE NOW in big blue letters. Next to the letters in a lighter shade of blue is the notorious autism logo. Below the big blue donate now words, is a picture of a little boy. This picture is of a little boy who has developed autism with a blank look on his face. It’s an emotional picture because the little boy cannot be more the three years old and he has to go through all of these all these struggles right now when he should be playing outside and playing with toys, but instead he has to go through the struggles of doctor visits and struggles. Below the picture of an amazing little boy, in grey lettering are the words AUTISM AFFECTS. The static 1IN 88 CHILDREN is directly below the gray lettering in orange lettering. The static in a light shade of blue, 1 IN 54 BOYS is directly under the words in orange. Those two colorful statics have the most emotion in them. With these statics posted it really shows who it affects the most and that sadly anyone can develop autism. In lime green, the words LEARN THE SIGNS, directly below the static in light blue, can help you look for the signs early enough and get the help that is needed.

To the right of the emotional picture of the little three-year-old boy, are articles that are timed to change. This picture of the article to the right is one of many articles that are shown. Only four other featured articles can viewed and by viewing them, in the bottom right hand corner are four little orange boxes with white numbers. These four little boxes have the ability to view another article. For this article, in big blue letters is the title of the article. The article is how this amazing organization has provided $50,000 in buying Big Red Safety Boxes (Big Red Safety Boxes is tools kits for children that have been affected by autism). Under the big blue title, letters is a brief summer on what the article is about. To the right of the title and the summery is a picture. At picture is of big grey colored letters and one red colored letter. The on its side, the word BIG is in grey. Right next to the word big, is the word RED in red. Under the word red, are the words SAFETY BOX in grey. In the word box, the Big Red Safety Box logo replaces the O.

Underneath the different changing articles are five rows of articles. News, Research, Family Services are directly across from each other. Official Blog Posts is underneath the Research column and Advocacy News is underneath Family Services. In each column, in the right upper hand corner, the autism logo is present in white while the background is a greenish color. Only a few articles are displayed but at the bottom right hand corner Read more articles… is displayed. Some of the columns cannot expand. When looking at these columns, it gives you many articles that you can read and learn more information on. However, since there are too many articles, it makes it frustrating to read because there are too many words to process.

Autism Speaks is a non-profit organization that helps get people through the hard times of being affected by autism. It helps you learn more information, and helps you feel that there are people out there that can help you through the struggle. Also, it helps fund research by donations in the hopes that research and help find treatments and a cure. When looking at this website as a whole, it seems like a professional site. This site showed me that they have a passion for helping out people who have unfortunately have diagnosed with this horrible disease. They incorporated their official color blue as their background, and other organization that can help out. The logo and the organization name was clear and easy to locate. The columns that held all the articles, offered a lot of information. But since there were so many articles, I was looking everywhere. It was cluttered and making it frustrating to read because of all the articles. The picture of the little boy and all the facts were the most emotional. It showed how anyone can be affected especial children. So imagine if your child was diagnosed with autism, wouldn’t you like a webpage that you can find more information on?