'Millie the Millennium Bug' pin badge by the National Autistic Society

'Millie the Millennium Bug', pin badge in cardboard backing, by The National Autistic Society, 1999

This pin badge was sold by the National Autistic Society in 1999 to raise funds for the charity’s work. It features ‘Millie the Millennium bug’ in form of a ladybird sitting on a jigsaw piece. Millie is a hint at the ‘Millennium Bug’, which was the name given to a group of potential consequences identified with internal computer clocks changing from the year 1999 to the year 2000. Until the 1990s, years in computer programs were shortened to two digits. It was feared that the abbreviation ‘00’ would not be read as 2000 but 1900, which would create chaos and disruption around the world. In the end, the problem had a number of small impacts but did not live up to the high levels of hype in pre-millennium media speculation.

The National Autistic Society used the bug as a marketing strategy, as well as to draw attention to the experiences of autistic people at the time. The cardboard backing claims that while the general public tended to connect the Millennium with hope and new beginnings, many autistic people could not envisage what it meant. It explains that “the solitary jigsaw piece represents the confusion and isolation of people with autism trapped in a world where the pieces of everyday life refuse to fall into place.”

Today, the jigsaw symbol as well as the public image it creates are widely criticised. Many autistic people consider it as stigmatising, ableist, and generalising.