Autistics Speaking Day 2018

Fallon Mydske from neurodiversitylibrary.org, Autistics Speaking Day 2018


Autistics Speaking Day 2018
(speech for 9th grade English)


Autistic culture is important to help me be proud of who I am and to deal with ableism around me. Autistic culture is created by autistic people and for autistic people. It is the things autistic people create including art, writing, speeches, jokes, stories and more. It includes the way autistic people move, communicate and connect with the world. This information is available on ASAN’s website (Autistic Self Advocacy Network autisticadvocacy.org) The infinity symbol is a symbol of autism acceptance and autistic culture. This is a symbol chosen by autistic people. A lot of people think that the puzzle piece is a symbol of autistic culture but that is not a symbol that was chosen by us. Many autistic people don’t like the puzzle piece because it indicates something missing. Other than the infinity symbol, there are other symbols of autistic culture that were created by us. This includes the neurodivergent narwhals and Montana the autistic party giraffe. The narwhals were created by an autistic person to help people understand autism. Montana was created as a response to someone saying harmful things about autism. They were not autistic and they said “What, I can’t write about a giraffe or lampshade because I’m not one of those either?”. Autistic people started getting outraged and turned it into a symbol that was silly. Humor is important to a lot of autistic people! Projects and writing such as Autistic Speaking Day and The Loud Hands Project were created to make better resources about autism. Some things such as communication cards, flapping instead of clapping, celebrating the ways we stim and the use of AAC (alternative and augmentative communication) are things everyone can use or do but are important to autistic culture. Autistic culture might not be mainstream but the ideas and practice are important to help us find a sense of community and be proud of who we are.