tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37727818772844541132024-02-18T22:03:59.362-05:00Autistics Speaking DayTo raising Autism awareness and Acceptance, and battling negative stereotypes about Autism.
To advocate for the inclusion of Autistic people in the community.
To offer a forum to broadcast our stories and thoughts, and to help the messages of Autistic people and non-Austistic allies reach as many people as possible.Kathryn Bjornstad-Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09757451092927118197noreply@blogger.comBlogger468125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-30759434346490627192023-11-02T16:02:00.002-04:002023-11-02T16:02:08.914-04:00"I Don't Remember You Being So... Autistic."<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Christina-Marie "CM" Wright, a.k.a. The Gonzo Mama </span>, <span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>"I Don't Remember You Being So... Autistic.", </i></span><a class="waffle-rich-text-link" data-sheets-formula-bar-text-link="http://TheGonzoMama.com" data-sheets-formula-bar-text-style="font-size:13px;color:#1155cc;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;font-family:'Arial';font-style:normal;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;" href="http://www.thegonzomama.com/2022/12/i-dont-remember-you-being-so-autistic.html" style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">TheGonzoMama.com</a></span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Believe it or not, there are people in my world who still have a hard time accepting that I am autistic, because it doesn't fit with their memories of me in childhood or early adulthood. Some of those people have openly stated, "You never seemed autistic to me." Sometimes, I get the feeling they intend such a statement to be a compliment (it isn't). Other times, it seems to be more of a statement of doubt regarding my diagnosis.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">There are others who are able to easily accept and understand that I'm autistic and always have been, but some have suggested that I've become "more autistic" over time. Is that even possible? I mean, being autistic isn't like being caffeinated. I haven't just been pouring myself an extra cup of The Autism every morning for the last few years.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Here's what I've come up with:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I'm exactly as autistic as I have been since birth. However, what those folks from my past remember as me being not-autistic or not-as-autistic is actually autistic me, in younger form, with more energy and desire to mask my neurotype and try to "pass" in an allistic (non-autistic) world. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Whether they know it or not, what those people are saying is:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><i><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">You used to put in more effort to make people like me feel more comfortable with you, despite the toll it took on your emotional, physical, and mental health.</span></b></i></div><div><i><b><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></b></i></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">The thing is, I never did "pass." I was always treated like an outsider by most of my peers, and the few people who did accept and value me knew exactly who and what I am. Maybe they didn't have a word for it ("autistic"), but they knew I was different than most people, and assimilation was not a requirement for their friendship. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">It took me a long time to realize two important things: First, the energy I spent attempting to appear like others was wasted... I would never be an insider to certain groups. Second, there are people out there who do not demand that energy as a condition for acceptance. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Those two realizations were life-changing.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">No one outside my home knew it, but I could barely get through the day at school when I was young. I would come home and completely melt down--often in violent, harmful ways. I didn't have the knowledge or tools to understand why it happened, and I wished so very much that I could control it, but I couldn't. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">When I went off to college, there was no "home" to melt down in. My campus was very active and involved, and cultivated a climate of connection, so there was a lot of pressure to be social at all times. By the end of the first year, I was so burned out I had to drop out. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Entering the workforce as a young adult was much the same. I had to get through each day, engaging with coworkers and clients or customers, until I could break away and break down. My "melt down" actions took different forms, and self-destructive or risky behavior was often how I dealt with the emotional toll of feeling like I had to be "on" all the time. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">As we grow up, a lot of societally-enforced messages about socializing and interacting with others are either precisely and methodically taught, or reinforced through aversive responses. That is, we are taught to say "please" and "thank you" and to share our things directly, but we are indirectly taught things like forced eye contact ("Look at me when I'm talking to you!"), that we must refrain from oversharing about our special interests ("Give it a rest, already! No one cares that you like to read about serial killers!"), and that we must--at all costs--try to behave, dress, speak, and present like our allistic peers ("Maybe they wouldn't tease you so much if you made more of an effort to fit in.").</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">The result is that every interaction ("Good morning," for example) is dominated not by the external connection but by internal struggles and conflict. </span></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Am I making enough eye contact? Too much? Am I staring?</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Am I talking too much? Not enough? </span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Is it my turn to talk? </span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Are they getting angry? Bored? Annoyed? </span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Stop fidgeting! </span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Look at them when they are talking to you! </span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Don't talk about serial killers!</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Act interested. It doesn't matter if you aren't.</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">What does "interested" look like?</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Pay attention!</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Don't stare!</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Look at them when they are talking to you!</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Add to that the pressure to make and have friends, when such relationships are confusing and confounding. Autistic kids and young adults are often taken advantage of because we are taught a lot of "rules" about making and having friends, and we assume that if we hold up our end of the deal (Be Kind. Share Your Things. Be Helpful.), other people will automatically be our friends. And when we think a person is our friend, we will often do what that person wants without questioning because we assume everyone follows the same rules about making and having friends. We may also make inappropriate overtures, such as gifting an expensive or personally precious item to someone who we think is our friend. The problem is, that person may or may not consider us a friend, and such overtures clue allistic peers in to the extent of our desperation for acceptance and make us targets for exploitation. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">The pressure to be accepted may never fully go away. I'm convinced of that. I'm 47 years old and it still hurts when I'm rejected by peers after I've followed the "rules" of making and having friends. It isn't so much that I truly need those relationships as it is that I've been conditioned to believe I need them, so the failure to cultivate them feels like personal failure. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">However, a couple years ago, I stopped trying so hard.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Despite the loss of a household member to COVID-19, the rest of the world shutting down proved to be incredibly healing for me. I no longer felt pressure to be "on" all the time, and my mental health improved.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I realized it was the culmination of an incremental process of letting go of my own expectations that I would be able to assimilate into allistic culture, as well as eradicating my tendency to capitulate to the expectations of others. I had slowly been putting less pressure on myself to hide who and what I really am, and learning to embrace my true self. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Shockingly, I didn't fail to succeed. I honestly expected to, but I was so weary I didn't care. I'd grown up believing that if I didn't "at least try to fit in" and meet the social and communicative expectations of others, I would be not only alone, but also barred from any opportunity I might want access to. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I went back to college during the 2020 shutdown, but I did it on my own terms.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I reached out to every professor before courses started and introduced myself. I told them I'm autistic, and what to expect from me in terms of communication and interaction. I told them my communication is sometimes considered blunt, but it is always honest. I stated eye contact is difficult for me, and lack of it should not be taken as lack of attention because I hear and learn more when I'm not forcing myself to maintain it. I told them what my needs are in terms of receiving communication and specifically, critique: Direct is best, because I won't pick up on suggestions offered gently. I told them what accommodations I qualified for through Disability Services, and accommodations I need that Disability Services can't offer me. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I figured I'd just put it all out there, and take the pressure off myself to be or behave in any way that was inauthentic. If I was met with rejection, so be it, but I wasn't going to add the stress of having to "perform" as an allistic-passing person to the stress of being a non-traditional student who was already juggling parenting of multiple kids with newly added college commitments.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I wasn't rejected. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Instead, I was thanked for the frank and productively critical disabled rights perspective I brought to classes. My work and talents were appreciated. Although I had a hard time relating to many of my classmates who were the ages of some of my kids, I found connection with several of my professors, and learned I am really, really good at a lot of things when I'm not distracted by forcing myself to behave or present in ways that are not natural for me.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I've even made a few authentic friends, and it's comforting to know and understand the parameters of those friendships. There are no surprise rejections because they began with me being open about who I actually am, rather than a forced, performative version of myself I will ultimately be unable to maintain, longterm. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Living authentically and openly autistic has been personally freeing, and it has opened far more doors for me than trying to "fit in" with a culture that has overwhelmingly rejected me in the past.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">It makes some people uncomfortable.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">It makes some people think I've become "more autistic" over time.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">It's distressing to some people that I don't do more to make them comfortable around me, as I have in the past. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">It makes some people think they are invited to critique my deliberate and conscientious decision to not cultivate in my autistic children the same lifelong pattern of self-abuse I developed. I am not interested in forcing them to mask their autistic behaviors, communication, and ways of experiencing the world. I don't teach them they need to change. Instead, I try to teach them about what I've learned about allistic people, and tips for engaging with them, when we must, without compromising or apologizing for who we are.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I received a letter from my mother-in-law last year, detailing all the reasons she thinks I am failing my children, and all the reasons why people "hate you... but would never say so." Most of the things she listed were to do with my (autistic) communication style and ways of being in the world, whether she realized it or not. Her assessment was that she thinks I need to "find Jesus." (Been there, done that... dig far enough into my blog or read my first book and you'll find it, along with some seriously misguided political beliefs that I've since disavowed.)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I've found myself, and it's enough.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">I am enough.</span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I'm exactly as autistic as I have been since birth. That hasn't changed.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">What has changed is my willingness to compromise my own well-being--and that of my children--in order to gain the acceptance of people who are never going to fully grant it, anyway.</span></div><div><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /></div>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-82978941403291269702023-11-01T22:31:00.010-04:002023-11-01T22:37:16.475-04:00 Autistic Haiku of My Living Room<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Ben Edwards, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Autistic Haiku of My Living Room</i></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">My bookshelf standing
In a corner, housing all my
Special interests
</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
</span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-90728212338460397672023-11-01T22:28:00.000-04:002023-11-01T22:28:04.347-04:00Oh, Brilliant! The 13th Doctor and Autism<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;">C.L. Bridge, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Oh, Brilliant! The 13th Doctor and Autism</i>, <a href="https://awnnetwork.org/oh-brilliant-the-13th-doctor-and-autism/">AWNNetwork.org </a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">(Contains spoilers for Series 11 and 12 of Doctor Who)</span></em></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“Maybe I’m nervous. Or just socially awkward. I’m still figuring myself out.” If you’re autistic or have social anxiety, you can probably relate to these words in my Instagram bio. If you’re a fan of Doctor Who, you might recognize them as a quote from the 13th Doctor, whom I headcanon as autistic.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Like most autistic people, Thirteen gets very excited about things that interest her, however small those things may seem to NTs. She loves a laminator. She loves biscuits. She can be so enthusiastic about someone’s scientific projects that she doesn’t realize they have bad intentions until it’s too late. Then there’s the adorable “purple sofa” scene. When I finally got my very own apartment (a milestone that seemed out of reach for many years), my mind kept replaying the Doctor’s happy ramblings about how she’d love to have her own flat and a purple sofa to sit on. She’s trying to make small talk, though her companions think she is being a bit weird.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://awnnetwork.org/oh-brilliant-the-13th-doctor-and-autism/">(Read More Here)</a> </span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-67858404107593967172023-11-01T17:20:00.001-04:002023-11-01T17:20:14.296-04:00One Last Autistics Speaking Day <p><a href="https://linktr.ee/ahzisk?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=f8216c3c-7670-4248-8f12-72d62f471358">Alyssa</a>, <i>One Last Autistics Speaking Day</i>, <a href="https://yesthattoo.blogspot.com/2023/11/one-last-autistics-speaking-day.html" target="_blank">Yes, That Too</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">I actually don't remember the start of Autistics Speaking Day (I'd just started my freshman year of college), but I've read about it. <br /><br />I've participated a few times.<br /><br />I helped with the Tumblr for it, I think 2014-2016? <br /><br />But as time moves on, the ways people engage in communities have changed. Yahoo groups were before my time. I began engaging in the age of blogs. I saw #AutChat start. I think we're in the age of social media, now, more so than stand-alone blogs.<br /><br />I'm not sure that's a good thing, but I think it's<i> true</i>. Facebook groups are where I'm most active, now. <br /><br />I'm still speaking. Just... not usually orally, and not usually here. <br /><br />(It's also relevant that I've been writing in places that aren't blogs or social media, but that's more the academic side of things than the everyday.) <br /></p>Alyssahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413844178426365789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-11757471523511720932023-11-01T17:03:00.003-04:002023-11-01T17:03:25.182-04:00Okay, I get it. But can we also...<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;">oneautisticperson,<i> </i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Okay, I get it. But can we also...</i>, <a href="https://oneautisticperson.tumblr.com/post/732781218941255680/okay-i-get-it-but-can-we-also">Tumblr</a></span></span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">This day, the 1st November 2023 will be the last Autistics Speaking Day. This day started back in 2010 as a day for Autistic people to flood the internet with our messages and thoughts. While I have been very busy with my work, I thought I would contribute one last entry.</span></i></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Okay, I get it.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Planning meals with me around is hard. I am so restricted in what I am able to eat and it is an annoyance. Good chance I can’t eat anything at that restaurant, I won’t eat anything from take-away shop etc. Guess what? It is an annoyance for me to. One of my workplaces has a work lunch coming up and I have to weigh up whether it is worth going. It is at a restaurant I have never been to and doesn’t seem to be located near places I know I can eat at so I can’t just get there early and grab something to eat somewhere else first. I would love not to have this problem. To not have to bring emergency food when I leave for a trip, to not have to eat beforehand when I go to most social gatherings.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But can we also…</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Talk about the fact that when my best friend and I made pizza at her house for the first time, I nearly cried because I am rarely included in meals to that extent?</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Mention the comfort that familiar foods bring me? If I am having a bad day, I know exactly what I need. It is not just eating the food but also the familiar smells.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Discuss that the same reason that makes food difficult for me brings me so much joy in other ways? My tolerance and enjoyment of show rides for example. Removing one would likely remove the other so I will take the good with the bad.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Okay, I get it.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I see you rolling your eyes when I try to talk about something that interests me. Show rides, neurodiversity, autism, Ned Kelly etc. You have heard me discuss this before and it is boring.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But can we also…</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Mention that I have had to listen to you talk about basketball or other things a lot as well?</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Discuss how great I feel when I find someone to discuss show rides, neurodiversity etc. with? Online groups in particular have been great with this.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Okay, I get it.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">You find my tendency to withdraw rude. I spend too much time alone or with my cats.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But can we also…</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Discuss that the noise is too much for me at times? Why must the tv, radio or Spotify always be on in the background? What is wrong with silence?</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Discuss that my withdrawal also helps me socialise. It is a balance. I just don’t have the energy to socialise all the time. Withdrawing for a time means I get some recharge time and can socialise more afterwards.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Mention that being alone can be fun as well as beneficial?</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Okay, I get.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">You feel the need to tell me your perspective all the time.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But can we also…</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Discuss my perspective. Discuss my strengths as well as my limitations. Discuss what makes me happy.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There has been attention on moving away from discussing deficits and instead discussing interests and strengths when working with autistic people. This needs to go beyond professionals and be common for families, friends and the wider community.</span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #6e7173; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-58337689527259684942023-11-01T16:48:00.002-04:002023-11-07T20:57:02.542-05:00Autistics Speaking Day<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white;">AutisticIntrovert383, </span><span style="background-color: white; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Autistics Speaking Day, </i></span><span style="background-color: white; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://theautisticintrovert.blogspot.com/2023/10/autistics-speaking-day.html">The Autistic Introvert</a></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: 36pt;"><span> </span><span> </span>Autistics Speaking Day is an event held on November 1st every year. It is a </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; text-indent: 36pt;">day where we autistics speak up & advocate for ourselves. Being Autistic in the NT world is exhausting and tiring. It is like being a square peg and trying to fit into a round hole. This is a day for us to be loud and proud, and broadcast our narratives. We broadcast every narrative, and we showcase our Autistic experiences and perspectives to the world. When the NTs become silent and disconnect from all social media networks and forums on November 1st, let’s speak up, advocate, and fight for ourselves and our rights. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: 36pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: 36pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: 36pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Autistics Speaking Day was started on November 1st, 2010, by two autistic adults in the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and the Autism Women’s & Nonbinary Network (AWN). This day was started to protest Communication Shutdown. Communication Shutdown was a day for NTs to stop communication through social media and other networks and platforms for one day on November 1st to imagine the “problems” or “deficits” that we autistics have in communication. We don’t have communication “problems” or “deficits”. It is very hard and difficult for us to interact with NTs due to the double empathy problem. We protested Communication Shutdown because it was started by an organization in Australia that was connected to an ableist autism organization in the US. Enough with saying “deficit” and “disordered”. Enough with saying “different ability”. Enough with saying “HFA” and “LFA”. Enough with the ableist treatments. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.</span></span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> On this day, we demonstrate to NTs that we are not broken, we don’t need to be fixed, we don’t need to be cured, and we don’t need to be treated. We are unique individuals who don’t need ableist treatments. We don’t need our square pegs to be forced into round holes. We must fight and advocate for ourselves. If we don’t advocate for ourselves, who will fight for us? We face so much ableism and bullying. We must understand our disability to fight and advocate for ourselves. Speaking up for ourselves allows us to fight for accommodations, adjustments and support. Accommodations and adjustments are not a burden. They allow us to function in the NT world. We need accommodations and support, not rejection. We need accommodations and support, not ableism. We show every sensory pain, every joy, every misunderstanding, every account of being bullied, every joyful moment, and every account of trying to advocate and fight for ourselves. </span></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> There are many events related to Autistics Speaking Day that are held on November 1st. At this time, social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and blogging sites are flooded with posts describing our experiences of being Autistic. When the NTs stop interacting on this day, let’s flood the internet with our Autistic experiences, perspectives, and values. We need to speak up, fight, and advocate for ourselves in order to make a change in how NTs see us. We can advocate and fight for ourselves to get our accommodations and adjustments for our needs. </span><br /><span style="text-indent: 36pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> Since we are a marginalized minority group, we must fight, speak up, and advocate for ourselves. This helps us to get accommodations and support in school, college/university, the workplace, and in public places. We know what’s best for us. We need accommodations and support, not rejection. We need accommodations and support, not ableism. We autistics know everything about autism & being Autistic from our lived experiences. We need to speak up for ourselves without being drowned out and silenced by NTs. Each and every one of us is different in our own ways, but our lived experiences are valid. We need to boldly and courageously show the world: Nothing About Us, Without Us. </span><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> Autistics Speaking Day is an event by us, for us. It is an event where we autistics flood every social media site with our Autistic experiences, perspectives, and views to the world. We need to fight and advocate for ourselves and our needs, as this will allow us to receive accommodations and adjustments. We need to self-advocate for our rights, and we need to self-accommodate our own needs. Let’s spread Autism Acceptance and Autistic Pride, and let’s fight, speak up, and advocate for ourselves. Let’s start peaceful protests around the world not only on this day, but all year long. Let’s start peaceful protests all over the world where we say: WE NEED ACCOMMODATIONS AND SUPPORT, NOT REJECTION. WE NEED ACCOMMODATIONS AND SUPPORT, NOT ABLEISM. WE NEED REPRESENTATION, AND WE DON’T NEED TO BE SILENCED. Let’s celebrate Autistics Speaking Day with a statement to proudly, boldly, & courageously show the world: </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Nothing About Us, Without Us! :)</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Happy Autistics Speaking Day everyone!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">#ActuallyAutistic</span><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">#AutisticsSpeakingDay</span><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">#ASDay</span><br /></span><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">#NothingAboutUsWithoutUs</span></span></p></div>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-63297583927400407952023-11-01T16:07:00.002-04:002023-11-01T16:07:30.496-04:00Reflecting on Autistics Speaking Day<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;">chavisory, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Reflecting on Autistics Speaking Day</i>, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://chavisory.wordpress.com/2023/11/01/reflecting-on-autistics-speaking-day/">Chavisory's Notebook</a></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I remember where I was when Autistics Speaking Day was born.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I hear people say this about JFK’s death, Princess Diana’s, 9/11, the moon landing, the Challenger explosion, the fall of the Berlin Wall.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But I remember where I was when Autistics Speaking Day was born, and I probably will forever. I remember the show I was working on and the rehearsal I was watching and the studio we were in. The <a href="https://thinkingautismguide.com/2011/09/self-advocateparent-dialogues-day-one.html" style="color: #59708c;">TPGA Dialogues</a> were also in full swing at the time and it was one of the first times I started openly participating in the online autistic community. I’d been tasked with watching music rehearsals that week that didn’t really require my involvement at every moment of the day, so I had a fair amount of time to follow along.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And so I remember precisely where I was when I saw the very first objections to the announcement of the upcoming event, “Communication Shutdown.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Other people have written more and better than I have about why the concept for such an event was tragically out of touch with most autistic people’s realities. I didn’t really participate that first year; I’d only had both a blog of my own, and my diagnosis, for under two years, and I wasn’t terribly sure of my voice on the subject yet. But it was one of the first times I saw other autistic people in real time, as opposed to what was already in the neurodiversity.com archives, saying “Actually, we don’t have to let something that represents us badly go unchallenged just because it was well-intentioned.” Up until then, I’d been pretty used to just swallowing a vague sadness and feeling of disconnect when media or initiatives supposedly about autistic people just bore no relationship to my feelings or experience at all.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">More and more often over the past few years, I’ve found myself not having the time to get something written for ASD, and I thought I probably wouldn’t again this year because of how things have been at work for me, but when I heard it <a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2023/10/closing-autistics-speaking-day.html" style="color: #59708c;">would be the last</a>, I couldn’t let it pass.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I’m sad to see it end, but I think it’s fitting that Autistics Speaking Day outlasted “Communication Shutdown” by a decade, effectively (to my knowledge, it didn’t even persist beyond that first year), and will certainly be longer remembered for its impact on autistic lives.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And it’s good news, in a strange way, that I haven’t had the kind of time to participate that I would’ve liked, because I’ve been so overwhelmed with work. Employment statistics for autistic people generally and autistic women especially have been and remain troubling, so much so that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4581899/" style="color: #59708c;">in one longitudinal study</a> on patterns of employment and post-secondary educational achievement of autistic people from several years ago, <em>none</em> of the participating women maintained consistent employment over the course of the study.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I’m more and more consistently working this time of year, and still working in my chosen field (although issues of work/life balance and burnout in theater and stage management remain another story entirely, sadly).</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But I miss the people I got to know in those days who I either haven’t been able to keep up with as much as I’ve wanted to, or who’ve dropped out of blogging or activism entirely, as much as I understand their reasons. Life happens.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I miss the blogosphere from before the rise of the social media networks and the relationships it fostered, as much as I’m thankful for the people who’ve come into my life and the connections we’ve formed because of Facebook and Twitter.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I hurt for those of us who’ve struggled with homelessness, chronic illness, long Covid. I ache for those of us who’ve died.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And yet, it’s good news, in a way, that a lot of us are overcome with family and work responsibilities, with homes and pets and children, degree programs, publications, and new jobs both in and out of autism or disability advocacy.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1.2em 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">All the things we’ve been speaking all these years to have acknowledged that we should be able to have.</span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-30324517448705903932023-11-01T15:55:00.000-04:002023-11-01T15:55:09.755-04:00 Celebrating 30 Years of "Don't Mourn For Us" <p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Ira Eidle, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> <i>Celebrating 30 Years of "Don't Mourn For Us" </i></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In 1993, Jim Sinclair delivered a speech at the Autism Society of Canada’s annual conference in Toronto known as “Don’t Mourn for Us”. It was previously published in the first issue of Autism Network International’s newsletter under “Our Voices” in 1992. This was a very bold speech to give during a time where it was standard to treat an autism diagnosis as a tragedy. Research on autism was still in its early days and there was a much more limited understanding of what autism actually was at this point. Most of the literature on autism came from the perspective of non-autistic people. There were people like Temple Grandin and Donna Williams articulating their lived experiences to the public, though most of that wasn’t necessarily about the actual stigma surrounding autistic people and their personhood. Sarah Pripas-Kapit wrote a chapter in Autistic Community and Neurodiversity Movement that extensively analyzes the historical significance of “Don’t Mourn for Us”. I don’t want to be too redundant in that sense. Really, what I wish to discuss more is how far the Neurodiversity Movement has come since the thirty years since this speech was delivered and why it was so effective at sparking said movement.
Autism Network International was a small group of penpals at this point. Jim has talked about how it was probably for the best that they grew at a relatively slow pace, given that the people involved were autistics and cousins. Cousins, by the way, was also coined at this conference by Xenia Grant, one of ANI’s cofounders. “Don’t Mourn for Us” sparked a lot of interest in ANI that really helped elevate its status as an organization. In the following years, a mailing list known as ANI-L was established, then ANI members were invited to collaborate in planning an autistic-led track for More Abled Autistic People (MAAP)’s 1995 conference, and the fallout of that event led to the planning of a Autreat, a conference that was by and for autistic people. So by the mid to late 90s, ANI had made a lot of progress in cultivating autism-specific spaces and conferences that were actually led by the population the conference was about. From this, there was further mobilization that came from the ideas discussed and experiences relayed at Autreat and on listservs. Eventually, with the proliferation of the World Wide Web, websites such as Autistics.Org and Neurodiversity.Net would crop up, acting as central hubs for information on all things neurodiversity, while also acting as ways of further mobilizing on issues related to autism and other neurological disabilities. There were also more listservs, like Martijn Dekker’s Independent Living on the Autism Spectrum (InLv), lists on Yahoo Groups like Frank Klein’s AutAdvo and AutisticSpectrumTreehouse, and websites on GeoCities. You also started to see the term “neurodiversity” tossed around, even seeing it in The Atlantic and New York Times.
The turn of the millennium was an ample time for autistic people to organize and talk about autistic issues, as autism was starting to become more of a household name. Some of this was due to their work, but some of it was also because of the most influential autism organizations growing, and the formation of larger autism organizations like Cure Autism Now and National Alliance for Autism Research. A lot was being said about autism, but little of it meaningfully included the voices of openly autistic people. Not only this, but much of what was being said was not truly accurate and not based on particularly good science. It was definitely a moral panic. When autistic people and allies pointed this out, they were often faced with harsh criticism, dogpilling, and even stalking and physical violence in some cases. For some time, the autistic self-advocacy community mostly existed through listservs, WebRings, and blogs. There were a few formal organizations like ANI, and even nonprofits like GRASP, though neurodiversity was still a pretty fringe progressive movement. It certainly wasn’t mainstream by any means. This started to change once Ari Ne’eman and Scott Robertson started Autistic Social Action Committee, later renamed to Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. They facilitated the Ransom Notes Campaign in 2007, where they convinced the New York Child Study Center to remove stigmatizing ads they had about autism and similar neurological disabilities. Then they later became a nonprofit in 2011 and opened a national office in Washington, D.C.. ASAN and others involved with the Neurodiversity Movement hosted several public protests against Autism Speaks, which quickly became the world’s largest, most well-funded autism organization. Soon enough, autistic people who were involved with this movement started appearing in government organizations related to autism and disability such as the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and the National Council on Disability. There was also lobbying being done with the American Psychiatric Association on changes to make to the DSM-V. More autistic-led organizations cropped up, including Autism Women’s Network (now known as Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network) and Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism. There was further mobilization against a decades-long campaign to close the Judge Rotenberg Center, evolving into the #StopTheShock campaign. Now in 2023, neurodiversity is a much more widely known word and concept, and the research and literature on autism and similar disabilities is beginning to become more accurate and respectful, though there is still much work to be done. There’s a lot I didn’t mention but could have-the Neurodiversity Movement has a rich thirty-odd year long history-but hopefully what I listed is a decent enough primer. “Don’t Mourn for Us” is truly the manifesto of this movement, and what really sparked all of what I just listed.
The reactions to “Don’t Mourn for Us” over the years have greatly varied depending on who you ask. For many autistic people, it has been an affirmation that they are real people who deserve to exist just as they are. For many parents, it has helped them come to terms with the existence of their autistic offspring and shelf their pity, at least publicly. For others, autistic and non-autistic alike, it is disruptive and militant sounding. Some suggest that it is anti-parent. In a lot of ways, it shows how there have always been tensions between ACs and parents (though those groups are not at all mutually exclusive). There is definitely some frustration in Jim’s words, though I personally think said frustration is justified. A lot of this was a response to Jim’s observations of how autistic people were treated and talked about at the conferences xe attended and the St. John’s Autism mailing list, as well as xyr own lived experience. People like Rimland, Kanner, and Lovaas got to parade around their harmful and downright false theories and treatments that traumatized generations of autistic people with relatively little pushback. The “hope” that was given to parents was really a false hope that their offspring’s autism would go away, or that they should ideally be as close to indistinguishable as possible. Not because emulating non-autistic behavior is inherently a good thing, but because being visibly disabled and needing support was somehow unbearable. Jim’s idea of hope expressed here was different. It was hope that autistic people could grow up with people around them who were actually supportive of their existence, that they would be considered worth respecting the autonomy of regardless of their ability to perceive and replicate the same language as everyone else. Jim even says at the end “come join us, in strength, and determination, in hope and joy”. Xe was offering a chance at a better life and better world for both the parent and the offspring that would come with a change of attitude. To me, “Don’t Mourn For Us” means many things. It’s frustration, but it’s hope, it’s grounded in reality, yet comforting, it’s critical but it’s also understanding. It was a great way to spark a movement for social change. If its intention was to be all of those things, then it succeeded on that front. Jim’s advocacy as a whole really helped inspire multiple generations thus far of activists-including, but not limited to Mel Baggs, Lydia Brown, Ari Ne’eman, and myself. That means something. In fact, it means a lot.
TL;DR: Jim Sinclair’s “Don’t Mourn for Us” speech is central to understanding the history of the Neurodiversity Movement. It was radical to deliver it to parents who thought their offsprings’ autism was the worst thing to ever happen to them. It helped spark the Neurodiversity Movement, which has seen lots of mobilization in the thirty years since the speech was delivered. People have reacted to “Don’t Mourn For Us” in a variety of ways, and I feel a lot of the conceptions people have about it are inaccurate. “Don’t Mourn for Us” is a lot of things at once, and its complexity is what really helped inspire generations of activists.
</span></span></p><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-4505437043736501832023-10-18T20:21:00.002-04:002023-10-18T20:21:59.314-04:00Closing Autistics Speaking Day<p> It is to my utmost regret that I announce the end to Autistics Speaking Day. </p><p>Nov 1, 2023 will be the last ASDay. </p><p>The ASDay blog will remain online, but we will no longer be hosting the event on November 1st. </p><p>Thank you. Thank you for every single entry and participant. Thank you for your words, your music, your stories and thoughts. </p><p>Thank you for everyone who has volunteered and supported us over the years. </p><p>Thank you for everything. </p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-39005353665772969982022-11-24T12:43:00.002-05:002023-09-23T19:12:23.450-04:00Participants List 2022<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> Autistics</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christiana J. MacLeod </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2022/11/autistic-for-life.html" style="color: #32aaff; text-decoration-line: none;">Autistic for Life</a> (See Trigger Warnings)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ira Eidle </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2022/11/autistics-speaking-day-demonstrates.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">Autistics Speaking Day Demonstrates what "Nothing About us Without Us" Actually Means</a></span></p><p><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Corina Becker </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2022/11/wibbly-wobbly-thoughts.html" style="color: #32aaff; font-family: georgia; text-decoration-line: none;">Wibbly Wobbly Thoughts</a></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Cameron Staples (Catsidhe) </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2022/11/who-speaks-for-us.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">Who Speaks for Us?</a></span></p><p><br /></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-87362357673013200132022-11-04T14:36:00.002-04:002022-11-04T14:36:38.414-04:00Who Speaks for Us?<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Cameron Staples (Catsidhe) sents us </span><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://catsidhe.dreamwidth.org/199797.html">Who Speaks For Us? on Dreamwidth</a></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trigger Warning for mentions of the Judge Rotenburg Center, Autism Speaks, and related policies.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">It is the second of November as I write this, because of course it is. So... I apologise for not leaving myself time to make this shorter.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Or to the point, whatever that point is. (Edit: I've figure out what the point is, and removed a half-dozen side tracks. For future reference, they included</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></p><ul style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">How closely do ADHD and Autism overlap? How many of the understood common symptoms of one are actually symptoms of the other? Can a symptom be common, but show up in different ways depending? Can one have <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">both</i> versions? Oh wow, I'm almost writing that essay just in the asking of the questions.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What does "Neurodiverse" mean anyway, and who is included within it?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Are there Neurodivergent conditions which aren't inherently disabling? (I'm thinking especially of Synesthesia.)<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What does "Disability" even mean?</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">So. Anyway. Incipit:</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></p><h2 style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Who speaks for us?</span></h2><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">In the beginning there was Autism.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Then Asperger's Syndrome was discovered, and it was technically a different thing.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And that's the first complication, because that division created a barrier between autists.</span></span></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">We now know that one of the characteristics of Autism is linguistic differences in early childhood. Kanner's Autism was where productive linguistic development was slow, regressed, or was non-evident. Asperger's was where it was advanced or normal but weird. Echolalia and non-verbality are not typically developing, but then, neither is a five-year-old who not only knows what a "palaeontologist" is, but how to spell it. (Was that just me?) But that difference wasn't seen as a "how, precisely, was your language affected in childhood", it became "are you a highly verbal probably gifted 'high functioning' Aspie or an nonverbal probably intellectually disabled 'autist'?". And that divide didn't help. It still doesn't. Not least because it's an artificial division.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">There are still people who proudly, angrily, identify as "Aspies", not least because they don't want to be tarred with the stigma of being associated with the sort of people that groups like Autism Speaks tells everyone that autists are. On one level, I can't blame them. They're desperately holding on to something which makes them "special" rather than "disabled".</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">It didn't help when new research showed that Hans Asperger might have gone along with aspects of Aktion T4. For those of us for whom the term "Aspergers" meant something, it was being told, all over again, that our very identity was bad and wrong and we weren't going to be allowed to have it. Here is this thing which gave your struggles in life a name, which gave you something to hang on to to be proud of in who you are, only now we've done some checking and we're not just taking it away from you, we're poisoning it and all its associations forever. "Didn't you know, kid? Your </span><strike style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">Mom's a psycho</strike><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> Condition is named after a child-murdering card-carrying Nazi."</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but you go and try to sell a bouquet of a dozen long-stem Goebbels' Stinkblossoms on Valentine's Day.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">But that's by the by. "Asperger's Syndrome" is, for several disparate reasons, now deprecated. And that leaves one arching term for the whole spectrum.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">There are terms to try and cleave distinctions into the subtle blendings, but they have their own problems. "High" and "Low Functioning" are high on that list. The consensus among Autists is that the way they describe things, they oversimplify to the point of uselessness. The "Highest" functioning autist is, by virtue of diagnosis with autism which is, remember, </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">defined</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> as something which causes disabling difficulties in daily life, going to be simply unable to do what may seem like simple things. And the "Lowest" functioning autist, who may struggle with self-harm and a complete inability to vocalise, might still have gifts and wisdom and insight, even if it's locked within them until the right technology or trigger is found to reveal it.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And yet, there is a quantifiable difference between someone who is odd but can mask their autism in public most of the time, and someone who can't feed themselves. It's just that we need a better term for it. Maybe "Higher" or "Lower Daily Care Needs". It's not an absolute term, and it's an average. Someone with "Lower Daily Care Needs" still needs help with things.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Doesn't roll off the tongue as neatly as "High Functioning", though. Even less than "Aspie" vs "Autist".</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Tell you what does seem to roll off the tongue really, really easily, though: "Not like </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">my</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> child." That never seems to get old.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">There seems to be a particular sort of Autism Parent who has heard of the Spectrum, but only sees it in black and white. There are, in their world, two types of autists: those who are "like their child", and those who are not.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">They've mostly stopped </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">explicitly</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> stating that autists who are not like their child aren't actually </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">really</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> autistic. But sometimes the implicit statement is </span><a href="https://www.spectrumnews.org/opinion/viewpoint/its-time-to-embrace-profound-autism/" style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">very, very loud.</a><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Look, at one level, they have a point: those who have more need of support and less ability to care for their own needs </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">do</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> need some way of being described. And it's a human and linguistic thing that people want something short and snappy to do so.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">The trouble is that the people who are loudest about this who aren't themselves on the spectrum seem to be doing so with the implicit goal of dividing autists into those who need and deserve help, and those who basically don't. Those who can speak for themselves, and those who need their parents to speak for them and how dare you </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">other</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> sort of "autist" pretend to have any insights or concerns.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And I'm alarmed by how many of these Autism Parents have power, whether because they're, say, politicians, or the head of an Autism Science Foundation who just happened to be a former board member of Autism Speaks who only left because that organisation became a bit to antivaxxer for her to stomach (well done, have a cookie), and is on tape describing, in front of her autistic child, how she sometimes felt like driving her car off a bridge with her child in it.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">The thing is, I think we need terms for that. I mean, how could we, as autists, have a problem with Autism Parents? </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">Our</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> parents are autism parents. Some of </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">us</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> are autism parents. Some autism parents are autistic parents.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">But there's some who aren't that. They're crusaders for exclusion and shutting down who they see as "the wrong sort" of "autists". By which, typically, they mean any autist who is able to speak for themselves, and </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">especially</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;"> who sees that very ability as a gift and a duty to use on the behalf of those who can't.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">I guess where I'm going with this is: an open reply to Alison Singer. I sympathise with your problems and your difficulties with your autistic child. I really do. I also sympathise with her difficulties. And what I would like is to be able to know what she thinks, and to improve her life, and your life.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And, yes, there needs to be some sort of agreed way of describing the severity of affect of autism: there needs to be some way of describing succinctly that one person needs more support than another.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">But.</i><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Needs aren't static. I might be giving a public talk in the afternoon, and be unable to decide what to have for dinner in the evening. (Not "ambivalent" or "indecisive", but "paralysed".) I might write code that will be, unknowingly, relied upon by thousands of people, and also unable to remember which bills I haven't paid yet. My functioning is uneven, and when I've run out of spoons, all bets are off. And I might not even know what my own support needs even </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">are</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And, quite frankly, when it comes to deciding who is valid in being allowed to speak or not, I do not trust you or your ilk to make that decision. Not least because you've clearly made your decision, and the answer is that it's you the parents, not us the verbal autists. Or, if you're charitable, that you want "profound autism" as a binary thing, where every autist can be divided into "profoundly" autistic or, as far as you're clearly concerned, "not" autistic.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">I don't trust you, Alison Singer. The organisation you made your name in, Autism Speaks, is a self-serving behemoth which does, as far as I can see, almost exactly nothing </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">for autists</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">. Its purpose isn't anything to do with helping Autists. It was created and is maintained for </span><i style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;">you</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">, Allison.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">I don't trust you, Alison Singer. I remember </span><a href="https://youtu.be/C7NTfZzS9b8" style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Autism Every Day</i></a><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">. You have been complicit in making autists who find your material first, hate themselves. What you have said, the organisation you have lead, has made autistic people see themselves as broken, as monsters. You have done harm to autistic people.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">When autistic people are upset at terms like "patient" and "intervention", it's because people like you refuse to accept anything less than ABA, a theory which was designed by a person who literally said that autistic children aren't people, merely person-shaped. It's people like you who are responsible for the Judge Rotenberg Center still existing; a place where disabled children are tortured with strap-on Tasers for crimes like "saying 'no'," and "flinching because they fear getting an electric shock."</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">I want autists with high care needs to have a voice. I want the families of autists to have their voice. And I'd quite like also to be allowed to have a voice.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">But here we get into the Tolerance Paradox: Despite what you say, I don't want to silence you because you are the parent of an autist. What I have a problem with is your evident decades-long campaign to shut down my voice and the voices of people like me.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Wow. I got angrier than I thought I would. Time to press "post", I guess.</span></span><span></span><p></p><!--more--><span><!--more--></span><span></span><p></p><!--more--><p></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span></span>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-58267744314526687702022-11-02T00:09:00.007-04:002022-11-02T00:09:45.832-04:00Wibbly Wobbly Thoughts<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> Corina Becker writes <a href="https://nostereotypeshere.blogspot.com/2022/10/wibbly-wobbly-thoughts.html">Wibbly Wobbly Thoughts on No Stereotypes Here</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">I started writing this for ASDay 2021. I got mostly done and then lost my train of thought. Picking it again for ASDay 2022.</span></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I keep trying to come up with something to write about, and I start down a good idea, and then get distracted or the inspiration fizzles out. Sometimes I feel despair, because a lot of the topics that come up are the same topics I've written about years ago. Sure, I could write about the exact circumstances of the issue, how it affects people. Use my hard-earned degree to form some sort of argument. But I also just want to write about other things. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I started to write an open letter to my government about how the pandemic has impacted me, specifically financially. It was going to be an anecdote to support the argument for Universal Basic Income. I was going to compare my life before the pandemic, and now, with how instead of worrying about support coming in from different areas with amounts that adjust from week to week, I can make financial decisions and be confident about being able to afford basic needs and make financial decisions about repairing or replacing items, about being able to take time off work when sick or injured. Because I'm currently on unemployment, and that pays more than ODSP and my job. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">However, I also wanted to write about corsets, and history bounding. The other year, I wrote my thesis about accessibility at autism conferences, and then I went to a costuming convention where a lot of the attendees were disabled. 'If only I had known sooner,' I thought. 'Writing about disability in costuming would be fascinating!' </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I got into corsets from a friend I met at an autism conference; they were wearing a corset and describing how it felt like a calming hug. A personalized weighted blanket. Over the years, I explored mass-produced corsets available online, and determined I needed to make my own. It would also be handy to wear to the LARP I had joined. And so, I dived into the world of historical sewing. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Which lead me to this convention and the realization that I don't really like modern clothing. The hems, the fabrics, the fit. It has been revolutionary for me to relearn sewing and attempt to sew my own clothing. Clothes should not feel like something to tolerate, but provide comfort and ease. If I must dress myself in clothing made from bed sheets in order to do so, then so be it.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And at the same time, I want to talk about stories. About how research can be used to tell stories. How research can be used to tell stories through data. There's a tendency to respond "well duh" to some studies, and I think that is a disservice to both the autistic community and researchers. Yes, we write stories and blog about issues. But studies take our stories and combine them. By combining our stories and codifying, it says "this isn't just a few people, this is a wider issue."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And I want to talk about my thesis, a learning experience I treasure. How it sparked for me an interest in research and the possibility of further studies. How I want to connect what I've spent all these years studying to my communities, as tools to our causes and needs.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I want to talk about my new kitten, Ezra, and the joy he gives me. Especially when he's being sweet and cuddly. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I want to talk about the sudden loss of spoons, the desire to do something but being unable to start or complete the action. The need to write something, anything, only to feel the spark fizzle out at an empty screen. The despair as idea piles upon idea, building up to an aching pressure.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I want to talk about pain. The sharp stabs and the deep aches that become constant companions. The pains that are temporary, the pains that are chronic, and the pains that very slowly heal. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And finally, I want to talk about perseverance. Whether through hope or spite, the importance of continuing on. To do what you can, when you can, however you do it. How I'm learning to forgive myself for taking time, as I forgive others. To recognize my own limits, as I recognize the same for others. To pause and rest when I need it, and to take my time recharging. To let myself fall apart. To let myself put myself back together at my own speed. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">To let myself enjoy things. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And, when I'm ready, to write again. </span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-76153351387311700102022-11-01T03:00:00.022-04:002022-11-01T03:00:00.154-04:00Autistics Speaking Day Demonstrates what "Nothing About us Without Us" Actually Means<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ira Eidle posts "</span><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Autistics Speaking Day Demonstrates what "Nothing About us Without Us" Actually Means" on </span><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">H<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxixm7sFXZk&list=PLRsh6g8Lu49QqwhKMNZSBn3krsee0hY8x&index=10">istory of the Neurodiversity Movement at Autistic Archive</a></span><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Autistics Speaking Day is a perfect example of what the term “Nothing About Us Without Us” actually means. An Australia-based organization called the AEIOU Foundation proposed a “communication shutdown” on November 1st, 2010 to represent the supposed frustration autistic people face with communication. This meant spending an entire day off of social media. Autistic people found out about this, and found it to be very patronizing and missing the mark. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As you’ve seen, autistic people tend to find the internet to be a bastion of communication and comradery, a lifeline, even. Two autistics in particular, Corina Becker and Kat Bjørnstad, decided to take action and form a blog. They reclaimed the day to showcase the writings of autistic people. They also wanted to take a jab at Autism Speaks’s name, so it was titled “Autistics Speaking Day”. It’s now observed on November 1st every year. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Let me explain what “Nothing About Us Without Us” actually means. Many people do not seem to understand that. It was a term first used in Hungarian Labor organizing, then again in South African Apartheid protests, and eventually as part of the Disability Rights Movement. It is also ASAN’s slogan. What it does mean is that nothing about a group of people, in this case people with disabilities, should be done without their meaningful leadership. What it does not mean is that people with disabilities literally have to be involved with everything disability-related, including things where they are not in charge and are instead used as tokens. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">People use “Nothing About Us Without Us” to justify working with harmful organizations, because they think the statement means they need to be at the table all the time with everything. In an ideal world, yes, this would be the case. But the reality is that many times, when we’re invited to the table, we get nothing but scraps. That is not meaningful inclusion nor leadership, and thus, it is not consistent with “Nothing About Us Without Us”. It also means when something is not done with meaningful inclusion, that the people the cause is about will speak up about it, even if they aren’t at the table. Especially if they aren’t, in fact. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In this case, Corina and Kat didn’t need to join the AEIOU Foundation’s leadership to enact the change they wanted from within. Instead, they formed their own thing where they were in charge and gave a mic to other autistic people. “Nothing About Us Without Us” is inherently a saying of protest, of revolution, and working from within is not protest. It doesn’t mean never try negotiations, just that negotiations are not required for it to be true. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-55388049478408538042022-11-01T01:15:00.001-04:002022-11-01T01:15:00.170-04:00Autistic for Life<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;"> <span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Christiana J. MacLeod writes </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://autisticsuperhero.wordpress.com/2022/10/08/autistic-for-life/">Autistic for Life</a> on </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://autisticsuperhero.wordpress.com/">The Autyssey</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Trigger warning for mentions of bullying, police brutality, and suicide</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363431; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;">“YOU’RE NOTHING LIKE MY CHILD!”<br />…is an all-too-common response from a parent when an autistic adult shares their journey on social media. Can sometimes include such indictments as “you’re not SEVERELY autistic, you can use social media, you can speak, you’re not autistic at all” <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ad nauseam.</span></span></div><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363431; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>Well… no, quite right, I’m not like your child. I will quote no Nazi eugenicists and call no kettles black, but no two autistic people, child or adult, are exactly alike. So what if <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ActuallyAutistic" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #932817; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">#ActuallyAutistic</a> adults aren’t like <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23autistic" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #932817; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">#autistic</a> kids? We’re still autistic, years be damned, but we have different challenges in adulthood than we do in childhood. And if we’re gonna be totally honest… among those challenges is just staying alive while the rest of the world continues to pick on us. And make no mistake — it IS a challenge.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363431; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://autisticsuperhero.wordpress.com/2022/10/08/autistic-for-life/">Read More Here</a></span></div></div>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-71999150787787075922022-10-19T15:05:00.004-04:002022-10-31T23:15:40.163-04:00Participants List 2021<p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ira Eidle </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2021/11/autistic-archive.html" style="color: #32aaff; text-decoration-line: none;">Autistic Archive</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ilona Mennerich </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2021/11/petition-autism-bavaria.html" style="color: #32aaff; text-decoration-line: none;">Petition Autism Bavaria</a></span></p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">oneautisticperson <a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2021/11/autistics-speaking-day-2021-challenge.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">Autistics Speaking Day 2021: A challenge for Academics</a></span></h3><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Giraffe Party </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-post.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">Daily Question</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kat </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2021/11/autistics-speaking-day-2021.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">Autistics Speaking Day 2021</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Cameron Staples (Catsidhe) </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2021/11/its-dream-life.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">It's a Dream Life</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saoirse </span><a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2021/11/autistic-speaking-dayaac-paganism-faith.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">Autistic Speaking Day:AAC, Paganism, faith and communication access</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Emma Goodall <a href="https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/2022/10/we-matter.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration-line: none;">We Matter</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p><br /></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-35975226914086641372022-10-19T15:03:00.007-04:002022-10-19T15:03:45.768-04:00We Matter<p><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Emma Goodall wrote for ASDay 2021</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We Matter</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">autistics speaking day - my effort: I ran out of spoons so can’t communicate more than; We matter, we are important and valuable just as we are.</span></span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-32871562689119287212022-10-15T13:55:00.000-04:002022-10-15T13:55:20.391-04:00ASDay 2022!!! <p>Another year, another Autistics Speaking Day!!</p><p><br /></p><p>November 1st, instead of being quiet online, be loud!</p><p><br /></p><p>Submission form: f<a href="https://forms.gle/58hLfBjqaA8MFy2F8" target="_blank">ollow this link!</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiugSYgRKgmjJscKk-dogq2D2HNnMHdtMDazfJwOr7EV3JDbuDgIesgDd8bpD_PXxhJYBz0jTisfGy3ATwKY1gheFN_yXn2FWKRWMonvlARiErEzYQkelhWtS64THK9BUI0kynWkroRmbzhO-5NCL-AZNSVYz7eMvKX5UjaBNWHctnF4ZN-zS_IF4e/s500/ASDay%20button%202022.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiugSYgRKgmjJscKk-dogq2D2HNnMHdtMDazfJwOr7EV3JDbuDgIesgDd8bpD_PXxhJYBz0jTisfGy3ATwKY1gheFN_yXn2FWKRWMonvlARiErEzYQkelhWtS64THK9BUI0kynWkroRmbzhO-5NCL-AZNSVYz7eMvKX5UjaBNWHctnF4ZN-zS_IF4e/s320/ASDay%20button%202022.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRznlDgYz0We3i_P_CmmDkBTZ-rikH3FOxk2qVd8BCityCfkIEps_qr-2UY7JoSZDdsAjEPp2XJ_1YogsA46rgZi9g5a_FwdR5u2__6TPjO4kvmXVGFogQgx0td9d4v0hm7d3VmscT1WTiso4QHfg9NXRLDKAR0Rvf4qO5Bj_NR2Q3rIN5uYLFLt0x/s176/ASDay%20button%20v2%202022.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="176" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRznlDgYz0We3i_P_CmmDkBTZ-rikH3FOxk2qVd8BCityCfkIEps_qr-2UY7JoSZDdsAjEPp2XJ_1YogsA46rgZi9g5a_FwdR5u2__6TPjO4kvmXVGFogQgx0td9d4v0hm7d3VmscT1WTiso4QHfg9NXRLDKAR0Rvf4qO5Bj_NR2Q3rIN5uYLFLt0x/s1600/ASDay%20button%20v2%202022.png" width="176" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-81825943600068873002021-11-02T01:56:00.002-04:002021-11-02T01:56:45.535-04:00Autistic Speaking Day:AAC, Paganism, faith and communication access<p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Saoirse posts </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Autistic Speaking Day:AAC, Paganism, faith and communication access</span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trigger warning/caution notice, this post discusses religion, ancestors, food, pagan and holidays</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It is just after Halloween, and for many people this is a one day holiday, for me those who don't know I am pagan and for me Halloween more of a day I mark in or as part of my Samhain, which is a larger Holiday period? festival? I'm not sure the right word for it, Samhain (pronounce sow-in) is one the the 4 fire festivals in Irish paganism, I am not going to give a long i depth lesson on Samhain or a history lesson, I highly recommend learning about it from actual Irish people, aka people from and living in Ireland who are part of the living culture there. I would also recommend looking at things like blog posts and videos by native sources, I would recommend checking out writings and videos by Lora O'brien as a starting off point or as well as out dúchas.ie, and for Irish paganism specifically there is the Irish Pagan Scool. These are all good native sources I recomend for starting your own research into Samhain and Irish paganism.links provided below.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> there is a lot when we are celebrating Samhain. From larger family discussions Ancestor work, deity work, studying, Divination,meditations, cleaning, meal prep and cooking, silent suppers, turnip carving, planing out company, putting out offerings and so on,</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Before during and around Samhain there is a lot of discussion around what things we want to keep or get rid of,what is working and what isn't, both for things like do we really need all these papers, to do we need a better system of organizing, how can we organize better, to even more complicated family and relationship talks, discussing what things we want to keep and build on for the next year, anything we want to add for the coming year, this could be as simple as “do we want to get a new stuffed animals too do we want to consider expanding the family in some say ie, pets, babies, partners, found family etc. also a lot of discussing lighter things like decoration, a lot of discussion around foods and cooking, setting up altars, Divination (such as tarot cards pendulum,a few Divination “games,” I don't know names for), costumes a well as things like games.carving turnips, plans for guests and so on. And this is all for just one of the major holidays!</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> These are all things I need to be able to plan and discuss with people who are around me or who will be doing any of these things with Me. However the words I need for this aren't in any of my AAC system base vocabulary sets. This means I have been also working on building up and editing my AAC boards to be able to talk about, discuss, participate and fully communicate during these holidays as well as to discuss my own faith and practices.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is because the majority of AAC systems are Christian heavy, what I mean by this is whenever you get an AAC app or device, once you are all set up and you load you starting vocabulary, if you have a folder or a place for words in and around religeon they are almost certainly going to be nearly if not all Christian based, if you are lucky you might have the word “Judaism and “Islam” and /maybe/ 1 or 2 other religeon and possibly 1 or 2 items from said religeon, but it will be filled tpwuth things for Christians, when it comes holidays will be find almost all if not all the Christian and likely regional holidays, but you are unlikely to find words for any other religeon holidays, </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">While I am very happy Christians have a solid base set for discussing their faith, holidays, deities and religion, more AAC systems need to to be inclusive of other faiths and religeons, I. Don't expect most to include things like paganism, as that is such a broad, paganism is just extremely broad with so so many paths, many pagans aren't on the same path I am, though having a few basic words might be nice, but I guess hard to agree on, however the holidays and more words for at least the top 6-8 religions seems like a basic low bar for AAC and communication access, it requires actually including people from those communities at the table when designing vocabulary sets, making sure they are included but again that seems pretty important and should be set as the baseline. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It's really important for people to have words to discuss their faith and for many it's and intrical part of their own culture and daily life, and they need access to these words, additionally they will want to talk to friends who may not be in the faith about things they are doing, maybe invite people to their event or so on. It's important for others not in those communities to have word to interact with family and friends of different faiths. To see and have words for discussing with thier Jewish, Skih, Hindu, Muslim, buhdist,Christian etc friends family. And again everyone should get to have words for their holidays and for their faith and their culture in their communication system, it shouldn't have to be hours to months of extra work just to add even the basics, not to mention having to put in all the work to come up with images for anyone using a symbols Set.!</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This for me when it comes to paganism this has meant I have had to do a lot of editing and rearranging and figuring out where to put words, and how to organize not just holiday, but also tools and aspect of my own faith beliefs and practices, and I need to make these fit within the lay out of my system, I also need to keep the common mainstream and Christian holidays, after all, the majority of people celebrate them, even I celebrate most of them, things like Christmas and Easter with my non pagan family, and we also do Christmas in addition to solstice here because why not? as I have said, I have family who celebrate it, and also need to keep most of the national and regional holidays too. (Though some have been removed or changed,) I will still need and want to discuss common mainstream ones with our Christian family members, but I also want to be able to discuss things within our Pagan multi religious household.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">When it comes to editing my AAC for my own faith and holidays There is far more than just Samhain I need to add ford's for, after all there are other festivals and daily workings too, each one needs careful thought and consideration, and as I learn more or as my practice grows and as things in my life change will need to continues to edit and adjust my words and vocabulary. it's a lot of work, I am nowhere near finished. I will likely never truly be fully finished however, It is important work, so it is work that I must do, one day, maybe I will pass on these vocab sets to others who want and need it.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: normal;" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dúchas.ie</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Irish Pagan school: https://irishpaganschool.com/courses/</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Lora O'Brien log https://loraobrien.ie</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Lora O'Brien youtubehttps://youtube.com/c/LoraOBrienIRL</span></span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-88458084727191905772021-11-01T23:08:00.006-04:002021-11-01T23:08:59.721-04:00It's a Dream Life<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Cameron Staples (Catsidhe) posts </span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">I<a href="https://catsidhe.dreamwidth.org/199165.html">t's a Dream Life</a></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It's a Dream Life </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Have you ever had that dream?</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">You know the one:</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">You have a job to do, but you're not quite sure what it is.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Or how to do it.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Or why it's important.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Or what to do it with.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Or where.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">But you know it's important.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And everyone's angry.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And it's your fault it hasn't been done.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Have you ever had that dream?</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">You know the one:</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Someone's telling you something really important.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">But you can't hear them.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And when you can, you can't understand the language.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And when you can, you can't hold on to the meaning.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And when you can, you forget it right away.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">And you remember much later that there was something important.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">But it's too late.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Other people say they dream of flying.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">I dream of dreaming of swooping and gliding.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Other people say they dream of talking to important people.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">They dream of being there with them:</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Treated as important,</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Their opinions listened to,</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Their anger valid and relevant,</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Their ideas acted upon by others.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Have you ever had that dream?</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">You know the one.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Everyone's angry with you, but you don't know why.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Nobody will tell you what you said.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Nobody will tell you what you did.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Nobody will tell you what rule you broke.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Nobody will tell you what you should have done.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">Nobody will accept your apology for ... something really bad, apparently.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">It's all your fault and you have no idea why.</span><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="background-color: #f9fdff; box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="background-color: #f9fdff;">It's a Dream Life.</span></span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-45705576487829538862021-11-01T23:06:00.003-04:002021-11-01T23:06:13.396-04:00Autistics Speaking Day 2021<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> Kat has posted <span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Autistics Speaking Day 2021 on </span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Katy Doesn’t Live In Smithton</i></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">CW: death mention, child abuse, dissociation, behaviouralism and psychiatric abuse, suicidal ideation, discussion of ableism throughout, hospitalization, guardianship mention, non-graphic mentions of sexual harassment and abuse. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://autistickat.blogspot.com/2021/11/autistics-speaking-day-2021.html?m=1">Please read [link</a>]</span></span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-85343010968958090682021-11-01T14:39:00.005-04:002021-11-01T14:39:59.295-04:00Daily Question<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> Giraffe Party has posted <span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Daily Question: What is something truly meaningful and genuinely helpful allies can do (or do differently) to better advocate for you and bring positive change toward your life?</i> on Facebook</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/autisticpartygiraffe/posts/275122937954617"> Check it out here [link]</a> </span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-84807383728495097822021-11-01T10:58:00.000-04:002021-11-01T10:58:15.925-04:00Autistics Speaking Day 2021: A challenge for Academics<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> oneautisticperson posts <span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://oneautisticperson.tumblr.com/post/666644406582001664/autistics-speaking-day-2021-a-challenge-for?fbclid=IwAR2Yp09IEaeBT8Ky0OOkvpxuknnVj3qQRVWl6GHeoJq0p_KP1757Id8VOwU">Autistics Speaking Day 2021: A challenge for Academics </a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #494949;"><a href="https://oneautisticperson.tumblr.com/post/666644406582001664/autistics-speaking-day-2021-a-challenge-for?fbclid=IwAR2Yp09IEaeBT8Ky0OOkvpxuknnVj3qQRVWl6GHeoJq0p_KP1757Id8VOwU">on Tumblr</a>.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Autistics Speaking Day 2021: A challenge for Academics</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white;">Well, it is the 1</span><sup>st </sup><span style="background-color: white;">of November 2021. Hence, Autistics Speaking Day 2021. A day in which autistic people (and some allies) all over the world will be posting blog posts, uploading videos and circulating other content about whatever we think is important. In some of my previous posts, I have challenged myself, disability service providers and teachers to do better in specific areas. This one is a challenge to academics, specifically academics that teach autism related university/college courses.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A colleague of mine in the disability sector is doing a Master of Education degree in Inclusive Education. Of particular interest, she did a topic specifically about autism spectrum earlier this year. She found the topic interesting and informative. This is great and I am not disputing that she gained a lot from the topic. However, we had conversations about it that I found ….. discouraging. For example, the topic did not mention neurodiversity, the neurodiversity paradigm or the neurodiversity movement at all. A problem in my opinion given these terms are so often discussed among autistic people both online and in person. Similarly, the topic made no mention of the double-empathy problem but did discuss theory of mind/autistic people having difficulty with theory of mind. Again, I see this as problematic given that the double-empathy problem is often discussed among autistic people.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">At the same time this was going on, I had been asked to record a lecture for a new topic at the university I work for. The topic title included the term neurodiversity and the lecture I was asked to present introduced students to neurodiversity (and related terms) as well as autism spectrum. This topic had a medical textbook we were referring to (and critiquing) each week. It was so easy for me to critique the textbook! Like the topic my colleague was doing at another university, the textbook mentioned theory of mind but not the double-empathy problem and there was no mention of neurodiversity. In addition, the textbook went through potential causes of autism spectrum based on research but made no mention of the fact that a significant number of autistic individuals do not want the cause of autism to be found. Dates and symbols that are important to the autistic community, such as the rainbow infinity symbol and autistic pride day (18<sup>th</sup> June) were also missing.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Basically, what was missing from both the topic that my colleague did and the textbook used for my topic was autistic viewpoints and research. The double-empathy problem is something that autistic researcher Dr. Damian Milton, an autistic researcher proposed. Neurodiversity and the neurodiversity movement as phrases were thought up by Judy Singer, an autistic sociologist. That said, ideas regarding the neurodiversity paradigm and movement started much earlier and are thought to originate with Jim Sinclair, an autistic advocate. Recently, current definitions of neurodiversity and related terms come from a blog post by Dr. Nick Walker, an autistic researcher.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Why is this missing from university/college autism spectrum topics?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As mentioned above, because this is mainly discussed among autistic people and academics have largely not engaged with autistic people when designing autism spectrum topics. If they have engaged with autistic people, it is usually to give a one-off lecture about their personal perspective/experience. I do not deny that this is important (my students at the university say that it is) but we can go further. Autistic people around the world are writing/videoing about whatever we see as important today, some of those autistic people (along with other autistic people that have not contributed to this day) are willing to engage with universities/colleges, to bring the knowledge and perspectives that are currently missing. It is up to academics to engage with these people.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Why is it important for universities/colleges to include this content in autism spectrum topics?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There are many answers to this question but I will go with my favourite answer. For the students. This semester at the university I work for, I had postgraduate university students. Many of whom had some experience learning about autism spectrum before. Some of these students were learning about the double-empathy problem for the first time. Paraphrased versions of their comments include “very valid way of looking at it in my opinion” and “makes perfect sense.” Why should students miss out on certain perspectives like what is currently happening?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Another answer is for autistic people (and it seems fairly likely that students in an autism spectrum topic will end up working with autistic people). One student in my class just last week had a rant about the state of language used in research articles related to autism spectrum. She was annoyed that the language was very negative for most articles, the language being very deficit-based and terms such as “high-functioning autism” used. I was quite happy this occurred. It gives me hope that my students will not use such language in the future. That maybe the language used to discuss autistic people will change for the better.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The two reasons above are why I challenge academics to find autistic people that are willing to share knowledge/perspectives from the autistic community and researchers. To engage with these autistic people about what content should be included in autism spectrum topics that is currently missing. To include this content and invite autistic people to present said content.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We can do better. For autistic people and for our students.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I have another challenge for readers of this blog post that may not have heard some of the terms used in this blog post before. I challenge you to do some reading.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">To read about:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The double-empathy problem (Milton, 2012): <a href="https://href.li/?https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09687599.2012.710008">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09687599.2012.710008</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The possible origins of the neurodiversity movement “don’t mourn for us” (Sinclair, 2012 [but first given in 1993]): <a href="https://href.li/?http://www.larry-arnold.net/Autonomy/index.php/autonomy/article/view/AR1/html">http://www.larry-arnold.net/Autonomy/index.php/autonomy/article/view/AR1/html</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Neurodiversity current terms and definitions (Walker, 2014): <a href="https://href.li/?https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/">https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Thoughts from the person who coined neurodiversity “what is neurodiversity?” (Singer, n.d.): <a href="https://href.li/?https://neurodiversity2.blogspot.com/p/what.html">https://neurodiversity2.blogspot.com/p/what.html</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Written by oneautisticperson aka Leeanne Marshall</span></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-35207713267364580512021-11-01T09:18:00.002-04:002021-11-01T09:18:38.937-04:00Petition Autism Bavaria<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ilona Mennerich posts </span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Petition Autism Bavaria</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trigger Warnings: politics, mention of pathologizing language, political discrimination</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Petition on the Autism Strategy Bavaria</span></span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;">
1. In the recommendations for action on the Bavarian autism strategy, the AWMF-S3 guideline for the therapy of autistic disorders from 2021 is laid down as the basis. Many autistics and autism associations oppose the content of this guideline and do not approve it. </span><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Bundesverband Autismus Deutschland e.V., statement on the AWMF-S3 guideline, March 2021: "The AWMF-S3 guideline for the therapy of autistic disorders is fundamentally not suitable as a comprehensive decision-making aid for the individual needs assessment in the overall plan procedure according to §§117ff. SGB IX for the participation needs of people in the autism spectrum. Help planning in children and youth welfare law for mentally handicapped children, adolescents and adults of full age according to §§35, 41, 36 SGB VIII also includes the legal requirement of cooperative and individual help planning. "! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">The guideline is characterized by ignorance and fear of autism. This would be remedied by scientific cooperation, getting to know and educating the professional groups involved through autistics. </span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the countries where the resources for scientific research are traditionally much higher (UK, USA, Sweden, Netherlands, and Switzerland) there is enough research showing that purely behavioristic therapies for autism are useless and therefore too expensive. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">We do not want this guideline to be the basis for approval for therapies. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">We demand that a survey be carried out among autistics in Bavaria to research life satisfaction according to the guidelines of the WHO, and the results of this survey become the basis of the state's interventions. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">2. The assumptions on which the project is based on the prevalence of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) are out of date. More recent research assumes 1:54 instead of 1: 100 (CDC, 2021). Many people can hide their particularity through their intelligence, but this leads to mental illness. (With a ratio of 1:54 there are around 200,000 autistic people in Bavaria!) </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">So there are many more people with autism than diagnosed. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Deficiencies in training, but also persistent prejudices on the part of doctors, mean that depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, aggressiveness, addiction problems, delinquency, and even suicide attempts are far too seldom associated with ASs and are consequently treated incorrectly or not at all. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Waiting lists for diagnoses are unbearably long, up to two years. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Much of the difficulties experienced by autistics result from social intolerance and consequent social difficulties. Autism is not a "mental handicap" (GdB), but a neurologically conditioned constitution, ie a physical handicap, with the result of an increased, above all social need for help. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">We call for the establishment of a council of autistic professionals to monitor and support the qualification for diagnosis. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">We demand a statistical survey on school success, illnesses as a consequence of social stigmatization, unemployment and suicidality among autistic people in Bavaria. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">3. In the recommendations of the “Project for the Development of an Autism Strategy Bavaria” led by Prof. Witzmann, the aim is to expand the existing autism competence centers. However, these have not helped us in the past. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Not only, but also in Bavaria, the rate of autistics with secondary diseases due to social stigmatization is very high. There is insufficient inclusion in school and in the workplace. Dealing with authorities and doctors is very difficult and those affected often experience it as traumatizing. Autistic people are not adequately cared for at work or with housing problems. 50% of us are unemployed, because of early retirement because of bullying, or under-qualified. The existing autism competence centers have not done enough to address all of these serious problems. The reason for this is not a lack of financial resources, but a lack of competence and a lack of commitment to the inclusion of autistics. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">In addition, there is an amalgamation in the person of Prof. Witzmann, which has been common in Bavaria up to now, but which must be rejected. He is both the head of the recommendation group, i.e. the resource distributor, and the head of the Autism Competence Center Upper Bavaria, i.e. the recipient of funds. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">The situation of autism in Bavaria is catastrophic! Much more modern research is being carried out in other federal states and neighboring countries, and modern therapy recommendations such as occupational therapy and speech therapy are being set as priorities in cooperation with autistic advisors. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">In Bavaria, on the other hand, more and more care tasks, diagnosis centers and thus resources are assigned to the state-owned (district) KBO company, which does not have autistics at the management level <span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">and is not an inclusive employer. (This is standard outside of Bavaria, according to the UN Disability Rights Convention.)</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;">That is why the autism competence centers should be deprived of responsibility and resources. Autistic peer counseling and self-help organizations should receive these funds and coordinate the offers of help. We demand knowledge-based advice and help that is independent of personal sympathy for our character.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;">Autistics are experts in autism. We want advice and review of help from autistics!</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We demand an end to the contracts between youth welfare offices and service providers that lead to price wars instead of quality.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">4. In principle, we demand respect for our knowledge- and objectivity-based actions. Friendship services beyond quality standards, loyalty outside of the law and common sense, filling positions or other professional decisions based on personal relationships are out of the question for us autistics. That is why we experience a lot of rejection from those who think differently. The way we work relies on compliance, so it's preferable when results matter. We believe that we can be integrated in many contexts.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We can be successful and accepted neighbors, colleagues and even friends if the social framework for us is expanded just a little. We claim our place in society, not just as objects of therapy or socially isolated nonconformists: inside. We demand the goal of a pluralistic society, which must be pursued with much more emphasis in Bavarian politics.</span></span></div></div></div>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-21225887634934603142021-11-01T08:06:00.001-04:002021-11-01T08:06:09.270-04:00Autistic Archive<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ira Eidle submits the </span><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">Autistic Archive, an archive of Autistic Communities and the Neurodiversity Movement. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/autistic-archive/home?authuser=0">The Autistic Archive.</a> </span></span></p><p><br /></p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772781877284454113.post-10690153526155186312021-09-06T15:01:00.000-04:002021-09-06T15:01:05.361-04:00Preparing for ASDay 2021<p> As you can see, the participants list for 2020 is now up!<br /><br /><a href="https://forms.gle/cubtc8tYHzXMEKnv6">And the submission form for 2021 is open!</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Looking forward to November 1st! </p>Corina Beckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04026707230826401476noreply@blogger.com0