To 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.
Autistics
Jane Strauss #AutisticsSpeakingDay - Autistics Speaking in 2020
Leeanne Marshall It Is Time
J.T. Buchheit Autistic talents in the workplace are going to waste
Content Warning – Talk of abuse
Jay from Jay's World writes
Autistics Speaking
I be ask why I believe should have all autistic voice hear.
I can only tell about me.
Corina Becker writes A Small Thing on No Stereotypes Here
Nothing stays the same. Everything changes.
Ben Edwards
Not Special Needs
I do not have the need for people to stare at my eyeballs. I do not have the need for people to talk to me about weather, news, or celebrities. I do not have the need to conform to peer pressure, to always have company, or make up lies. I do not have the need to avoid in-depth, complete focus on particular topics or types of tasks. I have the need for people to understand that I cannot do somethings a certain way without being unduly stressed, regardless of my intelligence, college, career, or independent living prospects, without patronizing me or pitying me. I have the need to bring up and respond to issues in the autistic community that not everyone will agree on without being called divisiveness. I have the need for people to stop seeing visibility of needs like that of a blind, wheelchair using, or intellectually disabled person to be the equivalent of the reality of them. I have the need for people to stop being told which autistics my autism makes me qualified to speak for by non-Autistics. I have the need to stop being equated with lightning strikes, car wrecks, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and combat situations. I have the need same need you have to have non-universal needs respected, even if I don’t have the power to force them on you. As an autistic, I am the greatest martyr, carry the greatest burden, For it is neurotypical needs that I have spent my life caring for, neurotypical needs that held back my career, made me go broke, made me feel isolated, meant my life couldn’t be my own, or I could not be myself. It was caring for the needs of 6 billion children on the neurotypical spectrum that made me be defensive and protective. I spend endless amounts of money, take countless hours out of work, have to schedule and keep appointments with professionals that aren’t covered by insurance to take care of the needs of neurotypical children. I am interrupted over four times a week by an incident involving a neurotypical child. I can’t be myself; my life is not my own. And so many neurotypicals are always easily offended. I can’t speak honestly, talk about more meaningful things than sports, or avoid eye contact without them dogpiling me, contacting my employer, or costing me my job. I feel like I’m walking on eggshells. As someone affected by neurotypicalism, I need support, not criticism. Neurotypical needs have caused me PTSD and depression, but in spite of all this, being a neurotypicalism parent, child, and sibling is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. But one thing is certain: I don’t worry what will happen to these kids after I die. #NeurotypicalismAwareness
Content warning: First Person Language, medical model and generalization, Autism Speaks.
Sam Passer presents In: A Look Into The World Of Autism
J.T. Buchheit
Autistic talents in the workplace are going to waste
The unemployment rate for autistic people is staggering. There are many differing statistics, but they all show an extremely high level of unemployment. A 2014 study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics had only 19.3% of the autistic population working or seeking job opportunities. This is a lower employment rate than that of any neurological disorder.
The worst part about this is that most employers are completely unaware of the benefits autistic people can provide a workplace. Many of us are extremely honest, diligent, and detail-oriented people, and we can flourish in many occupations that are beyond the entry-level status many people pigeonhole us into. The main reason for this lack of jobs is employers' preferred way to select candidates: personality tests and job interviews. I believe both of these are extremely unfriendly toward autistic people. The personality tests emphasize "soft skills" and often ask questions including rating one's ability to read nonverbal communication, and they also sometimes provide short-answer questions about how one would approach difficult situations, thus testing emotional intelligence. These tests either require a person to lie and appear to have a personality perfect for the job or tell the truth and be rejected for not possessing the desirable soft skills. If an autistic person manages to land an interview, the odds are once again not in their favor. A popular study revealed that neurotypicals feel less comfortable toward autistics based on small judgments when met face to face (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28145411/). In an interview, where first impressions are paramount, this is bad news. The only way I have been able to land jobs was showing the interviewers my skills firsthand. But many autistic people don't have the luxury to show their skills, which is a real shame, because in jobs that require extreme attention to detail, many autistics actually have an advantage over neurotypical people in the natural skills they possess, lending more evidence to the theory that we are different from neurotypicals, not inferior to them. All too often, employers are only aware of the harmful misconceptions of autism, leading them to believe we aren't worth hiring because we would just be a hindrance. If they are aware of any positive traits of autism at all, it is often the "IT nerd" stereotype, which does not help those of us in other fields. I believe the hiring system needs work to better accommodate autistic people and give us more of a chance to show what we can do and how we can provide benefits to companies because of our unique styles of thinking. When companies talk about how they embrace diversity, neurodiversity is all too often left out. That needs to change. Not only will more autistic people benefit from finding gainful employment, but employers will realize that we can be a massive boon to their companies as well.Julian Edward Frost wrote Autistics' Speaking Day: Learning about autism, learning about myself on autismjungle for ASDay 2018
I realise this is a few days late, but such is life with a full time job.
Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve learnt a great deal about autism, and about why I am the way I am. This will be about the things I’ve learnt.
Sensory Processing Disorder
In Sensory
Processing Disorder, senses are either heightened or lowered. I have
heightened sensory perception. As a child, I enjoyed eating. In fact, I
was mocked for being the “family dustbin” and having “hollow legs”. To
me, food was always tasty. This recently became a problem. I am
currently trying to lose weight, but I really like food. Despite this,
I’m a few kilograms down.
I was in addition hyperactive, and burned up energy at a formidable rate. I also still enjoy having my hair played with.
The downside of heightened senses is that while pleasant sensations are
more enjoyable, unpleasant sensations are considerably worse. Pain is
more intense, the smell of burning rubber can turn my stomach, Malaria
tablets taste utterly vile, and loud music is painful.
Misophonia
Misophonia
literally translates as “hatred of sound”. It was proposed as a
condition in which negative emotions, thoughts, and physical reactions
are triggered by specific sounds. People who suffer from the condition
are typically aware that they have it. I certainly know it.
Many years ago, my whole family were having egg rolls for Sunday
breakfast. As we were standing around, my sister literally started
slurping her egg roll. The sound so enraged me I bellowed at her “STOP
SLURPING YOUR EGG ROLLS!” I then got yelled at for yelling. Deep down, I
knew I was overreacting, but I was too angry to react normally.
Stress
I handle stress very badly. Worse than most people I know.
As an autistic, my social filters aren’t as well developed as a
neurotypical person’s ones. As a result, I have to work hard to behave
in an appropriate fashion. Stress causes my filters to fail. It is not
atypical for me to start speaking very bluntly at the end of a hard day,
to the amusement of my coworkers. I also behave strangely. Once,
stressed out, I had nowhere to put an empty cup I’d finished drinking
from, and decided to balance it on my head. Once people realised I had a
cup on my head, the response was hilarity.
Empathy
There is a myth that autistics lack empathy. This not only misunderstands autism, but empathy too.
There are two main types of empathy: cognitive and affective/emotional.
The former involves working out what other people are thinking and
feeling, the latter is about feeling what the other person is feeling.
Autistics usually score below average for cognitive empathy. This has
led some to postulate that autistics also have poor emotional empathy.
This is completely untrue. From my own experience, I may find it hard to
work out what another person is thinking, but once I work it out, I
feel it intensely. From reading comments on the internet from parents of
autistics, I know I’m not the only one.
There is so much I’ve learnt over the past eight and a half years. I believe there is still a lot for me to learn.
This is an apology to previous participants.
To those who have submitted their work, and did not see it show up on this blog or see it included.
There are very few reasons for why this happened, and for most of these, I apologize. I have always regretted not being able to post every entry to ASDay.
Most of the entries that I've had to decline over the last 11 years have been professionals or parents trying to peddle their newest book or website. I don't mind sharing that each year our email gets advance copy and interview offers for the Next New Autism Treatment. I don't know about you, but I don't apologize for not approving those.
What saddens me are those who, for whatever reason, I cannot access. And so, I cannot browse to confirm trigger and content warnings. And I cannot, in good conscious, add to the event.
I also love seeing all the autistic posts.
My only relief is that these instances are relatively few; most of the time posts have been scheduled and so I just need to keep checking the link. But the ones that I try every trick I know - changing accounts, switching browsers, even using a VPN (I'm not IT; I'm an English major, this is the extent of my knowledge) - and still unable to find, hurts. I feel like I've let the participant down, and worse of all, I don't know why.
This year, I'd like to try and fix those posts. So please, join me as I explore past entries.
~ Corina Lynn Becker
Leeanne Marshall post Autistics Speaking Day 2020: It Is Time on The thoughts of One Autistic Person tumblr
Autistics Speaking Day 2020: It Is Time
It would be so easy to discuss the worldwide pandemic for my blog post. The impact it had (and continues to have) on me despite there being few cases of Covid-19 in my local area (the few cases are all in hotel quarantine). However, I think the world needs some positive news. Besides, it is time. Time for me to reflect and provide an update on my first two Autistics Speaking Day blogposts. To be honest, I have attempted to reflect and provide updates on these posts several times on previous Autistics Speaking Days but each time I either come up with an idea that is more relevant/important or I can not seem to find the right words on the day, leading me to write about something else. Not today though, I am determined to get this positive reflection/update Autistics Speaking Day post done.
Back in 2012, I wrote my first Autistics Speaking Day post here: https://oneautisticperson.tumblr.com/post/34749796115/autistics-speaking-day-on-communication
In this post, I mention that in the past, I had previously stayed silent on comments that I should have confronted. I challenged myself to speak up if/when these comments were brought up in future.
In 2013, I wrote my second Autistics Speaking Day post here: https://oneautisticperson.tumblr.com/post/65686842050/autistics-speaking-day-my-pathway
I mention in this post that I still needed to work on advocating (communicating) for myself. Another para graph I included was “I do not yet know if I can succeed in holding down a job typically for neurotypicals (a teacher). I am sure however, that whatever my career ends up being, it will be related to education in some way and will hopefully be around including Autistic individuals in general education settings.”
It is at this point that I once again start thinking about ditching this writing and starting over with another post. I am worried this comes across as bragging, however, I will persist despite my worries. I completed my teaching degree in the middle of 2014 but ultimately, I decided being a teacher was not for me. That said, my jobs, my advocacy volunteer work etc. have all been related to education and indeed, inclusion of Autistic individuals (and people with other disabilities) in mainstream school settings. For starters, I am a casual academic at a local university. I am involved in an autism topic as a guest lecturer, an assignment marker and (sometimes) a tutor. Students in this topic are usually enrolled in teaching, education or disability studies degrees. This means I am influencing current/future teachers and their attitudes towards Autistic people by my involvement in this topic. Importantly, last year I was paid to assist in writing the case studies used for one of the assignments to ensure the case studies seemed to be real, diverse and included a range of issues for Autistic people.
Since late 2018, I have been part of the Inclusive School Communities (ISC) project as both a member of the steering group and a mentor (young, disabled person) connecting with the project schools. This project is about making schools in South Australia more inclusive for students with disability. Earlier this year, I wrote a report for this project based on two focus group sessions at a South Australian high school. The report went through issues faced by students with disability at school and suggestions for what this school (and other schools) could do to work on these issues, as well as what the school was doing well. I included 9 recommendations at the end of the report for schools. If readers are interested, the report is publicly available here: https://inclusiveschoolcommunities.org.au/news/report-school-student-consultation
Through meeting each other in the ISC project, two other school mentors and I got involved in advocacy volunteer work. We have had discussions with a Ministerial adviser regarding what needs to be done to make schools more inclusive and to save a local high school that has been making a lot of changes to be more inclusive. I personally also spoke at a rally to save the school. I am pleased to report that the school was indeed saved, a win in 2020.
So, as you can see from the above information, I have indeed been involved in the inclusive education space (just not as a teacher). As to the other problem I had, well, I am no longer silent when I should be speaking up. In fact, I sometimes worry that I dominate meetings with the other mentors in the ISC project (though they assure me that while I speak a lot, I do not dominate). Overall, I have certainly come along way since 2012-2013. Just goes to show how much personal growth and experiences can happen in 7/8 years. I have certainly done what I challenged myself to do in 2012 and what I wanted to do in 2013. I believe my efforts will help other Autistic people (and other people with disability).
……To my readers, I think now it is time for you to do some reflection. In what ways do you make the world a better place? For your local community, for your friends/family and/or for yourselves?
Jane Strauss posts from Facebook
Content Warning for mentions of politics
#AutisticsSpeakingDay - Autistics Speaking in 2020
Hello all!
I'm preparing for ASDay 2020!!!
I have the submission form up and ready for any early entries: link
See you all November 1st!
Jane Strauss writes Autistics Speaking Day yet again on Facebook
