Autism Acceptance

Let's start a conversation, destroy sterotypes and stigmas, help each other out and let others gain understanding

[cyarinart]

Not a tragedy, not a burden, not a stereotype. We need no cure, we need care and acceptance.

Autismspeaks uses shock and pity to raise funds for “research”. It doesn’t give autism a voice, it harms and fuels stereotypes.

[autismacceptance]

The feels when your doorbell rings unexpectedly.

[aspie-os]

[minininny]

Hey, so this was a project I did last semester - designing an infographic for an organization of our own choice. So I chose @autisticadvocacy - Autistic Self Advocacy Network. This is free to use and spread around. And please do, considering it’s April and so “Light It Up Blue” shit is going around.

  A link to view and download it (as a pdf) can be found here. (If you want to print it.)

[autismacceptance]

This is an amazing info graph, share with your friends!

[positivityautistic]

Not exclusive.

Shoutout to POC who are on the Autism spectrum. Shoutout to LGBTQA+ who are on the Autism spectrum. Shoutout to women who are on the Autism spectrum. Shoutout to anyone who is on the Autism spectrum. It’s not exclusive to “a certain kind of people.”

[notquiteaghost]

spoon theory: a low-spoons-friendly summary

it’s sort of ironic that the original article on spoon theory costs so many spoons to read, so i decided to write a brief summary for people who need it

spoon theory is an analogy

in it, spoons = energy

you get [x] number of spoons a day ([x] amount of energy), & doing things costs [x] number of spoons ([x] amount of energy)

for example, you get 10 spoons today; getting up costs 1, making food costs 2, making a phone call costs 2, watching a tv episode costs 2, etc

the purpose of spoon theory is to explain to abled/healthy people what being disabled/chronically ill is like, in a way they might find easier to understand

it highlights how little energy disabled/chronically ill people have when compared to abled healthy people, how much more energy things can cost, & how careful they have to be in prioritising what they spend that energy on

disabled/chronically ill people also use it as a way of talking about their energy levels

if you say “i’m low on spoons”, you’re not just saying you’re low on energy; you’re saying you’re low on energy because you’re disabled/chronically ill

here’s the link to the original article

[autismacceptance]

I've used the spoon theory to help others understand my Gastroparesis, never thought to use it for something else.

Spoons could probably go with autism too. Social interaction is spoon taxing.

[bat-to-da-robs]

Redinstead day 2: #REDinstead

This is what I wore to work today. I live in Australia. We don’t even have a light it up blue campaign here (as far as I’m aware). None the less, solidarity to those in other countries that are dealing with not nice stuff today!

[autismacceptance]

Post about ABA "therapy"

[awn-network]

Recently I have received feedback from a number of sources suggesting that I need to be careful when listening to autistic people, and integrating their perspectives into my research agenda. The implication is often that I would be better off if I didn’t talk to autistic people quite as much as I do.

This has been pretty challenging for me. I obviously don’t always (often? ever?) get it right, but working alongside autistic people, trying to ensure that the research I do aligns with their priorities, is absolutely a matter of principle for me…

…At the same time…  These people are all doing high quality research and are super brainy. More than that, I have no doubt that they care greatly about making a difference in the lives of people on the autism spectrum, and their families. So why the reluctance to ask  #actuallyautistic folks what they think?

[aatmenexttime]

Its almost like Autism Parents don’t want to listen to Autistic adults because then they’d have to accept that their children will still be Autistic as adults.

[alice-royal]

I made this bingo card so everyone can play when we comment on non-autistic-made posts online. 

And if you’re offended by this bingo card, you’re probably the reason why it exists.

[butterflyinthewell]

General “you” here.

When an autistic person is on the verge of a meltdown, the worst thing you can do is put more social pressure on them while taking environmental control away from them.

Stop bodily dragging your autistic relative to loud social gatherings and telling them to shake hands and smile.

And stop punishing them when they don’t comply and have the meltdown they almost fought off until you ruined their cooldown.

[bruisedwaters]

petition for Autism Moms to stop calling themselves that and instead let autistic mothers talk. like i’ve had alistics doubt i’m able to take care of my pets based on my autism so it’s no wonder you don’t hear what it’s like to be an autistic parent, especially a mother.

[autismacceptance]

Autism is not a tragedy.

It has not robbed you of your child. Get on their level. That is your child. Stop mourning the life events you may not get..let your child be a child.

[autiefae]

You know that post that’s like “plus size women can’t…..” and it shows women doing a bunch of stuff like wearing bikinis and crop tops and throwing away the signs?? I want to do that for autism!! Like as a project for April, it would be so cool if I could collaborate with some people on it! Like some of the ideas I had were “Autistic people can’t get married” and me kissing my fiancé or “Autistic people can’t have children” and someone waving to the camera with their child on their lap! Is that a good idea? Would anyone be willing to work with me on that? @autistic-parenting?

[autismacceptance]

I love this!!!

[autie-j]

Since April is coming up I think I’m going to do some posts talking about how bad of an organization autism $peaks is.

First hardly any of the money they raise goes towards helping autistics. The majority goes back into funding even more fundraisers and research into a “cure”. Second they don’t listen to autistics. Unlike other organizations there are no autistics in autism $peaks and they refuse to listen to the voices of autistics.

Third autism $peaks really dehumanize autistics in the way that they talk about autism. They’ve been known to say stuff like “autism ruins marriages” and have constantly referred to autistic children as being “missing”. They talk about autism as if it’s a cancer, a disease that needs to be eradicated. If you want a clear picture of how autism $peaks views us autistics then you should watch their 2009 awareness ad titled “I am autism” though I warn you the video is disgusting in how it talks about autism. The video makes autism out to be a creepy stalker that will steal children away from their parents. The whole video is really sickening and I warn you to only watch it if you think you can handle it, maybe read a transcript of it instead if you’re really curious.

Finally they have funded some really terrible things such as the Judge Rotenberg Center which used electro shock “therapy” on autistics. They abuse autistics to stop them from doing things that are normal autistic traits such as stimming. This place needs to be shut down and I’m amazed that it hasn’t been yet. I’ll probably make another post talking more about this place later.

So in conclusion, this April do not “light it up blue” as that is an autism $peaks movement. Autism $peaks us a horribly ableist organization that is practically a hate group. If you support autism $peaks then you are not supporting autistics!

[autismacceptance]

Sums up my feels exactly

[nightmcnsters-deactivated201910]

// Just a bit of a PSA, in light of my previous posts about it: If you want to know how to support autistic people this month without so much as breathing on Autism Speaks, use the colors red and gold instead of blue, & refer to it as “Autism Acceptance Month” instead of “Autism Awareness Month”. Those are the most widely used autistic-created alternatives to promoting Autism Speaks. Also, no puzzle piece motifs - those are specifically an A.S. thing, and they’re insulting for what I think are fairly obvious reasons.