8 Things Autistic People Want You To Know
1. Autism is a fundamental part of who we are and how we experience the world and it cannot be separated from who we are as people. Autism is not something which is clearly separated from our identities and our personalities - itâs something which affects every aspect of how we think about, experience and interact with the world around us. Autism isnât something we have or something weâre suffering from, itâs something we are. For the vast majority of autistic people, autism is a part of our identity which means that despite common belief most of us prefer to be called âautisticâ as opposed to âpeople with autism.â Do not tell us that we only have value if we can separate our identities and our personalities from autism.
2. The vast majority of autistic people do not want a cure, we want acceptance and accommodations. Do not put your time and money into researching how to cure autism and how to prevent it, put time and money into accommodating and accepting autistic people. We do not wish to become neurotypical, we wish to change society so that we can be accommodated, accepted and included as autistic people. Our goal isnât to become as close to neurotypical as possible, it is to get the opportunity to live happy, fulfilling lives as autistic people. It is society that needs to chance, not us.
3. We do not support Autism Speaks or their campaign #LightItUpBlue and neither should you. If you want to support autistic people, check out ASAN or Autism Womenâs Network instead. If you donât know why autistic people donât support Autism Speaks, check out the many resources linked in this post.
4. Functioning labels are at best inaccurate and at worst actively harmful. Functioning labels (claiming that some autistic people are âhigh-functioningâ while others are âlow-functioningâ) do more harm than good, not just because they arenât able to give you an accurate impression of what supports an individual autistic person needs but because theyâre mainly used to either silence or invalidate autistic people. Autistic people who speak up about the issues concerning them are labelled âhigh-functioningâ to invalidate what they have to say as being inaccurate and irrelevant for other autistic people and so-called âlow-functioningâ autistic people are being silenced and spoken over because they are written off as too âlow-functioningâ to have nuanced, relevant opinions or even communicate at all. Instead of forcing autistic people into one of two boxes, name the specific issues or strengths that you are referring to when youâre calling them low-functioning or high-functioning. Are they non-verbal? Say that instead of calling them low-functioning. Are they able to manage a job? Say that instead of calling them high-functioning.
5. Non-verbal autistic people can and do learn to communicate using other communication forms than verbal speech and theyâre all individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, wants and opinions. You do not get to speak on behalf of non-verbal autistic people. You do not get to assume that you know exactly what they think, want and feel, especially not when you have never made any effort to communicate with any of them. Instead of assuming that you know what non-verbal autistic people think and feel, try listening to what they have to say by reading the words of some non-verbal autistic people such as @lysikan or Amy Sequenzia or Emma Zurcher-Long.
6. Applied Behavior Analysis, the most widespread and well-known therapy for autistic children, does more harm than good. The goal of ABA therapy is to train and force autistic people into hiding their autistic traits by all means possible as if passing for neurotypical should be the goal of all autistic people regardless of what consequences it might have for their general well-being and their mental health. If you donât see why that is a problem, check out this masterpost by @neurowonderful. Â
7. People diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome are just as autistic as people diagnosed with other variants of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Aspergers is autism and to emphasize this, aspergers and other variants of autism have been united under a broader diagnosis called âautism spectrum disorderâ in the DSM-5, Back when aspergers was a separate diagnosis, the only difference between whether you got diagnosed with aspergers or autism was whether you spoke before you were three years old - something which says approximately nothing about your struggles and abilities later in life. Â The common misconception that aspergers and autism is two different things is just that - a misconception.
8. If you want to learn more about autism, listen to autistic people - not our parents, our siblings, our therapists our or caregivers. Autistic people are the ones who know the most about being autistic, so if you want to learn about autism weâre the ones you should ask. If you want to learn more about the different aspects of autism, @neurowonderfulâs youtube series âAsk An Autisticâ is a good place to start. Here is an index over all the episodes so that you can easily find the topic you want to learn about. You can also visit @askanautistic where autistic people are ready to answer whatever questions you may have about autism. Â
Please reblog this post. Itâs time tumblr starts listening to autistic people.
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