#danny whitty

[nonspeakerlibrary]

Danny Whitty and his sister Tara talk in this podcast episode about how disabled lives and interdependence are valued in society and how this affects nonspeaking people and our supporters. (Please listen to other episodes too! Their podcast is so valuable.)

Danny: And I believe I have value. I am not a disposable mistake. I am a full human, and I have inherent worth. I am a child of the universe. I feel and think and love. And though for most of my life, I have been made to feel like I don't deserve to exist, my heart knows that I do.

I want to take a stroll down not so nice memory lane. After I aged out of special education, I was put into the community adult day program. It was somehow even worse than special education. We would be taken out on outings to recycle bottles and to do menial tasks in shops. Then we would go to fast food restaurants for lunch, even though many of us had gut issues and needed to be on healthy diets. It all highlighted that our only way to be valued was to pitifully scratch away at activities that were at least marginally seen as productive. That our health didn't matter. That we didn't matter but had to mimic productivity for its own sake.

I am not insulting the work of recycling bottles or tiny tasks in shops. But we were forced to do these things without any other activities that would bring us joy or ignite our interest. We were made to feel that the only way to be worthwhile was to be a small negligible imitation of economic productivity. We could not envision being more than that.

[nonspeakerlibrary]

All I Can Say

This week’s poem comes from Danny Whitty, a nonspeaking autistic writer, poet, and advocate whose life opened up with Spelling to Communicat

This poem expresses the deep and unyielding truth: my disability limits me. It is an unflinching message that I and many others reckon with internally, but often feel afraid to share. We are so pressured to be beacons of hope and inspiration, to make others feel better. And for much of my life, I have been told by ignorant educators that I am more limited than I actually am, so I am also reluctant to acknowledge my real limitations. It sucks. To put it more eloquently would be to sugar coat it. It doesn't mean that my life is hopeless or worthless or not full of beauty and joy. It is the unvarnished, grainy truth. And of course it gets me down. I am human and I feel disappointment and frustration. I don't need comfort, but I so need compassion. Those who know me are aware that I am generally a positive person. I love much about my life. My autism can truly be a wondrous experience, full of light and color and intelligence and mirth and profound feelings. And I hope that I can convey that acceptance of the challenging parts of my life is a part of truly acknowledging my existence in its totality, along with my many joys.

[nonspeakerlibrary]

Some good practices for supporting nonspeaking autistic advocates

As a relatively newly fluent communicator, I am pretty new to the disability justice scene. I am so inspired by the brilliant and dedicated

Danny Whitty suggests ways speaking autistic people can support nonspeaking advocates.

“Many of us have limited energy that we can spend on advocacy. We also often rely on a Communication and Regulation Partner to help us to post online. This means that it can be tough for us to be regularly active online. So we might not be able to reliably reply to all comments, etc.”

“Spelling and typing are slow! In meetings and discussions, we often get left behind and our voices are crowded out. Be sure to check in with us throughout to ensure that we have the opportunity to be heard.

This is touchy, but for many of us, we and our families often have very different experiences with autism than speaking autistic folks. We often were unable to let our loved ones know our realities, and they did not have much reliable information on our disability. We have not been represented in advocacy for very long, and our experiences have not been fully integrated into mainstream autistic advocacy. So it is understandable that families might not relate to messages of that advocacy! We could use more grace in guiding nonspeaking autistic folks’ families toward better understanding of autistic advocacy.”

[nonspeakerlibrary]

I am not a burden

Dear Friends, I am so eager to share this realization: I am not a burden. But I need to believe it and trust my support team enough to be co

“I am so eager to share this realization: I am not a burden. But I need to believe it and trust my support team enough to be completely honest with them about my needs.”

“I hope all of us find a place in this life where we can be supported and not feel ashamed of it.”

[neuroclastic]

Book Review: I Will Die on This Hill

Sebastian Rubino reviews the long-awaited book, I Will Die on This Hill, by autistic advocate and parent, Jules Edwards, and allistic ally and parent, Meghan Ashburn.

Both autistic self-advocates and allistic allies have lent their voices to the neurodiversity movement through literature, but there has not been an example where a self-advocate and an ally writing a book together. I Will Die on This Hill by Meghan Ashburn and Jules Edwards seeks to fill that void as a guide to heal the divide between the autism community (non-autistic parents and…

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