Ok, so I am not the only person frustrated at autism discourse in the media (hell, I was in hiding for all of Autism Freakout Month). So, I propose a game/remedy.
From now on, every time I read something about autism, I am going to replace the word “autism” with “a cat”.
“With proper support, children with a cat can lead meaningful, productive lives”.
See? Isn’t that better? Everyone should play this game *nods*
when I watch movie on my computer I tend to watch 20 minutes of a movie I didn’t watch yet, then 20 minutes of a movie i didn’t watch either and recorded on the tv, then 1-3 minute of some kinds of comical short things, then some minutes of extras from a DVD then 30 minutes of a movie I already watched at least once and then again some minutes of dvd extras !
My favorite useless autism stimulation thing is the one where it says, “This is how the world looks to a child with autism” and it’s ALL BLURRY. More like this is how the world looks to a child who needs glasses. I have a very good memory and know I didn’t see the world as BLURRY when I was a child!
This is where your money “for autism” goes.
ironically it tends to even be the exact opposite !
Yup—I remember the world of my childhood as very, very crisp and vivid.
It got blurry when my vision deteriorated to about 20/200, not from my being autistic.
Now that I think of it I’m also the only member of my family who still doesn’t need glass !
How did they even come up with that?
“Billy, what”s the world like for you?”
“Confusing.”“GUYS, I have a BRILLIANT idea. The world is CONFUSING for children with autism, which must mean they SEE the world with BLURRED VISION.”
Or did they just make things up because autism is too mysteriouuuuus to ask actual autistic children about?
I really don’t know
My favorite useless autism stimulation thing is the one where it says, “This is how the world looks to a child with autism” and it’s ALL BLURRY. More like this is how the world looks to a child who needs glasses. I have a very good memory and know I didn’t see the world as BLURRY when I was a child!
This is where your money “for autism” goes.
ironically it tends to even be the exact opposite !
When people write good articles but they include “You may have a relative with a form of autism, or a friend with a form of autism, or know someone whose child has a form of autism” and thus forget we are actually real people who read …
Whether you know it or not, Autistic people might be in earshot of you. Be careful of how you talk about autism/Autistic people. You could hurt their feelings.
Corollary: yes, autistic people actually do have feelings.
My needs matter.
I deserve to exist.
I deserve accommodation for the things that are hard for me.
I deserve agency over my treatment and my life.
I deserve the same opportunities for housing, education, employment, personal enrichment, and interpersonal relations as neurotypical people.
My self-care is an act of resistance against ableism and is tantamount to my survival.
My contributions to society, while they may not be the same as a neurotypical’s, deserve recognition and respect.
I deserve to be treated in a manner that is compassionate, kind, and respectful from those with whom I interact, including medical professionals.
I am allowed to ask for help and I am allowed to acknowledge that certain things are more difficult for me than they are for others.
I deserve to have my voice heard in relation to my neurodivergency, and I deserve to have my voice prioritized over those without my neurodivergency in conversations about such.
I am not inspiration porn. I do not have to be the ‘poster child’ for my neurodivergency in order to have my condition recognized, and I do not have to work to ‘inspire’ others with or without my condition if I do not wish to.
I am allowed to engage in things I enjoy without them being pathologized.
I am allowed to refuse treatment that I do not feel meets my needs, and I am allowed to demand and actively seek treatment that fits best with my personal experiences.I am allowed to life a live that feels true to myself, regardless of whether that life is sanctioned as ‘normal’ by neurotypical society.
My experiences matter, and my life matters.
I am allowed to complain about my neurodivergency and I am allowed to express frustration with a society that does not meet or anticipate my needs.
Community with others of my neurodivergency is crucial to my survival and to the recognition of my neurodivergency as valid.
I am allowed to have bad days. I do not always have to be perfect. I do not always have to ‘fit in’. I do not always have to meet the needs of others.
My neurodivergency is not all of me, but it is not separate from me either. I am a person with a neurodivergency, but above all, I am a person.
The fight for my existence is real. The struggles of others with my neurodivergency are critical evidence that my neurodivergency is not accepted by neurotypical society and further proof that I must fight, if and when I have the strength, for further acceptance.
I deserve love, and I am not a monster because of my neurodivergency.
I deserve to see positive representation of people of my neurodivergency.
I exist, and I will continue to exist, and there’s not a fucking thing that neurotypicals can do to take that away.
There are people out there who actually think that the autistic community created the ‘myth’ that autistic people (like other disabled people, like other developmentally disabled people, etc.) are singled out to be killed.
I just… I can’t. Not right now. And I can’t imagine what imaginary world a person has to live in to miss the fact that these things happen to us all the time and specifically because we are disabled. This isn’t the first time it’s happened to me it’s not the first time I’ve seen it happen to a disabled person including an autistic person. And I’m undoubtedly one of the people she’d blame for “creating that myth”, I.e. reporting what I see, because I’m one of a few people who were extremely extremely concerned with making sure people knew about this, back in the day.
Idk. It’s late I’m exhausted and I’m on a bedpan and I can’t explain what’s going through my head right now. I just survived an attempt to make sure I die. Maybe not through overt violence but attempts to dissuade me from getting life saving medical care are still violence no matter how you slice it. And I can’t just say oh this would have happened to anyone disabled or not because its not fucking true.
This happened to me specifically because I’m disabled.
Because I’m autistic, because I’m physically disabled, because I have chronic illness and chronic pain, because I present to a lot of doctors as a worthless “retard” whether they claim to praise my intellect or not. Autistic people are an intimate part of the concept of a “retard” just as people with intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and a few other things are. Being perceived as a “retard” is a great way to get killed in all kinds of ways.
This is real, people. For people who only believe shit they find in studies, look up stuff by Dick Sobsey, it’s been studied to fricking death. Autistic people aren’t unique in this way, but disabled people in general are the whole of it, and autistic people are part of a loose grouping of disabled people who are specifically targeted and singled out more than other disabled people might be.
To deny this is to make sure it keeps happening. I sometimes wish I had led the kind of life that would even make denying it possible. I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine that kind of safety. I wish everyone had that kind of safety. And yet I wish nobody tried to convince people that the safety exists when it doesn’t.
This isn’t just a matter of semantics like so many debates are. There are dead bodies embedded in this one. I don’t want to become one of them so I can’t afford not to be aware of the dangers. Not to live in constant fear, but to be able to plan for them and fight them.
Autistic people, developmentally disabled people, anyone who’s been contained within the concept “retard” (which isn’t a diagnosis or a test score, it’s a way of looking at a person), that’s one high risk category among disabled people.
Getting a feeding tube puts me in another high risk category of disabled people. Because once you have a feeding tube, people consider that a form of artificial life support. It’s the first part of the living will where I was asked if I’d rather die than have it. People use it to put ppl in nursing homes, where we die more easily. People treat it as an optional medical treatment rather than an alternate way of eating. You become a little more expendable.
And just to confuse the issue as an autistic and otherwise disabled person they did their best to talk me out of a feeding tube because that would be saving my life and no point doing that.
Which is a form of killing even though they do their best not to admit it. And you bet it happened partly because I’m autistic and most of the rest of it around disability too.
Thanks to everyone who helped ensure I got the tube btw.
I’m rambling. It’s late. I don’t know how to say what I’m thinking. But this idea, this weird story that its all a myth and we are all safe and just like want to think we aren’t of something, that’s very dangerous. You can’t protect yourself if you don’t know the ranges. And we are in danger. Some of us more than others of course. And in different ways. But the danger is there. And it’s all tied in with disability in general, not specific to autism, but autism is part of a cluster of types of disabled people who are very likely to be the target of all this.
Problem is its complicated because .. These are words, and what I’m trying to say isn’t words, and I’m tired, and in pain, and physically uncomfortable in other ways. You can’t make nice neat categories like autistic people and apply things across the board. But yes yes yes yes yes we are at higher risk of killing this is not even debatable. Both outright murder and more socially acceptable ways, ones most people don’t know now to look for, still just as deadly, sometimes more so. Can’t imagine now many disabled people been talked out of the treatment that is saving my life at the moment. Not coincidence it’s disabled people.
Anyway I’m going to stop talking in circles and hopefully something I’ve said will make sense because I can’t make myself think in words.
