Year: 2015

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Disability

Autism Acceptance Month 2015

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Autism Acceptance Month starts today! Autism acceptance month is an autistic-led movement “about treating autistic people with respect, listening to what we have to say about ourselves, and making us welcome in the world.” Here are some ways you can observe Autism Acceptance Month: Autism Acceptance Campaigns and Projects The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network’s (ASAN) Autism Acceptance Month Project www.autismacceptancemonth.com [image description: a pyramid of three rainbow asterisk stars, to the left of the words “I signed the pledge! Acceptance is an action. Autism Acceptance Month.] “April is Autism Acceptance Month. During Autism Acceptance Month, we focus on sharing positive, respectful, and accurate information about autism and autistic people. “Autism Acceptance Month promotes acceptance and celebration of autistic people as family members, friends, classmates, co-workers, and community members making valuable contributions to our world. Autism is a natural variation of the human experience, and we can all create a world which values, includes,…

Disability

We aren’t your scapegoats. End of story.

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Chavisory chavisory.wordpress.com I am oh so glad to see the anti-vaccination movement finally seeing some serious public blowback, and very, very sorry that it has taken a lot of sick kids to do it. And alternately thankful at writing like this (Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism, But That’s Not the Point. Stop Being Ableist.) being all over my Facebook feed, and ambivalent about some of its logic. (It is still well worth reading.) If vaccines caused autism, even in some tiny percentage of vaccinated children, then whether the tradeoffs were worth the risk might be an ethical discussion worth having. (In which I would still give a hell of a lot of weight to “Measles encephalitis will straight up kill you, autism won’t.”) But it isn’t. Vaccines don’t cause autism, period. A hypothetical situation: If there were some form of medical treatment that carried a risk of turning me non-autistic, I…

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Disability

Why Acceptance Versus Awareness?

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Photo © Danny Hope | Creative Commons / Flickr [image: Small blue flag with lighter blue text reading, “YAY!”]   Richard Davis I see lots of campaigns to raise “awareness,” but very few to raise “acceptance.” Some issues you may just want to raise awareness about, like signs and symptoms of certain diseases, when to see a doctor, etc. When people become “aware” of something, it is not an act or a choice. They just get information and become “aware” of it. “Acceptance,” on the other hand, is more personal. People may be “aware” of autism, but may not be “accepting” of Autistic people for who they are (hence, assuming the need to “cure” them). People may be “aware” of LGBT/Queer people, but they may not “accept” them, especially being “openly gay” in public spaces. (Guess how many times I’ve been called a ‘faggot’ just for holding hands on a date??) “Acceptance” involves a…

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Disability

Things That Are Useful: Neurodiversity Tees

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[Image description: Close up of a black t-shirt with a blue and green combined brain/planet earth illustration, with the word “NEURODIVERSITY” under it. Worn by a partially visible teen boy with beige skin and gray shorts.] My son chooses his outfits each day with care and deliberation, and an eye for specific color combinations. One of his favorite shirts is a  Neurodiversity tee, which ranks second only to the Catbus tee in terms of “if it is not clean there will be much sadness and reiteration of sadness so please just make sure it is clean.” For those unfamiliar with Neurodiversity, it is a pride-tinged term used by folks in the autism and autistic communities to describe themselves: “The idea of neurodiversity was developed by autistic people in opposition to the pathologizing model. According to them autistic people are not disordered. They have a different sort of order. Their brains…