Autism and Ageism
You can listen and understand and believe and respect autistic adults every bit as much as you do those things with autistic children. If you don’t, you’re being ageist.
acceptance
Have Faith In Your Children With Intellectual Disabilities
This idea that people with intellectual disabilities cannot learn is a very dangerous idea and it leads to us being harmed. I think it is important to autistics with intellectual disabilities that we get the support to learn.
Autism: A Vision for a More Equitable Future
“For too long autistic children have been just taught what they should do to fit in a neurotypical mold, instead of being taught who they are as autistic people, and who neurotypical people are as a neurotypical people, and how to appreciate both, and build translations between the two.”
The Joy and Vibrance of Autism
I feel things so intensely, and when that’s a good emotion, it’s the best thing in the world. I feel joy with every bone in my body. When someone else is happy, I feel it too.
Why Doesn’t Respect for Communication Diversity Include Nonspeaking Autistic People?
When we are far more willing to believe in the capacity for communication of animals and aliens than we are in that of nonspeaking and intellectually disabled autistic people, and extend our research and creativity towards mutual understanding, no, I have to reject the assertion that “Some autistic people just can’t communicate.”
How Finding Autistic Community Leads to Self-Acceptance
The autistic community owes it to the next generation to show them that the world has a place for them, and that in this place they will always be welcome. All autistics deserve to accept themselves for who they are.
Starting Points for Understanding Autism
I believe that the best way to understand autistic minds is in terms of a thinking style which tends to concentrate resources in a few interests and concerns at any time, rather than distributing them widely.
My Autistic Son Needs Extensive Supports. And Yet, I Oppose Labels Like “Severe Autism.”
Recently my teen autistic son and I walked around a fancy shopping center, while his sibling was at a nearby appointment (public strolls are not always something he can do, but that day he was up for it). We ambled past the coin collector’s shop and the jodhpurs boutique, then popped into the housewares store—just
Parents: Please Stop Infantilising Your Teenage and Adult Disabled Children
It’s important to avoid infantilising your teen or adult autistic offspring, meaning treating them as though they will always be a child—whether they’re five, fifteen or thirty-five.
What the Fidget Spinners Fad Reveals About Disability Discrimination
I’m angry about the sudden popularity of fidget spinners, but probably not for the reasons you think. I’m not mad that they’re disruptive in class, or obnoxiously trendy. I’m furious because of what they reveal about societal power structures, and the pathologizing of disabled people by non-disabled persons.