A huge way to accommodate me is to just ask instead of assuming, or assume good intentions first. It shows you are trying to come from a place of understanding, which is the first step in building trust for me.
Something that would make my life easier would be accessible virtual health care; in other
words, NOT by phone.
“I hope that if non-autistic parents reading take one thing from this book, it’s that supporting an autistic child in their genuine, passionate interests, no matter how seemingly strange or unlikely, is perhaps one of the most important decisions they can make for that child’s future.”
Ira Eidle is the curator of the of Autistic Archive, an online resource that responds to “a need for better preservation of information related to the Autistic Community and Neurodiversity Movement’s history.”
At a time when there remains widespread confusion about autism and cannabis and developmental disability, it is imperative that responsible platforms make a more serious effort to educate the public and to more regularly share valid, up-to-date information.
As an autistic person, I decided to watch “As We See It” to see how autistic people are represented. After watching the whole season, I concluded that “As We See It” should be called “As Non-autistic Caregivers See It.”
Pro tip: it’s fine to want to understand your autistic friends’ sensory and accommodations issues, etc., but please don’t frame it as a “Gotcha.”
Disabled people deserve access to the supports they need, whether due to autism or to co-occurring conditions. Just as squares are not more quadrilateral than trapezoids—they are all four-sided shapes–there is no such thing as “profound autism.”
For a person with heightened sensory sensitivity, clothing and accessories can make or break an entire day out; here are suggestions for clothes, accessories, and miscellaneous accoutrements that might work.
Jordyn Zimmerman’s story, as told in the new documentary This Is Not About Me, is an example of how non-speaking autistic people can blossom when communication becomes possible.
