Autism and the Burden of Social Reciprocity

February 6, 2017January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Maxfield Sparrow unstrangemind.com Breaking Down Walls That Shouldn’t Exist Photo © Gavin Stewart, Creative Commons license. [image description: People using a wooden ladder to climb over the Berlin Wall during its 1989 fall.] One of the images that comes up again and again in articles about autism and Autistic people are photographs of children behind panes of textured glass. Their hands are usually pressed against the glass and their faces are distorted beyond recognition by the swirls and ridges in the surface of the glass. The images are meant to symbolize how we are “trapped inside autism” just waiting to be broken free from our “prison.” Journalists and their editors love those images; Autistic adults tend to really hate them. Years ago, when I was struggling hard with a deep self-loathing that I had projected onto my autism diagnosis, I embraced those images as well. I had been terribly, sometimes…

Selfie of Finn Gardiner, a smiling Black man wearing glasses.

Disability

Rejecting the Politics of Shame

April 29, 2016January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

TPGA is observing Autism Acceptance Month by featuring accounts from autistic people about the differences accommodations (or lack thereof) make in their lives. Today, Finn Gardiner talks about being the “truest, best self” he can be, tackling the “politics of shame head-on,” and recognizing “that I could live with my autistic, black, queer, trans self without guilt just for being alive.” Finn Gardiner [image: Selfie of a smiling black person with shaved hair & rectangular gold-rimmed glasses.] Finn Gardiner www.expectedly.org My path to autism acceptance and rejecting the politics of shame came along with my recognition of the other intersections I experience: recognising my gender identity, fighting internalised racism, and defining and following a path that was based on my own self-determined goals — rather than what parents, professionals, and other authority figures around me deemed appropriate. My childhood and adolescence were steeped in the politics of shame. Family members…

Disability

An Advocate Asks for Acceptance in Autism Research

April 28, 2016January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Photo © Subconsci Productions [image: Instruments on the wall of a doctor’s exam room.] TPGA is observing Autism Acceptance Month by featuring accounts from autistic people about the differences accommodations (or lack thereof) make in their lives. Today, Kate talks about her experience trying to participate in a TMS research study, how distressing the entire scenario was for her because of the way she was treated, and how autism researchers need to better understand and accommodate autistic people if they want more autistic participants in their studies. by Kate I have figured it out, and I kind of feel like a genius. I have figured it out, and it is this: Awareness is people talking to you. Acceptance is people respecting you. Awareness is that high-pitched, baby voice. Acceptance is speaking in a normal tone. Awareness is being invited to the table. Acceptance is making sure that you can reach…

Disability

“Is Your Son Really That Difficult?”

May 22, 2013January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com Photo © Merrick Brown at Flickr “Is Your Son Really That Difficult?” That’s what the well-meaning blinds salesperson who just left my house asked me, after I told her I was leery of installing vertical blinds in our family room — mostly because I was worried Leo would love them to pieces, quite literally. I launched into kind-but-firm on-the-spot advocacy and acceptance mode. I didn’t cry (something I might have done in the past) or get strident (something I am still working on). Instead, I smiled to show how much I love my son, and let her know that she was misunderstanding my concerns. I told her that I wouldn’t call my son difficult, but that his autism means he sometimes has difficulty reining in his impulses. So even if we asked him to please not wrap himself up in or set in motion a…

Disability

Why Closed Captioning Isn’t Just For Deaf People

August 3, 2010January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Aspie Teacher www.aspieteacher.com Thanks to the excellent advice of a friend, closed captioning is one of the most helpful discoveries I’ve made. I didn’t even know until recently that you could get closed captioning on any TV show just by turning it on in your cable settings! For a long time, my husband and I have been really frustrated by the ratio of how much we paid for cable to how little TV we watched. And then, oh my god, I discovered closed captioning. I could finally read TV instead of just watching or listening to it — what a revelation! See, following a conversation is pretty complicated: You have to be able to hear what’s going on. There’s also the assumption that the language being spoken is one you understand. There’s the question of whether you can parse the words correctly, or tell where they begin and end. And…