Needing assistance with daily life is more tolerated in our society when that assistance is in aid of making money than it is when it’s required for being able to live safely with basic human dignity.
The new cuts and push for disabled people to work terrifies me. Will we see an increase in suicide in the autistic community? Will autistic people be forced to mask and hide their disability so that they can keep their job?
How can education and disability policy best serve disabled learners, and also support those learners and their families?
Steve Silberman pivoted the public conversation away from the objectification of autistics and towards centering autistic voices, plus he was just a mensch. Anne Borden King and Shannon Rosa discuss his neurodiversity legacy.
Two autistic people could have the exact same motor challenges and each make different decisions about what is “good enough” for them, based on who they are as people and what their individual life circumstances are at the moment.
When we trust progressive media outlets as both intellectually rigorous and socially just, their ableism goes unchecked—and so can be far more dangerous than that of their unapologetically prejudiced counterparts.
Investigative Documentary’s docu-series Natalia Speaks addresses important issues about parents’ legal over-reach and the rights of the disabled. It also raises the question of what we deserve from the stories about us.
The book Neurodiversity for Dummies is happening because there really is a dearth of accessible information and resources. This listening session is a conversation about what neurodiversity is, and what neurodivergent people need to thrive.
I’m not a fan of “levels of autism.” If an autistic individual makes a personal choice to refer to themselves as one of these levels, I can respect their decision. When it’s imposed meaninglessly by others, it’s too often disastrous.
I still see a lot of “gifted” labeling in the school system, along with a conversation that is frustratingly narrow, because gifted labels cause harm—both to the ability of “gifted” disabled children to get support, as well as to those without the gifted labels.
