Autistic People Are Not New to This World
We can’t both accept speculation that Darwin and Einstein were probably autistic, and also claim that all autistic people used to be institutionalized, killed, or abandoned as changelings.
Emily Paige Ballou
How Non-Autistics Can Be Good Friends to Autistic People
We talked with several autistic people about how non-autistic people can be good friends to autistic people. This is their advice.
When Something Finally Clicks: Mickey Rowe’s Fearlessly Different
“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.”
When Adaptation Looks Like Laziness
For instance, autistic inertia means that it’s harder for autistic people than it is for other people to stop, start, and change activities.
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.”
The Unrecovered
On being angry and frustrated at the celebration at children’s “recovery” from autism, by people who will not actually bear the consequences of losing that diagnosis, for the rest of their lives.
I Identify As Tired
To the next person who says to me “How are you really disabled?” or “I don’t see how you’re autistic,” I’m going to be hard-pressed not to reply “I am so goddamned tired.”
Autistic Commonality and the Illusion of “Quirky”
It’s not okay to dismiss one autistic person’s lived experience as having nothing to do with “real” autism simply because you don’t understand what autism is like for them.
How Can We All Do Better By Our Autistic Girls?
TPGA is observing Autism Acceptance Month by featuring accounts from autistic people about the differences accommodations (or lack thereof) make in their lives. Today, five women talk about about the under-recognition of autistic girls, the long- and short-term effects of going without supports and accommodations, and what autistic girls and actually need to succeed and