1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Hello, welcome to another episode of Unpacking Neuroqeerness. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:15,120 In this episode, I'm going to talk a little bit about autism awareness and acceptance month, 3 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:17,000 which is the month of April. 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:24,080 I did a similar episode to this one last year, but you know, here we are again, about to 5 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:31,280 start April again, and I have a lot more listeners now than I did last year. 6 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:36,200 So there are a lot of people that probably didn't have the chance to listen to that episode 7 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:37,200 from last year. 8 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:40,520 So I'm going to do a similar episode for this year. 9 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:51,520 So April can be a tough month for autistic advocates, and some people would wonder why, 10 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:56,760 because it is autism acceptance month, so you would expect it to be a good month for 11 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:02,600 us because you would expect it to be a month where a lot of people are listening to what 12 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:07,360 we have to say and trying to make the world a better place for us. 13 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:14,200 However, historically, that has not been the case. 14 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:21,280 Historically when autism awareness month originated, and it used to be called just autism awareness 15 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:34,920 month, it was with the narrative of praising parents of autistic kids for being superhero, 16 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:42,760 autism moms, or autism dads, which is basically praising them for the so-called burden of 17 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:51,120 raising a disabled child, which is very harmful to autistic people such as myself. 18 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:57,920 And others, especially those with high support needs, because it makes us feel like a burden. 19 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:05,480 It makes us feel like, oh, you know, like we're praising, like our parents are getting praised 20 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:08,760 for dealing with us, essentially. 21 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:15,760 It's like, like because they wish we weren't disabled, which is very ableist. 22 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:23,600 And people don't even realize because there's so much emphasis on only the struggles that 23 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:36,800 come with autism and the fact that sometimes they're just little changing, like sometimes 24 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:41,240 what really needs to happen is people need to be better accommodated. 25 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:46,560 And I understand that it's frustrating because, you know, and this was the case for my parents 26 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:54,840 too, like advocating to get your child accommodations in school can be really frustrating when the 27 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:57,120 school is not willing to provide them. 28 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:03,240 And when the system that we live in, the society that we live in in general does not provide 29 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:08,640 enough accommodations to autistic people. 30 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:14,440 And we have to acknowledge that the fault of the lack of accommodations, of the lack 31 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:22,080 of support, of the struggles that autistic people go through is not entirely due to their 32 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:23,080 autism. 33 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:32,680 It is due largely to the way that society has not accommodated autistic people and how 34 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:39,640 society does not provide enough resources. 35 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:48,320 Most places, most institutions do not provide enough resources to support autistic people 36 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:54,760 in the ways that they need to be supported, that we need to be supported. 37 00:03:54,760 --> 00:04:03,600 So historically, a lot of the narrative around this month has been centered around trying 38 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:10,800 to cure and trying to treat autistic people as if we had some kind of disease, as if we 39 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:19,120 were a disease that needed to be treated and eradicated and corrected and cured. 40 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:29,520 And the reality is we are people, we just have different support needs and we just need to 41 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:34,040 be accommodated and we have different communication styles. 42 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:39,960 We don't need to be molded into neurotypicals. 43 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:45,480 A lot of us don't want to be molded into neurotypicals. 44 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,200 A lot of us don't want to be cured. 45 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:53,240 We just want to be accepted, included and accommodated and have our different ways of 46 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:58,920 being and thinking and existing honored. 47 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:07,520 And so that's why a lot of us, including myself, have started calling Autism Awareness Month 48 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:14,360 Autism Acceptance Month or even Autism Acceptance and Awareness Month because I do acknowledge 49 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:20,120 that in order to have acceptance, we do need to have more awareness and understanding. 50 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:24,040 It's just the right kind of awareness. 51 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:30,560 We don't want the kind of awareness that's like portraying our disability as some sort 52 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:43,200 of disease where we need to be corrected and treated and we're usually given very little 53 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:50,240 autonomy and voice over how we want to be accommodated. 54 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:57,400 It's a lot of gaslighting that occurs on the part of medical professionals that a lot of 55 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:07,720 times do not receive much training on autism and neurodiversity and all and have very dated, 56 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:15,960 very stigmatized, very stereotypical ideas of what autism is supposed to look like and 57 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:26,760 they don't usually recognize that autism is a spectrum of different support needs to different 58 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:33,480 intensities and even those support needs can vary day to day. 59 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:37,240 They can be dynamic. 60 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:47,920 So that's why I talk so much on this podcast about how important it is to understand that 61 00:06:47,920 --> 00:07:00,240 autistic people communicate in different ways and not make assumptions about what someone 62 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:09,240 is trying to tell you based on anything that's not what they're actually saying because neurotypicals 63 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:17,200 tend to focus a lot on nonverbal cues which we don't, which autistics don't usually use 64 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:25,440 and an autistic person might be communicating something very directly to the point with 65 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:33,080 the best wording possible and our faces don't always match what we're saying so the person 66 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:38,320 might be paying more attention to, if we're talking to a neurotypical person they might 67 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:43,600 be paying more attention to our faces instead of what we're actually trying to communicate 68 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:53,480 and then they might accuse us of being untruthful or of communicating something completely different 69 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,240 than what we're actually saying. 70 00:07:56,240 --> 00:08:03,320 That's just one example of how our communication styles differ and so that's one of the main 71 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:11,920 things that that's like the first thing you can do if you want to better understand and 72 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:19,320 support your autistic friend or family member is to honor our communication styles. 73 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:26,120 Moving on, listen to our experiences and listen to how we feel and what we want and what we 74 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:32,560 need even if they challenge what you've been taught about autism or what you've heard 75 00:08:32,560 --> 00:08:36,680 or what you've seen in movies and TV shows or whatnot. 76 00:08:36,680 --> 00:08:39,640 Remember to listen to our experiences. 77 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,800 Also help us advocate for change. 78 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:51,120 Probably the most important thing that I can't stress enough is that please help us advocate 79 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:58,720 for change by reaching out to schools, businesses, community organizations, supermarkets. 80 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:05,280 An example of an accommodation that could be made at supermarkets is sensory hours where 81 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:11,160 the lights are dimmed and the music is lowered and there are less people allowed in the market 82 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:20,320 because sensory overload and overstimulation is one of the top things that autistic people 83 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:26,640 struggle with especially in environments like supermarkets and so that's one example that 84 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:34,400 I always talk about instead of worrying because I see this narrative out there like with the 85 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:40,840 eugenics research with the people that defend treatments and cures and whatnot. 86 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:49,400 They say that it's because they worry about let's say Johnny which is a high let's say 87 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:59,960 this hypothetical high support needs autistic child named Johnny that has high sensory sensitivities 88 00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:11,480 that they worry about him being able to they want him to not have sensory they want to 89 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:17,240 like desensitize him because they want they worry about him not being able to thrive in 90 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:25,120 this world but I asked the question of well why don't you advocate for a more inclusive 91 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:30,240 world why don't instead of worrying about oh well Johnny ever be able to go to the supermarket 92 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:36,800 and making Johnny and putting the burden and the responsibility of that change on Johnny 93 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:42,160 that is already dealing with being stressed out and overload and he shouldn't have to 94 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:49,520 desensitize himself in order to fit the world we want the world to be more accommodating 95 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:56,120 to Johnny and see if we if we just have if Johnny's local supermarket with enough help 96 00:10:56,120 --> 00:11:02,080 from the non-autistic people around him if they advocated for Johnny's local supermarket 97 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:09,040 to have sensory hours well that that isn't Johnny's sensory sensitivities are no longer 98 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:19,160 an issue so that's just one example of how people can help and another huge thing as 99 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:24,080 I wrap up because this is going to be a pretty short episode that one of the main things 100 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:31,240 I tell people also is call out people on their microaggressions and or ableism when they're 101 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:38,600 speaking about autistic people especially and otherwise disabled people for that matter 102 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:48,400 especially when the autistic person or the disabled person is not there to defend themselves 103 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:53,400 when we are not there to defend ourselves and you are there and someone that you know 104 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:59,200 especially if it's someone that you have a relationship with be it a friend or a distant 105 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:07,680 family member or whatnot says something that is ableist or that definitely would be perceived 106 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:13,360 as a microaggression by your autistic friend or a family member please call them out and 107 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:20,320 please politely educate them on why what they said is problematic because if we don't do 108 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:34,440 that if we don't stand up for our friends and family members if you guys don't do that 109 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:43,480 my community and I will continue to suffer through these microaggressions and ableism 110 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:51,920 will continue to be rampant and it's like people are affected by this and ableism is 111 00:12:51,920 --> 00:13:09,440 such a massive systemic force and issue that sadly it's unlikely that ableism will be completely 112 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:17,440 dismantled in one person's lifetime like by the end of my lifetime decades hopefully 113 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:24,480 many decades from now we might still be fighting this fight and people don't realize that neurodivergent 114 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:33,120 people have been fighting this fight for many decades already and the term neurodiversity 115 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:39,240 was coined in the 1990s and people have been advocating with different terms and different 116 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:47,400 terminology since way before then the disability rights movement was in the 1970s and yes we 117 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:56,320 have the ADA now and yes we have more accommodations but the ADA is not perfect and the ADA still 118 00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:03,800 does not include people with hidden disabilities people that aren't able to access a diagnosis 119 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:14,080 they're not everyone is required not every business is required to comply with the ADA 120 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:21,160 there's still a lot of places that do not have accessible ramps for people in wheelchairs 121 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:33,760 and accommodations for other kinds of disabilities yes the ADA is huge and it's definitely something 122 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:42,880 that should be celebrated but it is not complete there is so much more work to be done to get 123 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:55,400 true inclusion so yeah so that's essentially what I wanted to talk about today I hope you 124 00:14:55,400 --> 00:15:01,360 enjoyed this episode I hope it was helpful for you thank you for all those who have 125 00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:10,960 stayed on for this long I know I get kinda all over the place when I'm making my points 126 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:20,040 sometimes but eventually I always get around to what I want to say so yeah I just wanted 127 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:25,800 to thank everyone once again for listening I hope you got something out of this and I'll 128 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:41,640 see you next time.