It’s April, and that means it’s the month that is even harder for autistic people to be listened to by non-autistic people.
This is the month where we see blue light bulbs, ribbons, and puzzle pieces all over the place, both on and offline.
STOP. IT.
Who isn’t aware of autism at this point?
We don’t need more awareness. Especially from groups like Autism Speaks. They don’t speak for me…or any other autistic person I know. So much of the autism awareness out there is harmful to us. If you’re trying to bring awareness of autism up so someone you love us treated better than we are treated now? If you support autism speaks, or anything about curing, fighting, beating, defeating, etc, autism, you’re doing it wrong. That’s not good awareness.
Autism Speaks does NOT promote acceptance.
They do NOT promote understanding.
And autistic people boycott them. We’ve been boycotting them for years.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if an organization is being boycotted by the very people it claims to support, no matter what you’ve been led to believe about them, that should raise a big, red flag.
Check out the Resources section of my blog for some great links about why we boycott.
Also, for those of you with autistic people in your families? Think very carefully about how you treat autistic people online. How dismissive are you? How quick are you to jump in and say you like lightbulbs, or puzzle pieces, and the way you see it is different, so what many autistic adults are telling you is irrelevant?
Do you stand up against other neurotypical people and call them out when they dismiss us?
You are teaching the world how to treat your autistic son/daughter/grandchild/niece/nephew/etc.
Do you want them to be listened to when they’re in our shoes? Or do you want them to be dismissed and talked over, like do many of you do to us every day, and especially in April?
Think about it.
Facebook Comments