April is for affirmation, inclusion, empowerment, and accomodation!
Center Autistic voices. Unlearn ableist concepts.
Actively dismantle ableist and neurobigoted structures and systems.
Seek out advocates, creators, and change-makers from within the #ActuallyAutistic community, especially those who are BIPOC and Nonspeakers.
Check your own neuro-privilege. Inventory your self for ableist attitudes.
When Autistic voices say: this is harmful to us, listen, learn, change.
When Autistic voices say: this is what we need to thrive, listen and accomodate.
I want us to move beyond “autism awareness” and “autism acceptance”. I want us ~ in tandem with allied allistics ~ to cultivate Autistic affirmation, inclusion, empowerment, and accomodation.
May this be the year we move in that direction and begin to radically shift the paradigm.
Image description: a drawing of a red, gold and white nudibranch (sea slug) with wavy appendages. “Nudibranch” is pronounced “NOO-dih-brank”. Art by Adam Auron Lodestone, 2022.
#NeurodivergenceIsNatural
#AutisticIdentity
#NeurodiversityMovement
#BeyondAutismAwarenessAndAcceptance
#AutisticRightsAreHumanRights
To learn more about how Autistic-kind experience prejudice in our society and what the neurotypical or otherwise allistic responsibility is for that, read about The Uncanny Valley (there is a link within this article, too, for further reading) and The Double Empathy Problem.
https://ko-fi.com/adamlodestone
- Book Review: What I Mean When I Say I’m Autistic by Annie Kotowicz - December 16, 2022
- April Is… - April 1, 2022
- Dear Mom, I am Autistic: - September 28, 2021
2 Responses
Dear Adam, I am the mother of a beautiful daughter with ASD. We will call her A.E. to protect her, she went to the hospital for tooth abscess and she was acting out because of the pain. the public guardians were her temporary Guardians at the time and were not available at that time I believe it was the weekend, and they had messed up her appt. to see the dentist in which I had to find for her (not easy) when there is no one to help. or qualified for adult w/ASD absolutely no one. this hospital was so quick to give her Haloperidol IM for a tooth abscesses, and versa and another cocktail on top of these and another dose 2 hrs after these and a cocktail on top of these horrible drugs. they gave her it again two days later after me telling them no after the first dose and they lied to me, they went against my wishes and she ended up in ICU “code blue” contracted sepsis and pneumonia and had restraints on her, they never thought she would pull through, but my strong sweet daughter did make it. I get her medical record and they have been falsified and if another doctor see them they could kill her. she no longer can speak nor bathe, she is like an infant now in diapers and no one will help, its been two years and still no qualified doctor, she has since had kidney failure and I cannot lose her. I won conservatorship after an appeal but they took her back because this was turned on me over APS another false claim. we need some encouragement or a friend. help Kris everyone is so quick to judge, when no one understands. A.E. was high functioning before all of this. I am not coping well and feel lost.