Representation matters, even indirect and unintentional representation. Headcanon neurodivergent characters abound in our cultural landscape. Motorcycle Boy is damn near archetypal for me. He is an avataric poem, a song of disenfranchisement, a long epic tale of knowing yourself SO well and being known not at all.
From a position of safety within a network of mutual aid, autistic people are ideally equipped to act as catalysts for the evolution of social norms for collaboration between groups, to allow human scale communities to manage scarce resources sustainably at bioregional levels, and to share trustworthy knowledge globally, via the global communications networks we have established.
Ben Breaux, nonspeaking autistic advocate and author, reviewed the award-winning film, The Reason I Jump, an adaptation of Naoki Higashida’s best-selling memoir of the same title. Breaux interviewed several members of the cast and crew to pen this critically-important and profoundly-insightful analysis of the film.
Don’t think of inclusion as helping us get by in the structures built by and for ‘not us,’ rather think of how you can help us change the structure so that it is ours as much as it is yours.
Rithik Sinhasan is a nonspeaking autistic teen who wants to be a travel writer, but before gaining access to rapid prompting method, or RPM, through Soma Mukhopadhyay, his dreams were grounded.
Since he’s been home, Matthew Rushin has been learning a lot about autistic culture and seeing how many people are out there who are so similar to him. Here, he explores bridging communication gaps between autistic people and non-autistic people.
Matt Crittenden is a nonspeaking autistic who delights in the new and depending relationships he forms now that he has access to communication that works for him.
Anantha Krishnamurthy is a nonspeaking autistic teen advocate who uses RPM to communicate. In this poem, he recalls the isolation of not being able to demonstrate his ability before access to communication rights.
Before assuming an autistic person is being rude in a discussion, think about what that autistic person is having to do to stay in the conversation.
People expect that we all have the same communication instincts, but there are at least two communication styles that, without knowledge of them, will result in a lifetime of missed connections.
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