Autistic people face a unique obstacle in being understood compared to many other minority groups. With other subjects, you can educate yourself in a fairly straightforward manner by reading about those things online. Just googling it is a great starting place for people who want to learn more. But with autism, there are a lot of myths and malevolent organizations and sources out there. I mean major, professional, well-known organizations that people trust. These are the things that come up first when you google it.
If you start reading something racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic, it’s easy to tell that it’s probably misinformation and not a great source. But if you google autism, and click on what seems to be a reputable source, then read about what autism is and how it affects people… it’s very likely to be one of the “bad” sources and your BS radar never goes off because it all seems very official and proper. Autism Speaks is the major one that comes to mind. People love to rally behind Autism Speaks. They hold fundraisers for it, donate money, promote it, and refer to it as a trustworthy source of information. This is the most popular, but there are plenty of other bad sources, too.
As someone who falls into many different minority groups (I’m Mexican American, transgender, and obviously autistic), I know it’s not a contest of who can feel the most victimized. This isn’t about that at all. This is my point: from my position in all these groups, autism is the one that everyone has wildly inaccurate ideas about. Autism is the one people don’t get and don’t want to get. Autism is the one that, by trying to educate themselves, well-meaning people can actually worsen their understanding. I’ve seen an outpouring of support for racial minorites without ever having to seek it out. I’ve seen an outpouring of support for LGBT+ people without ever having to seek it out. For autistic people, I have seen almost NOTHING. And when I have seen people attempt to show support, they almost always refer to Autism Speaks or other insidious organizations.
So now you might be wondering what’s wrong with Autism Speaks. This is a topic that’s been written about by plenty of others already, so I won’t go over it here. Here’s a link, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one you can look at.
To really drive home how serious this problem is, let me say this. When my college hosts an event celebrating or providing education about Hispanic culture, that’s a good thing, right? Or when it’s an event celebrating or providing education about LGBT+ culture, that’s good, right? They focus on these things a lot because they’re trying really hard to promote diversity, and that’s great. But when it comes to autism, I have seen only one event hosted by my college and it was a disaster. The speaker was someone who worked with autistic students, so they probably seemed trustworthy. But the way they spoke about autistic people was, in a subtle but sure way, degrading and dehumanizing. So guess what? Everyone who attended that event (which was hardly anyone, because no one cares) probably walked away with WORSE ideas about autistic people than before.
One of the reasons this is a huge problem is because these organizations are run by NON-autistic people. Autistic people hardly ever get to speak for themselves. Do you know how infuriating it is to have neurotypical people spreading all this misinformation on our behalf? They usually get things very, very wrong. Autism is, for some reason, thought of as a condition that affects children. Why? Autistic kids grow up into autistic adults. And autistic adults, despite what these organizations will have you believe, know themselves better than anyone else. As a community, we are perfectly capable of advocating for ourselves, if only people would stop speaking over us. There are some organizations and groups that are good sources, and many of those are, no surprise here, run by autistic people.
So, I’m begging you, if you’re reading this post, PLEASE take the time to learn more about autism from GOOD sources. Even if you think, “Why? I don’t need to know about that, it doesn’t affect me.” I’m begging you. There are lots of us out here, and our lives are made so unnecessarily difficult because of everyone’s grossly distorted, but widely prevalent, notions of autism. I am begging you to just stop and listen to us. I’m sick of seeing autism presented as a disease, an affliction, an unfortunate condition, something that needs to be treated or cured. Just because our brains are wired differently doesn’t mean we’re defective or lesser than others. Autistic people continuously face human rights violations: electroshock punishment, marriage inequality for those who rely on disability benefits, violent restraint (sometimes fatal), etc. Our death rate is pretty high, from both suicide and murder. Autistic people are killed by police on a regular basis. Also, some doctors are more willing to let autistic people die from COVID-19.
Yes, I’m disabled, but only because of the way our society is set up. Both groups, neurotypicals and autistics, have strengths and weaknesses. Because non-autistics are the majority, society caters to their strengths. If autistic people were the majority, non-autistics would be the disabled ones. Hear me out! It’s all about perspective. In a society run by autistics, neurotypicals would be pitied for their inability to communicate clearly and their strange ideas and behavior. Because, if you weren’t aware, breakdowns in communication are largely due to cultural differences. Two neurotypical people can communicate well with each other, and two autistic people can communicate well with each other, but when a neurotypical person interacts with an autistic person, that is where problems arise. And psychologists didn’t know this until recently—they just assumed we had something wrong with us!
Are you starting to get the picture of why autistic people have been treated so unfairly? So many of the things framed as “deficits” are only perceived that way because of how neurotypical psychologists have judged us and dehumanized us. For example, we don’t lack empathy like they claimed for so many years. Clinicians also assumed—for DECADES—that autistic people have no interest in friendships and can’t feel loneliness. They’re FINALLY coming around to the realization that they were really fucking wrong. They also seriously believed we don’t have human emotions or feelings for years. Forced sterilization is also a serious problem. Psychologists have been ruining our lives for a very long time.
Also, consider the fact that autism is thought of as a primarily social disorder. Socialization is only one aspect of the autistic experience, among other things like sensory sensitivities, auditory processing issues, hyperfixations, motor difficulties, etc. So why do psychologists put so much emphasis on the social communication? Because that’s what is most obvious to a neurotypical observer! They latched onto that because they can’t see the more internal differences we have, and for many decades, they did not bother to delve further. Or… they could have just asked us about our own lives instead of treating us like zoo animals. But they don’t like doing that.
So, here are some good resources to learn from:
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism
An Autism Observer (masterlist of autistic blogs)
And, as an autistic person, it is my personal opinion that you should not trust or support Autism Speaks and the Autism Society of America.
Autistic Thoughts 