“Official autism criteria say that "special interests" are defined by either intensity or unusualness; what this doesn't capture though is the way of interacting with them, which is mainly through accumulating information in order to dissect and understand, categorise and explore.”
“Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body: deep pressure input good!! Provides proprioceptive input and can soothe body stress responses (always get consent)”
“@Fiona_Clarke_ Imagine if for decades, people were 'treating' diabetes low blood sugar incidents (and angry/distressed behaviour through them) with 'challenging behaviour' courses.. instead of preventing them happening in the first place? That.
Meltdowns = distress. Sort the distress. Not hard”
“Why meltdowns are alarm systems to protect #autistic brains:
"I don’t melt down because I’m Autistic. I melt down because something in my environment is intolerable, & I am having a normal reaction of pain and/or anxiety.” From @UnstrangeMind, at #TPGA:
https://t.co/winnbcsgZO”
Understanding Meltdowns | Autism Barriers to Education
A huge barrier to education is trauma experienced by autistic young people.
We have coproduced guidance with autistic young people, adults, parents and professionals on autism and trauma.
This website is the result.
For many parents/carers taking their family member out and about in the community can be a big worry. These worries could arise from a multitude of different factors.
“Autism research is in crisis”: A mixed method study of researcher’s constructions of autistic people and autism research
IntroductionWhile not all autism research is ableism, autism researchers can be ableist, including by talking about autistic people in sub-human terms (dehumanization), treating autistic people like objects (objectification), and making othering statements which set autistic people apart from non-autistic people, and below in status (stigmatization).MethodThis mixed-method study aimed to investigate how autism researchers construct autistic people and autism research, and to investigate whether including autistic people more in research relates to lower ableism in narratives about autistic people. We used a survey with autism researchers (N = 195) asking five open-ended questions about autism and autism research, as well as demographics, career length, contact with autistic people (familial and non-familial) and degree to which researchers involve autistic people in their research. We used content analysis to categorize narratives used by autism researchers and cues for ableism (dehumanization, objectification, and stigmatization). We then used binary-logistic regression to identify whether narrative or higher inclusion of autistic people predicted fewer ableist cues, controlling for career length and connections to autistic people.Results and discussionUsing medicalized narratives of autism predicted higher odds of ableist cues compared to employing social model or neutral embodiment narratives. Greater inclusion of autistic people in research predicted significantly lowe...
Using medicalized narratives of autism predicted higher odds of ableist cues compared to employing social model or neutral embodiment narratives. Greater inclusion of autistic people in research predicted significantly lower odds of ableist cues, while controlling for other contact with autistic people and career length. Next, we used reflexive thematic analysis to analyze researcher’s perceptions of autistic people and autism research. Narratives reflected core ideological disagreements of the field, such as whether researchers consider autism to be an intrinsic barrier to a good life, and whether researchers prioritize research which tackles “autism” versus barriers to societal inclusion for autistic people. Instrumentality (a form of objectification) was key to whether researchers considered a person to have social value with emphasis revolving around intellectual ability and independence. Lastly, language seemed to act as a tool of normalization of violence. Researchers relied on an amorphous idea of “autism” when talking about prevention or eradication, potentially because it sounds more palatable than talking about preventing “autistic people,” despite autism only existing within the context of autistic people.
Monique Botha is actually they/them 🤷🏻♀️ on Twitter
“✨NEW PAPER ALERT✨
“Autism research is in crisis”: A mixed method study of researcher’s constructions of autistic people and autism research - by me and Eiliidh Cage
Buckle up for a long(ish) thread about how autistic people disrupt research agendas! 1/
https://t.co/GhSpRJxEuL”
A Fediverse instance for people interested in cooperative and collective projects. If you are interested in joining our community, please apply at https://wiki.social.coop/registration-form.html.
Imani Barbarin, MAGC | Crutches&Spice ♿️ on Twitter
“If you’re going from Nondisabled to disabled please know that a majority of what you know about disability is a lie meant to serve your nondisabled self.
It will not serve you now.”
The Judge Rotenberg Center, a Massachusetts school, still uses electric shock therapy to punish disabled students. How can an entire field of mental health accept this as fine?
Answer (1 of 9): Sealioning is a rhetorical strategy which involves
1. Persistently asking insincere questions until the people you disagree with become exasperated and stop answering.
2. Claiming you win the argument because they have not answered your "reasonable" questions.
Note that it is w...
Experience more of the things in life that give you joy. The Zeen can help you get up and about safely – and keep you active. Foam vs. Pneumatic Wheels: The Pneumatic (air-filled) tires can handle some terrain better than the standard foam wheels, but this comes at the cost of maintenance. Be sure to keep your pneuma
Monotropism is a theory of autism developed by autistic people, initially by Dinah Murray and Wenn Lawson. Monotropic minds tend to have their attention pulled more strongly towards a smaller number of interests at any given time, leaving fewer resources for other processes. We argue that this can explain nearly all of the features commonly associated with autism, directly or indirectly.
Episode 13: Attorney Lydia X. Z. Brown on Making Work More Accessible
Because of their background in working with disabled and marginalized people, attorney and activist Lydia X.Z. Brown has a deep understanding of how different workplace environments can best serve …
It is my pleasure to speak to you today about Simple Advocate Actions in Real Life.
Here's where to find additional resources from today's talk:
● Society of Disabled Oracles
● But you don’t look sick website, The Spoon Theory article & video
● A Twitter list of disabled people, activists and advocates
White People can't Help us with racism until they know what it is
This audio is a rant directed to Black people as a result of me trying to test out migrating to Mastodon.
More background to this drama after the audio. I'd suggest reading that first. There's also a transcript after in order to entice you. And if you want to read
The emotional, physical and mental labor Black people must do that white people never even need to consider IS racist and it IS racism, and telling us to do it is NOT the answer.
