Blogging Against Disablism Day 2016

I haven't blogged here since BADD 2014, which means I missed last year. This year there was something that came up on Twitter around the end of April, and now it's BADD again I thought I could develop it into a short post.

With invisible developmental disability, it can be hard to get across the ways it has an effect. At times I've found myself describing mine in relation to physical disability. When I do, I emphasise my physical ability.

Since I'm blogging against disablism right now, you'd think I'd get why it's not good to imply that things like being able to get dressed independently are abilities that are universally accepted as part of some sort of basic skill set that you can assume everyone has. However, this is exactly what I've done when talking about carrying out tasks with multiple steps, for example cooking a meal.

Now, talking about executive dysfunction because of developmental disability is difficult. But saying, "I have trouble with the steps of a task but I can essentially do the basics" is probably quite unhelpful to those who can't physically do "the basics".

Anyway, this is just a short post but I hope to avoid repeating this in future.

Internalised Disablism - Blogging Against Disablism Day 2014

For a long time I've told myself that I'm vegetarian just because … well, just because it's simply a preference; it's not easy to acknowledge differences due to disability beyond that kind of language to do with preference. Only recently have I been able to move towards accepting that my decision to be vegetarian was massively influenced by my sensory sensitivity to meat, especially red meat.

A sensory sensitivity is not a preference. I have literally gagged when I've had to smell red meat cooking. I've been overwhelmed to the point of not being able to go into the kitchen. Sensory sensitivity can be disabling, and I still don't want to accept that despite having been autistic all my life. I believe this is likely because of internalised disablism.

Autistics Speaking Day 2013

"What would make people-ing more accessible to you?"

For Autistics Speaking Day 2013, I'm going to answer the above question from Feminist Aspie (from a post that really echoes my own experiences, by the way).

There are one or two tangible things that would go some way towards improving the accessibility of social situations, but the most important thing to me would be the changing of attitudes. If you're not familiar with autistics, take note: if I give you scripted or apparently superficial answers, it doesn't mean I am ignoring you. Usually, if you start the same conversation with me in a less stressful and therefore quieter environment, I will be able to hold up my side of the conversation much more successfully.

Imagine these two parallel versions of a single conversation: one in which there is so much noise that I only manage to contribute very simple sentences without much content and one in which it's quiet enough for me to say much more to push the conversation forward. Now imagine if you were only capable of having the second conversation in a quiet, calm space. That's how it is for me all of the time. Yes, there are some people who will understand that, but, generally speaking, I can't take it as given. That's why it's so helpful when my being unable to pick out a voice from a background of unfiltered sound is accepted as not a big deal and not something that reflects on my personality.

Autistic people should ...

Autistic people should not be seen as separate from their autism. Being forcibly separated from something you have spent your whole life with hurts more than I can explain here. When my autism is ignored to enable someone close to me to present a "more positive" picture of my life, I am hurt.