Tag Archives: disability rights

A Poem called “Disability, Disorder, or Pathology”

Disability, Disorder, or Pathology,

by theamazinJ

Disability is disorder
in certain circumstances,
Disorder is pathology
when it affects us too greatly,
Disability is disorder is pathology
when it affects us every day
and affects the majority of how we live,
disability is not really pathology
nor is it really disorder,
it just is a reality
we all face at some point in our lives
and every day of our lives.
Impairments affect us in different ways
and at different points in our lives,
while impairments are real
that can affect us greatly.
Impairments:
can be a pain,
can be debilitating,
can be limiting,
can echo our past,
can be our present,
and can affect our future.
Impairments can be fooled
like we can fool ourselves from
whatever impairments we do actually have.
Impairments are,
our general view of what
makes a person a human being.
We all struggle with something,
those struggles
give us the ability to make a decision,
how to do we deal with our impairments?
Some impairments lead to important life choices,
Some impairments cannot pass in a society we live in
no matter what we do,
while other impairments can easily pass
in the modern status quo we live in,
impairments are real,
disability is not really disorder nor is it pathology,
however,
many shared impairments are lumped into disability,
can be crammed into pathology,
which can lead to disorder
when the individual
has no means to controlling the impairments.
However, everyone can make their own decisions
with from very small and/or to a very large choice.
Impairments are real,
disability is real,
pathology is real,
disorder can be real too
when we struggle to create the order
we want in our life.
We all don’t accept we have impairments,
Some actually say they do,
in reality,
it is hard for everyone to realize
what impairments we all have
that affect us everyday,
the more we realize this:
the more the ADA will be more recognized,
the more the ADA will even be enforced,
the more Early Intervention laws will be recognized
from the past,
the more Early Intervention laws will be used by everyone,
the more every child will have free appropriate public education,
the more disability will be recognized by everyone,
the more ‘passing’ becomes a thing of the past,
the more disability will not mean disorder nor pathology,
and everyone will understand the needs of all its citizens,
the more we won’t stare at anyone,
the more we will teach supported decision making to all,
the more we won’t limit our understanding of communication,
the more we hear everyone’s voices with or without technology,
the more we won’t seek out causes of any disability,
the more we won’t want to cure things.
Because in the end,
disability is real, but disability is also important
understanding that
some people can live their life regardless of what impairments they have,
and some people actually cannot and need actual support
in whatever ways they can get it.
Impairments lead to disability which can lead to disorder
which can lead to pathology
whichever the individual citizen
can or cannot be like in the community they live in.
Some say disability makes them badass
while others say disability makes them feel bad,
in the end,
we have to know what impairments
all of us have
make up who we are
as well as the abilities we do have,
some impairments we are born into
while other times we acquire them.
Impairments make us real,
impairments make us human,
no one can deny any impairment they may have
because finally,
we are all human.

A Poem Called “Unfollow the Leader, Follow the Underdog”

Unfollow the Leader, Follow the Underdog,

by theamazinJ

Unfollow the leader,
Unfollow eugenics,
Unfollow the leader,
Unfollow evidence based and non-evidence based,
Follow your own research,
Unfollow research for causes to change DNA and genes,
Unfollow sterilizations,
Unfollow people who see only problems in people,
Unfollow the leader,
Unfollow those who don’t want to work as a team,
Unfollow the leader,
Follow passion,
Unfollow money and power and greed,
Unfollow the leader,
Unfollow inspiration,
Unfollow martyrs,
Unfollow people who create martyrs,
Unfollow bullies,
Unfollow Donald Trump,
Unfollow bigoted and/or flip flopping behaviors,
Unfollow everyone who is lost in their own agendas,
Follow the leader,
Follow dignity,
Follow respect,
Follow acceptance,
Follow mutations,
Follow differences,
Follow your mind wandering into space,
Follow your thoughts brainstorming something awesome,
Follow your creations to invent,
Follow your artistic foundation to explore your intuition for yourself and others,
Follow your love for people and create social justice,
Follow your passion for activism to close down and reform society,
Follow your dreams and everything will happen,
Follow your favorite team in sports even though they may be the underdog,
The leader means nothing,
The leader is nothing,
The leader is a cult,
The leader is not real,
The leader is the overachiever,
The leader is not a role model,
The leader thinks they are an inspiration when inspiration does not exist,
The leader is non-motivational,
We need a team,
We need community support in helping one another,
We need our families,
We need our friends,
We need non-conformity to what society does not say,
because society really does not know what living is.
We have growing pains with leaders,
We have false hope with leaders,
We have nothing when we follow a leader,
Unfollow your wishes,
Follow your self,
Follow your instincts,
and most importantly follow the underdog
who can bring about change.

What Being a Self-Advocate means, and it’s Not Being Objectified

Inspiration Porn is when society objectifies Disabled people in the community like Autistic people have been objectified for the past 10 years especially by organizations like Autism Speaks. Inspiration porn is creating stigma by objectification because society thinks disability is shameful, that it is destructive, that is a tragedy, a burden, and a negative thing that should not exist. However, society is wrong!

Please watch Stella Young’s amazing video from last year. Every time I have seen this video since it first came out, to educate others has explained specifically why objectifying anyone is not good and not healthy for anyone in the human race.

Disability does exist, Disability will exist, Disability has existed since the dawn of time. Why? Because Disability is a part of the human experience and no one, I mean no one can take that away from anyone in this world especially when d/Disability is what makes us human. In addition, let’s get this straight, NO ONE is an inspiration to us all, because we all have to be motivated and work hard for ourselves by supporting and guiding each other.

Everyone has their own struggles in life, and that’s okay. Why? Because it’s part of our humanity to struggle to get to the peak where we will eventually ‘cross over and rise above’. However, we all have to get through our struggles until we have done our duties or missions completed.

If you try to find inspiration to inspire you to do something or be a someone, then you won’t be doing anything except looking around your whole life finding nothing. So, please do something with your life and stop looking for inspiration from others especially the disability community. Why? Because we are human too. We have our own struggles too, to get where we want to be at, and by any one trying to find inspiration from the outside world like from the disability community to make us look bad and everyone else look good is the real tragedy.  That’s why inspiration is travesty and the word should not exist since it causes pain.

Struggling is a part of life. We need to have fun with our life. That’s right, we all need to have fun. Everyone’s fun is different. Some people try different things before they find it like with me. Some people like myself are Disabled activists and scholars, some people are media analysts, some are investment bankers, some are artists, some are writers/journalists, some are politicians to help the government to create/enforce laws, some are lawyers, some are social workers (or help with mental health maintenance), mail clerks and drivers, landscape workers, sanitation workers, janitors, some are medical doctors, some are engineers, some are teachers, some are construction workers, etc. We all do whatever it takes to become the success we want to see in our life with the support network in the community or life we build for ourselves.Without the support network and without the motivation in ourselves to do well, we become lost in our efforts. However, it does not always have to be that way.

We all have struggles all our life. We all can stay in the disability community our whole life or walk in and out of the disability community at different parts of our life. I just don’t want any one to ever think disability is a tragedy because it really isn’t. Acquiring d/Disability from birth or from life, is a part of life’s journey. We all can become disabled at some point or become more disabled, and that’s okay. It’s okay if we have to use a wheelchair or any other assistive device or machine to help us live our life if you need it or if we want to feel more mainstream or not. It’s our personal choice!

It’s okay if you are feeling very obstinate or unsure of how disability helps us with gaining empathy we all struggle with. Empathy is a learned human trait for everyone in the world. Some are born with more empathy than others, but no one lacks empathy since we all have emotions that frustrate us at times.  Sometimes we may not realize that our empathy can be misleading sometimes when we struggle with discriminations and stigmas in our life which is ableism. Ableism is a problem for the world. There are millions of people in the world struggling with ableism right now. Some people may not even be aware of it, but  it is inside of them already especially when the person has been objectified in their life at some point or their whole life. I feel for those people who are struggling more from their ableism because society doesn’t understand their language and dialect.

Ableism is about objectifying people while this needs to stop. It is also a struggle when everyone who has been hurt by ableism and internalizes this stigma, the stereotypes, and even can become the oppressor after being oppressed since ableism is also like a virus. Ableism is not only a curse, but it’s the biggest oppression that confuses people into thinking they are not worthy and unable to do something unless they become an inspiration to become objectified by others.

Objectification or ‘Inspiration Porn’ exemplifies and manifests a person’s persona to make them something they are not. There are so many people who objectify others that it becomes really pathetic in our society, but it does not always have to be that way. Change means allowing yourself to guide others into their own self-determination to live their life with just encouraging people to do what they love to do just the way you do for yourself. No one is a random act of good because we all are good people who can do whatever we want to do to help others.

We just have to think about our own mission to help, how we can guide and support others, and know how to advocate for change in our society to think about why we can’t hurt others in any way. Life is a journey with emotions that does not mean we can say or do things to others to hurt them since that is not only ableism, but is also other forms of pain too, inflicted on others. People can be hurtful which is also a part of life, however, we need to know that what we do and say affects other people either instantly or over time. Over time, we all internalize the pain unless we start healing the pain(s).

So, let’s start healing the pains we all may have to become the person we all are meant to be with the guidance from the support network we are born into and choose from the billions of people in the world to be a part of it too. This is how ableism can heal from the pains we have all felt at some point, some a lot more than others especially those people struggling to ‘pass’ for society’s norm or standard of how to speak, think, feel, see, or hear.

Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions which means we all have the freedom to speak our mind respectfully and respecting others. No one can curse at, hurt, silence, or tell others that what they believe for themselves to contribute is bad. It’s not black and white ever (like  organizations like Autism Speaks suggests about autism), it’s all gray, and it always has been gray. There is good and bad in everything from the yin and the yang as long as we know what is good and what is bad, we can focus on the positive aspects of our life. Thus, focusing on the positive aspects of other people. Finally, becoming a contributing member of society from our own individual self-determination which is different for everyone in the world.

Some need more guidance, some need more support, though we all need mentorship to get through our life as we all fulfill our goals we want to achieve. That’s not inspiration, that’s just doing what it takes to be a success in what all of us want individually. Part of what having support is, is motivating our family members and peers who come in contact with to move forward with what we want.

Struggling to achieve something can be difficult, but not impossible. Impossible does not exist. The very word means ‘I’m Possible’ and we can’t let anyone take that dignity away from us. We know who we are and what we want regardless of what are identities are by identifying how we want to for ourselves. As an Autistic person and a part of the broader disability community, I have understood that disabilities helps us live our life better by embracing our own humanity.

No one can tell us who, what, and how we are to live our life. We are gift in this world. If we unwrap the gift with taking in negativity from the outside world, we become negative. Otherwise if we unwrap ourselves with positive feelings on how to help the world, we become the most positive force the world has ever seen embracing and celebrating life in of itself.

I struggle, you struggle, we all struggle with something we need. Some of us struggle more than others, but that just means they need more guidance and support. Since we all live our life with struggles, it just means, that once we need to figure out how to use our skills, our talents, and our strengths to do what we feel will help the world is when we can we feel our own humanity. Sometimes this is very small, sometimes very big, and/or sometimes it can just be teaching ourselves to become  a contributing member of society who positively affects everyone. We all are here to motivate each other to do well, not be jealous of any one.

We live our life positively, but most importantly, we live our life to do whatever we can to reach out and touch our spirit. If you can’t find yourself, if you don’t know what it is that you need to do, and you want other people to feel inspired by you saying your life is better than theirs (or vice versa), than you are wasting your life.

Please don’t waste your life trying to find this thing called inspiration especially from my fellow Autistic peers and any one else from the disability community. By calling us inspirations, you are also saying that your life has always been better than ours. The medical model suggests that the only way we become inspirations is by overcoming a burden or tragedy within ourselves to become an inspiration for others. However, this is a travesty and a false belief system that we don’t need to hear or see.

Inspiration is taking what others say as face value without thinking of yours or their own life because of the way the mainstream media and the masses objectify so many people including people in the disability community. The use of the phrase ‘Inspiration porn’ is to say that objectifying anyone the media wants to ‘use’, ‘stigmatize’, painfully stereotype, and dispose of later after the mainstream media has had enough of the person is hurtful. The media as a whole needs to change their way of thinking, how they think about humanity, and stop personalizing one’s own life of struggle as a tragedy that a person’s overcame to become a human being. We all our human beings from birth. Humanity means struggling to live our whole life through emotions we all have while finding our authentic voice and self to fulfill our greatest mission to do what we love to do. That’s what I’ve always known and was taught.

Do you want to try to find inspiration or do you want to do what it takes to live your life they way you always wanted it to help others? Humanity is about helping ourselves while helping others.

We need our own tenacity to work hard toward living our life, building our experience in life the way we want  to without anyone else trying to live it for us or will live it for us or even mimic other people’s lives.  I’ll tell you this that by trying to imitate other people’s lives, people won’t be their true authentic self. That’s why if we become obsessed with inspiration, we no longer know how to live our life. Please don’t do that! I want all of you to live your life and work hard for who you all are in this world.

There are billions of people in the world. From the billions of people in the world, that’s one big support network to help each other work independently for our own self-determination which means striving for whatever positive contributing factors we want to live our life.  We can all be supportive while guiding ourselves in our life through thick and thin. If someone is struggling, they need to think about getting back on track while if someone is struggling a lot they need you to lead them more with guidance.

Getting back on track is not inspiration, it’s just life. We all fall back into situations where we need to get back on our feet, however, that does not mean we look for someone else for inspiration, it just means we have to push ourselves to live do whatever it takes to get back on our feet with whoever is supporting and guiding us. Remember, there is always someone who can guide you, any one just has to ask, as a self-advocate.

Life is not about inspiration, it’s about self-advocacy and helping others achieve that self-advocacy!

Thank you all!

Be that change,

and heal the world!

OUT, J

My opening remarks for the 2015 Day of Mourning Vigil in New City, NY

(The vigil will be held today at 3 pm at Rockland County Courthouse lawn, the link for the vigil facebook page is New City Vigil!!

2015 vigils flyer v2

This day is important to me as an Autistic and Disabled person. I have so many emotions from why I believe in this day of mourning vigil for my many peers in the disability community. I have a strong supportive network I built up my whole life between the family I was born into (though sometimes it seems they may not understand my own being Autistic or Disabled, but do love them), my friends I have made all throughout the years, some of you are here today, some of you or most of you are not.

My fight in me to advocate and change the world through my activism has been very slow, too slow at times, because there is a lot of work to be done to get the world to understand humanity, care for one another, and to relate to each other. I know I am not a perfect person, in fact, I am far from perfect, I have made many mistakes in my life due to the anxieties I felt through the years. It has made me learn what is more constructible to do and what I can do to make things better.

I am 35 years old now. So, I will probably continue to make mistakes, but hopefully not as impacting as I have done in the past which made me feel regret and despair for doing it. As we move forward in our lives, we need to remember those people in the disability community where their lives were not very supported, not very happy, and were often killed by the very same people who should have been supporting them all along, parents and caregivers.

Looking at my life, I am lucky that whatever I put into all my relationships, I put my all into them because I care so deeply. This has been a mistake sometimes because not everyone thinks like the way I think. I have been hurt in the past by people I put my all into that really either didn’t care about me or didn’t even want to connect to me at all.

I have been through a lot in my life dealing with this issue I have. Not being able to know that not everyone is going to want to feel what I feel and not everyone will care, and not everyone is supportive, can be frustrating to a person like myself.

As an Autistic person, I feel that it’s so important to know and find the people who will listen are from the supportive network I have now. I created this supportive network for myself from those who want to be in it and dismiss those who don’t want to be in it. I have known as well that whatever I put into the world, comes right back at me, that’s the way karma works. If I continue to bring good into the world, the world will be good to me. There are many people I met in the past whose karma gave me something negative. It’s time to give karma back in a good way to the supportive network I have built all along.

The people I have in my life who care a good deal have given me so much good for me. Everyone in my support network gives me good in a different way individually. I need to continue to forget about people I have in my life who gave me bad and made me feel bad.

Back in 2008, I was sitting in Starbucks in Grand Central when I came into contact with a woman of many bags and a heavy (mostly artistic) trench coat. She was sitting down next to the electrical outlet so I can charge my phone at that moment. My phone was about to run out of battery. She said I can use the outlet and leave my phone on the table. We began talking a lot. She seemed very nice. She started at some point mentioning the feelings she began to have as she was regaining her strength as a psychic.

This woman told me how I am, and began telling me things about me, that I didn’t even tell her about previously. The psychic at Grand Central, even knew that I have been struggling to find myself and my voice. She said that the career I was doing was nto quite exactly what I was intended, and that she felt I will be finding it soon, but not knowing when. She also told me how much of a an Artist I am, but have been denying this for much of my life. She told me how I do write, but art is my main talent.

She felt the career I chose at that moment (Ultrasound) was not really exactly for me. She felt I can do a lot more. Just before I hopped on the train to tarrytown, she ran over to me to say one last thing to me, She told me how I going to have a small, but minor surgery that year. By the end of the year, I did have surgery to remove a small cancerous tumor on my tail of my pancreas which also led me to have my spleen completely removed. I am left spleenless to this day.

Two years later, I had open heart surgery for an aneurysm and aortic valve repair too. This psychic even said to me that that was an arranged meeting with no payment. Ever since then, I started to wonder when I will see her again. She said that the next one will be an arranged reading that is longer and different. I have been realizing my spirituality a lot since then. The out of body experiences I have gotten, and other spiritual things as well I experience, have drawn me closer to the missions I need to fulfill.

My life has been turning around for the past few years. I have been impressing my support network on this transformation I made for myself. My life has really been much more than I have ever done, but I still have a lot more things to do to finalize the transformation. I am officially at the CUNY School of Professional Studies now for Disability Studies in graduate school. I was finally able to start the program after getting in last June. I am even a Kennedy Fellow.

I am pursuing my dreams to what I need to do for myself now. It’s been tough for my family because I need to be supported financially by them still. I only work part time for now, but need to travel to queens for the job. As an Autistic person, this can be a challenge for me. However, the job in itself is rewarding for me. I am a Self-Advocacy Liaison. I think about this song as I listen from the movie Footloose entitled Almost Paradise, by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson. This song really touches my heart and soul so much especially hearing these words:

“I feared my heart would beat in secrecy, I faced the nights alone, on, how I would have known, that’s all my life only I needed you.”

(as I think of these words from the song, I think about the need of how I want to be an ‘angel’ like how the psychic in 2008 said I would become to achieve my missions. She said something scary to me though, how I am going to live a long life into my 90’s. It was scary because at that moment I was in my late 20’s. I was scared because I knew I had a lot more to do, and back in 2008, I wasn’t even doing what I was supposed to be doing. I was though, doing things through volunteering and writing, but in the past, few years I began doing a lot more and continuing on this path working with my peers in the disability community to change the world.

It is why I started reaching out more to do these vigils for Disability rights organizations like the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. Life can be tricky sometimes, it can be overwhelming, it can cause for anxiety, and it can be hurting. But, we need to know how to resolve the pain of the hurt, the overwhelming anxiety, and finding our moment of who we are to be happy. We are all good people, but we need to engage our dreams and reality to live and be who are no matter what. It’s something we all need to think about: what is normality? However, most importantly what is our own normal and allowing ourselves to be that normal.

Sometimes it can be anxiety ridden, when we don’t have our normal of what makes up a person a reality. It is why those who were supposed to be supporting them have killed many peers in the disability community. It is why we mourn even Garnett Spears who had this unfortunate thing happen to him by his own support, who his mother allegedly, who needed to support him. Life can be tricky as well when especially why many parent advocates who want their children to be whatever the parents want, is not making their children celebrate who they are. Many of you are probably thinking about this normal that Galton created years before with the Bell curve.

We need to remember normal is what people choose individually with what works for them. Otherwise the person may be influencing about what they think the other person needs to be. This is challenging for many to think about what is termed self-determination. By thinking about self-determination , the individual needs to decide for themselves what works best for them. If they choose medication, that becomes their choice, if they choose other ways instead that’s also their choice, and if they choose both methods, that is also the choice of any individual citizen of the world. Everyone chooses their own methods to maintain the normal way of being for them individually and we all learn what works best for us. This is self-determination to be able to get the individual to recognize the things that work for them. Medications are a personal choice, not a professionals or a parents choice to make.

Ed Roberts who is the father of the Disabiilty rights movement talked often in his speeches that led to the independent living movement. Wolfenberger often lectured about this too. It is why our society has begun to move in the right direction, although medicine has ben still influencing many parents and professionals to not enable individuals choices.

Parents and caregivers need to always remember to preserve love, understanding, and acceptance for everyone they are needing to take care of and love for life. Thank you and let’s remember these tragedies of the victims of these people with disabilities who were killed by parents and caregivers. Remember these word:

“Nothing about us, without us!!!!”

It will end with a poem I wrote:

Poem:

Love is Passion

I love, I care,
I urge you all
To do the same.
Give me a hug,
Give you a hug,
Give the people around you a hug,
But most importantly give yourself
A hug every day
Looking into the mirror to say to yourself:
“I love you! I will always love you and I will never stop loving you and will for the rest of my life”

Have been quite busy with Graduate school at CUNY School of Professional Studies for Disability studies!!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but I will be posted soon the new BANNER for the Autistic Artistic Carnival 2015 on June 18 of this year for Drive Mom Crazy Blog’s 6th annual online event for Autistic Pride day!!!

OUT, J

A Reflection I wrote in the Fall on ‘The Importance of Inclusive Education’ and a few other things about Autism Acceptance

The article, “Islands of Loneliness:,” by Theoharis, et. al, the authors write about the importance of inclusive education for Autistic people like myself. I reflect how I agree with the authors. They interview several Self-Advocates on the autistic spectrum including Temple, Tito, Daniel Tammet, and others (there is also Carly Fleischmann as well). These people have different stories about what drives them for social interaction because if you met one Autistic person you’ve only met one Autistic person. Every one on the autistic spectrum is different. And as in beginning of the song by Freddie Jackson called “You are my Lady,” he sings “There’s something that I want to say, but words sometimes get in the way…” This song makes me think of how it is hard for Autistics many times to communicate the way so called ‘normal’ people speak.

Instead of reiterating what my Autistic peers have told you in this article which are valid too, I prefer to reflect on my own needs and wants for social interaction. As I discussed in my reflection on Mark Haddon’s book, I went to Autreat 2 years in a row. I am hoping to make it to another Autistic run event again futures to come. Although it is not called Autreat anymore and Jim Sinclair does not run the week long event anymore. One of the many retreats over the summer was created after Jim disbanded Autreat, called Association for Autistic Community conference or what some people call Autistic Con or as some friends will still try to call ‘Autreat’.

I say being Autistic is culture because there are many things that make up who we are. For example, stimming like flapping when we are happy, angry, sad, applauding, etc to express ourselves. Another part of Autistic culture is echolalia which means a person like myself repeats words or phrases without realizing it. It is very hard to be around Non-Autistic people especially those people without disabilities because they typically do not understand us. Sometimes I don’t get enough energy (or in Autistic culture we call enough spoons) to explain to Non-Autistic people what we are and how we like to interact. Though many people find because I have practiced passing as normal so many times, that there are Non-Disabled people who don’t really think of me being Autistic. However, I am and always will be!

Autistic people do socialize when we want to, we just need to be comfortable with the person we are about to socialize with. If someone is going to want to interact with us, then we need them to understand our own space so no one crosses into our boundaries either verbally or nonverbally. Everyone always talks about how Autistic people lack social skills, but there are many Non-Autistic people who lack social skills too. Social skills and boundaries should be taught in schools with everyone. The article talks about the importance of inclusive education among every student even those who are on the autistic spectrum and I truly believe that inclusive education helps. However, it’s not perfect since inclusive education needs to still ensure every one in the classroom including teachers respect one another.

I wanted to make sure I was mainstreamed by the time I reached Junior High School. Although since the education system wasn’t exactly accepting back when I was in secondary school, I was bullied not only by students, but by some teachers too. Society decided to create segregative schools and settings for Autistic people since we were different. They felt and still feel by segregating many of us, and teaching us to conform, we would learn to adapt to the current system. We were considered burdens to the current school system and to society, so they place many of my Autistic peers in segregative Residential school centers throughout the world today (like the Judge Rotenberg Center). This is not inclusive and does not provide us with the self-determined social interaction that many other Human cultures are given in school.

Educating people does not even mean placing students in private charter schools either where the students go home after a single school day. The current public primary and secondary school systems need to acknowledge the many ways a person interacts and communicates and learns with the world. Not being able to speak does not mean we don’t want interaction or communication, it just means we may use different ways to communicate our thoughts to others. For example, Henry Frost fought to be included in the public school system as a Non-verbal Autistic youth!

Loneliness is a problem in this world that society created, but we can solve it by understanding each other more. By understanding each other, we can read the many hundreds of blogs written by my Autistic peers telling our stories as more blogs are created too. The article stresses how many people on the autistic spectrum write about their autobiographical stories for others to read. Well, everyone needs to read them all whether published in books or personal blogs, and read each account as a way of understanding the differences so that society can understand and accept. Listen, read, learn, and understand Autistics who have their own way of just being and interacting.

______________________________________________________________________

Additions after the reflection I wrote:

There are many Autistic people who are Non-Verbal. It can be hard for parents of Autistic children to know that not every child is going to be the same wanting and reaching for the same goals as what many parents want for their children. Many parents want their children especially those who are Autistic, to think like the status quo and make a lot of money, and I understand why. Not everyone can be a CEO, a Director, a social butterfly, or even a Celebrity, and parents need to understand this. It’s okay for any one to be their own unique success story. Many parents of Autistic children want their children to be success stories not needing any support. Support is a necessary part of being Human because everyone needs some kind of connection all throughout their lives to feel a part of someone else. That’s why we have our families, so people can be supported. Independence is important, but everyone needs to remember the importance of Interdependence in humanity.

Please Read Lydia Brown’s “Privilege and the Myth of Independence” on her blog, Autistic Hoya!

Please also read Alyssa’s post on “Ableism is to Blame”

Please also read Kassiane’s post here ‘On Role Models’ from her blog from 2012.

There is also another retreat called Ocate Cliffs as well, run by Star Ford who runs Divergent Labs!

Here is a video I like to show people about what not to say to Autistic people.

Here is a video by Drew Morton Goldsmith a Non-verbal Autistic person who talks about the importance of Autistic Rights!

and, here is a video series called Ask an Autistic, Amythyst has a series of videos on ‘Ask an Autistic’ who vlogs different topics each week on her You Tube account, she also has a blog which she states on the videos. This is the first episode:

Any one who wants to see Citizen Autistic on Hulu can see it tomorrow and talk about it on a Twitter feed on Monday!

There is so many things every one needs to learn about that people generally don’t know or think about when people think about autism in general.

Causton-Theoharis, J., Ashby, C., & Cosier, M. (2009). Islands of loneliness: Exploring social interaction through the autobiographies of individuals with autism. Journal Information, 47(2).

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Have a great week!!

OUT, J