Auticon claims to have between 200 and 300 autistic employees (which it continuously touts to sell its services through well-placed PR pieces like this).
Yet, to my knowledge, it has ZERO autistic people in its management or leadership.
Companies who follow this practice exploit the social capital of the autistic community in order to gain profit. I’m fine with making profit, but that’s our social capital they’ve used to make it - not theirs.
It’s time to start paying that capital back.
Operating a business that trades in the social capital of the autistic community to make profit, but fails to incorporate the autistic community in the leadership, management, or profit structure of that enterprise is simply theft.
It’s exploitation as well.
Companies which provide the services that Auticon sells are a dime a dozen. They’re everywhere. They’re nothing special.
Auticon builds a market differential, and its main selling point, through its employment of autistic people. THAT’S what makes them money. Us.
So, where is our share of the profit? I have yet to see it. What I’ve seen is a endless stream of PR pieces that only perpetuates this exploitation further.
Enough.
I’ve been subtle before, but let me now be blunt: this is an abusive business practice.
It’s time we speak out.
To be fair, business like Auticon are always started with good intent. In particular, Auticon pays its employees well and creates an environment appreciated by its autistic team. I’m not talking about that.
I’m talking about the larger business practice.
Auticon has no autistic owners. It has sub-companies and branches all over the world, yet it has no autistic people in its leadership or management team.
If I’m wrong, let me know. Because I’ve been asking Auticon FOR YEARS.
The social capital of the autistic community is extremely valuable (hell, it’s why a shitty organization like Autism Speaks is able to raise an obscene about of money each year). It’s been routinely used by non-profits to build power and businesses to build profit...
It would be one thing if this were an investment - if that capital was taken and used with our consent. It would be one thing if we provided oversight of that investment by being brought in to the leadership of non-profits, the management of business & via community engagement.
Yet, we are rarely consulted. That capital is simply taken from us and spent.
And autistic people, already marginalized and impoverished, are left struggling to build our own structures because our capital has been exploited by others who use it to dominate narrative and space.
I am not saying that these companies are evil. I am saying that these companies are mostly unconscious when it comes to this reality.
They don’t see it as exploit, as theft, because they are “helping”. That’s just as wrong. Disabled people don’t need a helping hand.
These companies, as evidenced in the piece I link to at the beginning of this thread, have little understanding of autistics as community and culture. To them (as with most of society), we’re seen as individuals with individual conditions.
But, we’re much more than that.
It’s our task as #ActuallyAutistic people to educate the world about who we really are. It’s by forcing others to deal with us as community where we collect & organize our power. It’s where we begin to see not just our self worth, but the worth of the autistic community in whole.
And once these companies realize they’ve been trading in our social capital, that can be a good thing (both for autistic people and these companies). By engaging autistic people in this reality, we can help them confirm that capital as investment and help turn greater profit.
Repayment on that investment can take many forms (it’s not like these companies can write a check to every autistic person). A company can deepen the public’s understanding of autistic culture, center autistic community in its narrative, elevate us in ways we desperately need.
In a bit of irony, that repayment only helps the company further.
If autistic people are a key to your business, wait till you see how key we can be to your strategic planning. There are great parnership opportunities here.
If we are to exploit anything, let’s exploit that.
In short: these companies are not evil. They just don’t know what they’ve got.
What an amazing opportunity for all of us to work together to change that.
Someone wrote that Judge Amy Coney Barrett would bring “heart” to ‘special needs’ if confirmed to the #SupremeCourt. After showing my respect for the person who wrote that, and understanding of where they were coming from, this was my response:
“Disabled people don’t need lawmakers or jurors to bring “heart” to ‘special needs’. That’s what has led to patronizing policy which has f%¥ked over the exercise of our equality and marginalized our full participation in society over-and-over-and-over again...
It’s one of the greatest things we organize and fight against and we will continue to fight against it until the law and policy makers recognize that we are just like everyone else...
The whole #BobWoodward thing reminds me that our better politicians understand the press will try to ‘get’ them, and that’s a good, healthy thing for our democracy. They respect and welcome that.
—> It’s a BS check.
Bad politicians think the press is there to serve them.
*I should say it’s not as much that the press tries to “get” politicians, but that they don’t regard a politician’s messaging priorities when they are reporting stories. That’s an amazing thing, and when I was a press officer it drove me up the wall.
I hated it, but I loved it.
And the #BobWoodward tapes remind me of #LouChibarro of the @WashBlade. When I was a press officer, he was so masterful in asking a question, letting you answer, then NOT SAYING ANYTHING.
The subject felt compelled to fill the silence with more information.
👨🍳💋
So, while I very much *feel* #SpoonTheory in my being, it all falls apart when trying to use it as a metaphor with others (or as an accommodation strategy for myself). I constantly miscount and lose them.
When speaking, or in meetings, I’m often asked by folks to explain spoon theory. I usually just turn to someone I trust and ask “Could you explain it?”
For myself, I’ve learned to just make myself stop, slow down, or turn down requests when needed — and to be ok with that.
I mean, I’m a huge supporter of spoon theory as a metaphor to explain things to others and as an accomodation peoole can use themselves. It just all gets tangled and anxiety-inducing for me.
I love to laugh at that, though. You kind of gotta.
I often think on how research, medicine, and psychiatry approach and ‘treat’ autistic people today in the exact same manner they approached and ‘treated’ homosexuality until 1972.
Then, thanks to #LGBTQ advocates, homosexuality was suddenly ‘cured’ by @APAPsychiatric overnight.
Where are the endless research papers about the genetics and epigenetics of gay people?
Where are the warnings of “risk factors” for lesbians?
Where’s the pleading for “early intervention” for bisexuals?
What about environmental factors?!?!
We probably know less about gay people now than autistic people. But, we know enough not to funnel everything about LGBTQ people through a pathological frame.
All the questions we ask about autism are still there (and largely unanswered) for LGBTQ people.