The production and launch of Sia's movie Music has left people divided. These are the main groups:
1. Those who listen to what nonspeaking autistic people say and who want to amplify their words.
2. Those who just want to say their own thing and don't care much what nonspeaking people say.
3. Those who want to ENSURE that nonspeaking autistic people are NOT heard.
Some of these people even identify as having 'high-functioning autism' and collaborate with large autism organisations who promote therapies which nonspeakers deem harmful.
4. The uninformed remainder of the population.
Let's spend some energy working together to move people from Categories 2 and 4 to Category 1.
How?
Follow @Communica1st and learn about the needs of people with communication disabilities.
Sia has been rude, defensive and inconsistent. She meant well, but when push came to shove, she did not follow through.
She also had EXCEPTIONALLY bad guidance from Category 3 people.
If you want to limit the damage, spend your energy amplifying nonspeaking autistic people.
30 years from now, the movie will be history. Maybe it will be remembered. Maybe not.
But real nonspeaking autistic people will either have communication access and will be either alive or dead based on whether you and others chose to amplify their words in 2021.
Start now. It will take you five minutes to start. That's all.
A movie featuring a disabled character can either start a conversation with disabled people or it can shut it down.
A conversation goes two ways, and when one of the parties has a communication disability, the onus is particularly on the nondisabled party to LISTEN.
Within a few hours, a group of nonspeaking autistic people are releasing a documentary in which they provide guidance to future filmmakers, authors and playwrights.
Along with the documentary, there are several reviews of Sia's movie Music, written by nonspeaking autistic reviewers.
There will also be a toolkit for journalists, literary critics, autistic activists, educators, therapists, parents and anyone else who needs to learn about representing nonspeaking people in the media or in works of fiction.
Follow @Communica1st and LISTEN to nonspeaking people.
Does your creative narrative include a nonspeaking character? Then #LISTEN to nonspeaking autistic people.
Sia said she wanted to work with CommunicationFIRST; she offered to sponsor an intro to dispel misinformation; she promised she'd add a content warning and remove the restraint scenes.
Sia broke all her promises. The production was done by disabled people, with the exception of the filmmaker, who is not disabled, but he had a disabled brother (now deceased).
Sia has an enormous fan base. The movie presents harmful stereotypes and practices in a manner that some fans love it so much that they are watching the movie twice. Because they weren't provided with the correct information, they can't see the harm. They just see a sweet movie.
Autistic Strategies Network - 2021: A year of increasing collaboration [THREAD]
We begin 2021 with a number of programmes and projects in the pipeline. These are some of our focus areas for the year, on the continent, in our country and in our province:
AFRICA: Autistic advocacy
We’re building relationships with autistic activists throughout Africa and with cross-disability organisations serving communities in African languages to support autistic strategies in ways that draw from the best of African values and culture.
AFRICA: Ableism
A meeting with the head of the Health Department in the Western Cape identified ableism as the single greatest obstacle to better health services for disabled people in the province.
This alarming message came through on WhatsApp this morning from Johan Pretorius of DeafBlind SA:
"With the predicted stormy weather in KZN, Mpumalanga and Limpopo please do take care. Avoid unnecessary traveling and be careful during dangerous weather conditions by staying indoors."
(Keep reading; that's not the big problem yet.)
"I am currently making enquiries with our local police about accessable emergency contact number with local police stations all over South Africa. The usual phone call number 10111 is not accessible for Deaf and DeafBlind persons."
If you're a speaking autistic person who suddenly discovered that nonspeaking autistic people have something to say, are you going to concertedly continue amplifying their words after you have used them to bolster your anti-Sia campaign, or is this just a one-time thing?
People who SAY they care about nonspeaking autistic people can't be judged merely on how much they talk about it. They can work with nonspeakers, have a nonspeaking brother, start an organisation to support parents and research etc. etc.
Why the predominant paradigm of personal achievement in the US (and the main approach to working with autistic children there) is immoral, unscientific and counterproductive.
(Long educational video. Spend this hour. It may be essential to do so.)
The USA isn't the only culprit, but Alfie Kohn focuses on the US, because they have some uniquely extreme manifestations of the problem.
He even connects it to why anti-maskers are so common and so extreme in their selfish rebelliousness in the US compared to other countries.