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Tania 🇿🇦 Autistic Strategies Network

Follow @ekverstania

3 Mar, 9 tweets, 3 min read

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1353291178574303233

I want to talk about my availability in the light of my focus areas for 2021.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1353291178574303233

I'm not available to review your masters thesis or your book on autism. I appreciate that you ask, but I don't have time. Depending on your topic, I can recommend a number of qualified autistic reviewers with a broad range of experience who you can hire for this type of work.

I'm also not available to counsel/support you or your friend/family member personally, even informally, because this requires commitment and I can't commit to more people than I am serving already. I also can't always connect you to another suitable individual. However...

Depending on your questions, I can either refer you to a handful of useful Q&A groups on Facebook and in some cases also to therapists. Also, you can attend one of the seminars or workshops where I'm co-presenting.

The Autistic Strategies Network has a mailing list for event notifications. I'll post a link once the fields are updated. (The current form was for in-person events, and mainly focused on Southern Africa.) We'll be having some international online events soon.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1353291188816797702

I want to be more specific, though. Even though I collaborate internationally in areas of mutual interest (such as nonspeakers' rights and the global campaign against ABA), my priorities for all these focus areas lie in Africa.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1353291188816797702

This is also why our first online seminar will be focused on the needs of African autists, particularly the underserved nonspeaking community — people who mostly don't get to experience a "sense of community" right now.

@karen_muriuki

This priority is shared by a number of my African allies, including @karen_muriuki and @veronicamuinjo.

But now, bedtime. I was supposed to get an early night for a change, but that ship has sailed!

Here's a random pic of biological interest which I took near my home.

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More from @ekverstania

Tania 🇿🇦 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

23 Feb

Have you noticed that autism industry professionals who say that their favourite autistic writers are Temple Grandin and Carly Fleischmann usually haven't read anything written by any other autistic people, and even those two were several years ago?

"But I've learned soooo much from working with people with autism!"

"Like what?"

"Like patience!"

🙄 "What have you learned from autistic people about dealing with the body-mind disconnect? And autistic burnout?"

"I haven't heard of that."

Dear Autism Industry Overdogs

There's something different about learning from a position of power compared to learning along with equals, or subordinating yourself to someone's tutelage. Most of you people have a LOT to learn.

emmashopebook.com/2013/10/25/to-…

Read 9 tweets

Tania 🇿🇦 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

20 Feb

Dear #ActuallyAutistic activist friends: I know that many of you have been through a rougher than usual time in the advocacy space these past two months. I have several bits of encouraging news to share that I think will give you hope for your own efforts.

But I am exhausted now, so I will not share anything specific today.

Just know that changes can come.

My good trouble is slowly paying off. My friends are brewing a revolution and we see its effects around us.

Some of our big dreams are possible and realistic.

Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

I don't have faith. 😝 I am certain of nothing.

What I do have, is hope. For me, hope is seeing a logical possibility.

Read 20 tweets

Tania 🇿🇦 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

19 Feb

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1360724255906873344

Well. That was 5 days ago. It's over 40,000 YouTube views now, and thousands more on Facebook. Maybe some people are starting to #LISTEN to nonspeaking autistic people? 😊

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1360724255906873344

@Communica1st

By the way, @Communica1st have been inundated with requests for translations into many other languages. The Spanish version will be out shortly, with five or more other language versions soon after.

The main reason why CommunicationFIRST are handling the translations with their own partners is that ableism and inaccuracies can creep into translations, and each language has its own nuances in that regard, so every translation gets vetted.

Read 4 tweets

Tania 🇿🇦 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

16 Feb

#LISTEN, a short film made by and with nonspeaking autistic people, was launched on Friday to coincide with the US launch of #SiaMusic. (Sia did NOT fulfil her offer to sponsor a short film.) To date, LISTEN has had more than 31,000 views on YouTube.

For a background to the film, visit this page, where you'll also find a downloadable #LISTEN toolkit for training via discussion groups and watch parties. The toolkit addresses a variety of topics relevant to understanding nonspeaking autists.

communicationfirst.org/listen/

#LISTEN is NOT a detailed critique of #SiaMusic. It addresses general principles, and was created to help future authors, filmmakers and playwrights avoid the traps that Sia and her team fell into over the years of making MUSIC.

Read 42 tweets

Tania 🇿🇦 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

12 Feb

https://twitter.com/Communica1st/status/1360216962819911684

There seems to be confusion. I'll clear it up:

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 DID NOT KEEP ANY OF THESE PROMISES.

https://twitter.com/Communica1st/status/1360216962819911684

The short film #LISTEN was not paid for by Sia.

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.

Read 10 tweets