Thread by @autisticats

Today is the first day of #AutismAcceptanceWeek, so I have a request for everyone who interacts with autistic people (particularly nonspeaking autistic people):

Don’t talk about us while we’re right in front of you as if we’re not there, and don’t infantilize us.

I used to volunteer at a school for disabled people, and we had a lot of autistic students.

Almost all of the teachers would talk to each other about the students, and even complain about them, while they were right there in the same room.

It was so viscerally wrong.

I knew for a fact that the students understood what was being said about them. I watched as their facial expressions and body language changed.

But the teachers didn’t really seem to notice or care.

I was afraid to tell them to stop, in case it would cause me to lose my job.

Today I asked our nonspeaking autistic followers on Instagram if they’ve ever been spoken about as if they aren’t there, and how it made them feel.

Here are some of the responses:

“[I felt] like I didn’t matter. Like I was less of a person. Like something was wrong with me.”

“People used to think that because I didn’t talk it meant I didn’t understand them.”

“Made me feel not human, and not important.”

“It made me feel like I don’t have a option to communicate or they think I’m not capable I felt sad.”

“Painful.”

“Yep, it’s crushing. Like hey, I’m alive... not a doll, dammit. Stop treating me like an accessory.”

“Being invisible made me feel lonely, angry, and VERY insulted.”

“It’s the worst. My dad used to call me ‘it’ as a joke when he talked about me in front of me.”

“I was nonverbal from ages 5-11 and people talked about me like an animal in the room.”

“It felt like I was less than a person in their eyes and like I don’t understand what they’re saying.”

“Made me feel as if I literally wasn’t real sometimes.”

“It’s honestly the worst feeling ever and made me feel like I didn’t exist.”

“It made me feel like shit, like I wasn’t even a proper person with thoughts.”

“It is soul crushing and dehumanizing.”

“It made me feel like I was a thing rather than a person.”

“It’s really irritating and makes me feel like some kind of object or pet that can’t communicate for itself, but I can.”

“I felt like I was treated like a piece of furniture and not a person.”

“I felt like a dog.”

“It’s super discomforting and lonely.”

“My caregiver has to correct them and tell them to talk to me and listen to my AAC.”

“I was talked about like an inanimate object/essentially compared to the family dogs by the extended family.”
..

So: talk to nonspeaking autistic people the same way you’d talk to anyone else!