This is the start of my 2021 #AutismAwarenessMonth thread. I hope I'll have the stamina to complete it before the end of April.
You may be wondering why I am not saying #AutismAcceptanceMonth, and that brings me to a content warning...
I'm going to talk a lot about ableism and ableist abuse.
There are also good parts to this story, events that have happened since the last #AutismAwareness Month, events that hold promise for our future. 😊
But we'll begin our tale on a grim day in history: 11 February 2005. 😑
What happened on 11 February 2005?
Please retweet this poll. The story will continue when the poll closes.
There's a surprising twist in the tale later, and after that point you will have the opportunity to influence the ending and the backstory for the sequel... in the real world.
With appropriate therapy, most nonspeaking autistic people would be able to communicate using words. Depending on the extent of the disability, their ultimate mode(s) of communication could include pointing to a letterboard, typing, signing, partial speech, and other means.
So why DON'T most nonspeaking autistic people communicate in clear sentences like the one you're reading right now? I'm going to tell you one of the main reasons, and it's horrible.
In a country like the US, it's not because of lack of funding.
The government already funds therapy for autistic children.
To think that giving children access to communication alone is a solution to abuse, is wrong. I have listened to many of you now. One speller has reached out to me privately, and I will continue to engage with him on solutions.
Thank you to the few of you who are prepared to stand up against abuse.
Many of my autistic friends were abused by their parents and suffer cPTSD and dissociative disorders to this day.
I learned this week how many parents and therapists strongly believe that speaking out against child abuse is inappropriate, and that one should only focus on the positives and not rock the boat.
My filters are gone. I can't be professional and dignified anymore. There are rules to online engagement and being civil and polite. I can't do what is demanded.
I don't want the world to exist with humans in it.
Thank you to my friends @Psyentific, @makermom3D and others who put on the light that showed me the way out of that hole. 👆
You can be a reform-minded ABA therapist; it makes no difference. You can't reform abuse. Protest at the symposium. Protest online and in person. Have placards. Write to legislators. See if you get to keep your job. The compliance industry doesn't take kindly to noncompliance.
If you're a BCBA or RBT and you treat children in ways that nonspeaking autistic people say works well for them, giving respect, you won't be filling in your worksheets anymore. And your job is all about those scores and stats. You stop that, they fire you. So you comply.
How do you reform the industry from the inside if doing the right thing must always secret and unnoticed?
They won't fire you for torturing children with electricity, but you can lose your licence if you call the organisation out too loudly for promoting torture.
And this is why disabled people who DON'T want to die are often murdered: because people think that killing people with high support needs, or people who are simply old and frail-looking is the 'decent' thing to do.
The 'right' to kill disabled people is too seldom discussed in the context of disabled people's right to choose proper support and care without being made to feel like a burden. notdeadyet.org
Elderly and disabled people are treated so badly by society and institutions as a whole that many nondisabled people say outright that they'd rather be dead than disabled, BUT THEY DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT WORKING TO CHANGE SOCIETY'S MINDSET OR SYSTEMS.