If you know an autistic person, you’re probably aware that April is “Autism Awareness Month.” What you might not know, however, is that April is a month of pure hell for #ActuallyAutistic folx.
The concept originated in 1970, when we understood a lot less about autism than we do today. Since then, the month has been co-opted by groups like Autism Speaks for fundraising. But what neurotypical people don’t realize is that the vast majority of these groups are actually
considered to be hate-groups by the #ActuallyAutistic community. So much of the discourse and dialogue around autism has centered NT people. When you consider NTs to be the ‘norm’ and NDs to be outside of that norm, the discussion veers toward “how do we help them be normal?”
Over the years, researchers and therapists have come up with ways of “supporting” autistic people, i.e. helping them be “normal.” The gold standard for this at the moment is what’s called Applied Behavior Analysis. Fun fact: if you Google it, Autism Speaks is the first result.
Applied Behavior Analysis involves identifying “problem behaviors” and attempting to replace them with socially acceptable alternatives. These problem behaviors often come in the form of a list from the family. Autistic children are rewarded for “good behavior” and negative behavior is met with consequences. If this sounds a lot like animal training to you, you’re not wrong! This “therapy” is billed as helping to support autistic children navigate a NT world. But in reality, all it does is train autistic people to fight against the way that their brains work for fear of punishment. It instills the idea that the NT way of thinking is the correct way and that anything else is bad. /2
You probably think that they wouldn’t use electroshock “therapy” to try to achieve their goal of “supporting” autistic children, but you’d be wrong. Even today in a fairly progressive state like my own Massachusetts, electroshock is still allowed to be used as a potential consequence against behavior. As such, ABA has caused long-lasting trauma in the children who have been forced to undergo it. There are autistic people well into their adulthood that are still dealing with trauma. It’s not the exception, it’s the rule.
Groups like Autism Speaks are big advocates for ABA and have no interest in hearing about the experiences of the #ActuallyAutistic people who have gone through it. In fact, they regularly harass autistic adults when they try to speak up against what the group thinks is best. /4
They try to discredit autistic adults by using stereotypes. They tell us that we can’t be autistic because we’re adults. Or that we can’t be autistic because we’re so “well-behaved”. Or that we can’t be autistic because we have jobs. Or friends. They are so convinced that their understanding of autism is right that they can’t be wrong.
It’s not dissimilar to the distinction between “not being a racist” and “not doing racist things.” I think that parents are so concerned that they’ll be seen as “an ableist” that they ignore the ableist things that they are doing. It’s a dangerous pattern. ABA isn’t the only terrible idea coming out of autism research, however. /5
A lot of the fundraising that goes on during “Autism Awareness Month” goes towards finding a “cure” for autism. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of the autistic community does not want to be “cured” and actually takes offense to the idea that NT people want to change our brains to work like theirs instead of understanding how our brains work and being compassionate.
And the worst of all, by far, of the research that’s going on is around “preventing” autism. Let’s not beat around the bush here. We’re talking about eugenics. Some of this research is around detecting what causes autism and trying to intervene before birth, and some of it is around detecting whether an unborn child will be autistic so that the parents can terminate the pregnancy.
Groups like Autism Speaks have made autism sound so horrible that some parents would rather not have a child than have an autistic child. /6
They make autism sound so horrible that some parents would rather their child die of a preventable disease than risk developing autism. (Note: Vaccines don’t cause autism, nor is autism something you can develop — it’s congenital. This is a harmful conspiracy theory.)
So seeing groups that are so afraid of you and the way that your brain works that they think you would have been better off not being born spend a month talking about “supporting” autistic people and begging for money is just soul-crushing.
What makes it worse is that it’s so hard for people to know what groups are actually supporting autistic people and which groups are hate groups. So many people make donations to these groups in hopes that they’ll be used to support autistic people when in reality they’re being used for torture and eugenics research. /7
Autistic people will have to yet again suffer a month of being talked about by people who don’t think that our opinion matters. Misinformation will spread like wildfire despite autistic people trying their hardest to fight it. Companies and organizations will trot out the color blue and their puzzle pieces to show how much they "care”
Another fun fact: the puzzle piece is not the symbol that #ActuallyAutistic people identify with. In fact, if you see an organization use a puzzle piece as part of its logo or website, you can be 100% guaranteed that they’re on the wrong side of autism. So yes, April is going to be hard for us. /8
If you’ve made it this far, you have my deep appreciation. But if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering what you can do to help. So here is a by no means exhaustive list of things to do:
Support and amplify autistic voices on Twitter and anywhere else.
Educate others. Make sure they aren’t donating to hate groups. Make sure that they understand why it’s important to listen to autistic voices.
Be an ally. Stand up against ABA and other worthy causes like #StopTheShock. Educate people when you see them using a puzzle piece for autism. Tell NPR that Autism Speaks is a hate group and it shouldn’t let them sponsor radio stations.
And lastly, give an autistic person a hug. But ask first. /END
@AutisticManager Autistic people don't need to be "fixed". The fact that they perceive and interact with the world differently from NT folks doesn't mean their way is wrong, or needs to be corrected. It's not an illness that needs to be cured. What we need is greater awareness to bridge the gap, and eliminate the "us vs. them" mentality.
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