...my words > your understanding...

 From our Team:

We’re four days in to April, and I’m already running out of steam.

Reality check:

Consuming the laborious efforts of autistic advocates and then having the audacity to argue with them in the comments section because your neuro-typical self can’t be bothered to “do the research” is 100% equal to silencing the oppressed.

• We have, for far too long, been driven ‘underground’ and run off our own homefield by the very loud voices of the righteously indignant non-autistic advocates.
• We have, for far too long, been hit on all sides by never-ending requests and requirements to reframe our communication to better suit the neurotypical narrative.
• We have, for far too long, been purposefully and with intent exhausted of our own mental energy by the needless nonsense and the relentless justifications of those who insist that the puzzle piece is “doing such good” and that families affected by autism matter so much more than our actually Autistic selves/voices/work.

And for what?

So that we can spend the entire month of April being closed in all sides by blue lights,

and puzzle pieces,

and practical strangers (if not the actual bullies who’ve harassed us in school for years) thinking it’s completely appropriate to barrage us with questions about being autistic.

What is this thing you call privacy?

Oh…it only applies to you.

Got it.

#headdesk

Reality check:

Autism is Neurodivergence.

Neuro-Divergence.

Divergent:adjective

• the process or state of diverging:
• a drawing apart (as of lines extending from a common center)
• DIFFERENCE, DISAGREEMENT
• a deviation from a course or standard
• (of opinions, views, etc.) different; no longer similar

Divergent. The very state of being different.

Autistic. The very state of being different.

My words

don’t need to be altered for you to better understand them.

Your understanding

needs to be altered by them.