A photograph of a page from a book, cropped so you only see the lines: 

Dear Younger Self, 

 It’s not just you. 

 You really are different. And there’s nothing wrong with that. 

 Yes, it is hard. No, it doesn’t get better. 

 You get stronger. 

AIGHT so I never thought I would be making a huge-ass post about this but it’s been making me so mad lately that I had to.

So recently I was at the bookstore. I was just browsing when I saw an interesting-looking book and turned it over to read the summary. As it was describing the main characters, something caught my eye:

“[Character X] is trapped caring for her autistic older brother.”

Now, that wasn’t the exact line, but one word in particular got my attention. Trapped. Clearly, the purpose of this word was to emphasize how difficult and stressful it is for poor Character X to watch over her autistic sibling.

After doing some research on the author (whose name unfortunately escapes me at the moment), I found out that they were, surprise surprise, not autistic. That got me thinking about other allistic portrayals of autistic characters in the media. How do non autistic authors treat us?

Whenever an autistic character is shown (MOST OF THE TIME obvs), they always fall under one or more of the following stereotypes:

Helpless and totally dependent on non-autistic characters (usually their family) to do everything for them.

Childish, with “ridiculous” interests that are portrayed as annoying and weird.

A side character; never a main character whose thoughts and feelings are relevant to the story.

Portrayed as “quirky” and “lol so random!!” and have absolutely no social skills whatsoever.

This brings me back to the “trapped” line: whenever an autistic character is shown, their actions serve no other purpose than to A.) act as a burden to other characters, or B.) act as a comic relief with the source of their humor being their disorder. You’re not supposed to care about them or feel sympathy for them or be interested in them; You’re supposed to feel sorry for other characters for having to put up with them.

This is why I encourage allistic writers (or any kind of writer who wants to provide representation to a minority) to DO THEIR RESEARCH. Don’t just look online. Don’t just rely on the ONE autistic person you know. Look for MORE. Find others. Join communities. Listen to what they have to say.

[This April, don’t support an organization that harms autistic people. Support one built by autistic people for autsitic people. ASAN (Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, AWN (Autism Women’s Network)]

Autism Speaks calls autistic people burdens.

Autism Speaks says we aren’t really living.

Autism Speaks ignores our voices and refuses to acknowledge any of the criticism it has received from the autistic community.

Autism Speaks looks nice at a glance, but it is a monster. A scary, hateful monster who wants to erase us. Why do you keep supporting them?

(Link TW: Abuse, ABA)

https://michellesuttonwrites.com/2016/03/29/beaware/

[Autism Speaks has compared being autistic to being kidnapped, having a fatal disease and countless other disturbing analogies. Autistic people aren’t missing. They’re right here.]

[This April, don’t support an organization that harms autistic people. Support one built by autistic people for autsitic people. ASAN (Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, AWN (Autism Women’s Network)]

Autism Speaks calls autistic people burdens.

Autism Speaks says we aren’t really living.

Autism Speaks ignores our voices and refuses to acknowledge any of the criticism it has received from the autistic community.

Autism Speaks looks nice at a glance, but it is a monster. A scary, hateful monster who wants to erase us. Why do you keep supporting them?

(Link TW: Abuse, ABA)

https://michellesuttonwrites.com/2016/03/29/beaware/

[Autism Speaks has compared being autistic to being kidnapped, having a fatal disease and countless other disturbing analogies. Autistic people aren’t missing. They’re right here.]

There are two fundamental ways of viewing disability in relation to society: the social model of disability and the medical model of disability. Supporters of the medical model of disability says “autistic people don’t fit into our society, so we must fix autistic people” while supporters of the social model of disability says “autistic people don’t fit into our society, so we must fix society.” People who advocate for autism acceptance support the social model of disability.

The two models of disability comes down to one basic question - do we need to change individual people so that they can fit into our current society, or do we need to change society so that it becomes inclusive of and available to the many neurodivergent and disabled people who are currently left on the sidelines? It’s not enough to be aware of autism if you still see autistic people as mistakes to be fixed, which is why we support autism acceptance instead of autism awareness. Most people in the western world are aware that autism exists - but what does it matter that we’re aware of the existence of autism if we don’t use that awareness to accept and include autistic people for who they are?

We object to the idea that autistic brains are “wrong” and “bad”. We object to the idea that having an autistic brain is inherently negative. We object to the idea that autistic brains should be fixed. We support neurodiversity - the idea that autism and other developmental disorders and neurodivergences aren’t mistakes, but that they are natural variations of human neurology which should be embraced and accepted and acknowledged for their unique contributions. Neurodiversity is the belief that neurodivergent brains don’t need to be fixed or corrected, but that they’re a natural and important part of human diversity.

We object to the idea that autism should be cured. Instead of focusing on fixing and curing individual autistic people, we should dedicate our money and our activism and our energy to changing society so that autistic people can get the support and accommodations they need to live happy, fulfilling lives as autistic people.