#ACTUALLY AUTISTIC ZEBRA

r.i.p. to my spoons and executive function

Yes and no! 

Autism is a developmental disability that is present at birth and often diagnosed in childhood. That being said, signs are often missed! Autism can be particularly underdiagnosed (and/or misdiagnosed) in girls/women, members of the LGBT community, and people of color. Some doctors still think of autism as a “young-white-male” thing, that they aren’t likely to bring up the topic to mothers/families of children who don’t fit a specific stereotype.  

So you may not have shown stereotypical signs, but it’s possible the traits were still there. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to make a list of the traits she sees in you currently and how they may have manifested in early childhood. Do you have sensory aversions that may have first been seen as “a picky eater”? Did you line up toys by collecting certain dolls/figurines? Do you have strong topics you are interested in and/or like to quote? 

If you are trying to seek a formal diagnosis, you could let your mom know the potential value it could serve you. This could be accommodation in work or school, access to more appropriate resources, or learning more about yourself and how you learn/process information.

Many people are being diagnosed later now that we are learning more about autism and how it can present, so the chance of being unrecognized for autism as a child is definitely not an impossibility!

why caffeine works for some of us, but not all, and even then it often depends on the way you take it and the dosage

how come all of us have gastrointestinal problems?

addendum to the above: what exactly are our gastrointestinal problems? are we genetically more likely to have autism be comorbid with gluten sensitivity/colitis/IBS/lactose intolerance/whatever else or is it something completely different? is it psychosomatic? the fuck

okay but how does being sensory-seeking work. and what does stimming do to your brain. what neurological function are we facilitating with flapping hands and rocking back and forth and spinning? wouldn’t it be great if we had a serious long-term study of the brain on stimming?

are you more likely to be autistic and LGBT?

what are things we do better than neurotypicals?

what’s up with the joint problems

and the faceblindness

what are the communication patterns here? how come I can meet one autistic person and immediately grok how they communicate, and be confused by another, but all neurotypicals are confusing? what’s going on with that?

Big Pharma

If you haven’t heard Kodi Lee’s audition on America’s Got Talent, according to the Internet, you’d be considered as ‘living under a rock’. Celebrities from Terry Crews to Oprah Winfrey have retweeted the AGT video, which has been viewed online over 46 million times. Thousands of people on social media have shared this video, commenting on how emotional it made them feel and how “inspired” they are by Kodi Lee’s performance.

Why is his talent any different from most people who go on the show?

Kodi Lee is blind, and autistic, and even though the judges seemed apprehensive the moment that he walked on stage, with his mother guiding his steps, those thoughts appeared long gone once he sat behind the piano and performed Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You”. Each judge appeared to be moved in different ways, from sitting back stunned to wiping away tears. After his performance, and after a standing ovation, one of the judges, Gabrielle Union, pressed the golden buzzer and sent Lee further into the competition.

Great story, right? Needed a few tissues after watching his performance? I did too.

But the issue’s not in his performance. His talent is incredible and anyone, regardless of musical experience, could see that.

The issue is in how many people, not just the ones in the audience, responded afterward.

As an autistic activist, every time someone who is autistic goes viral on social media, I learn as much about the situation as I can and glean as many opinions as I can from people from all walks of life.

In this situation, I have seen comments like “Kodi Lee Defeats Autism” and “Autism and blindness can’t erase the smile from the face of Kodi Lee” and “Erase the DIS, highlight the ABILITY” and “His only language is MUSIC”, which are basically turning Lee’s amazing talent into inspiration porn, or “feel-good stories” for non-disabled people.

Being autistic myself, it always rubs me the wrong way when the media turns a disabled person’s struggle to survive and to use the talents they have to get them through life into an inspiration for non-disabled people to “see the world in a new way”.

Lee’s own mother said that music saved him when he was younger. And that’s great! Good for him to find an outlet when he struggles to fit into a world that’s not made for people like us.

But using his talent and his life and turning it around as a cry to “erase the dis and highlight the ability” and to push the ideals that “autism can be defeated” and that “autism and blindness take away from true happiness” is disturbing.

Disability is not a bad word. Making it a bad word hurts disabled people.

Autism is not something to be defeated, it is who we are. It is how our brains function. Turning it into a “battle” in the mind further perpetuates the cure narrative, which is harmful.

Autistic people and blind people smile. I don’t know why on earth some people assume that disabled people are not happy because of their disability. Most disabled people I know are happy despite their circumstances. They choose to accept who they are, so why shouldn’t the rest of the world? Why isn’t the world more wheelchair-accessible? Why aren’t people more accepting of those who have intellectual or physical disabilities and either shun them or put them on pedestals as inspiration?

Disabled people are talented.

Autistic people are talented.

Why is this still coming as a surprise to the general public? Why are disabled people still treated as “inspirations” when their talents are included in something like this?

Is Kodi Lee an incredible artist? Yes!

But instead of his autism and blindness being the forefront of the news stories about him, why aren’t they talking more about the amazing talents he has?

Instead of trying to take apart the term “disabled”, why don’t they focus on including more disabled people in music so it doesn’t come as a surprise when an autistic person or a blind person has an amazing gift?