Advocate for Inclusion and Neurodiversity

Ms Nur Sarah Qistina’s letter ( A smile can help ease the challenge of looking after special needs kids , Nov 11) burdens my heart. Even with collective efforts in spreading autism awareness, Ms Qistina’s experiences, sadly, remain common occurrences. She is not alone ; I had witnessed special needs families’ struggles, such as a mother saying “Sorry, he is special needs”, to deflect unwanted public stares at her son’s behaviour. I quietly thought “she should not have to apologise for who her son is!”. Clearly something is amiss in our society. Being born in the early 1990’s, an era when autism awareness was lacking much more than today, I was often a victim of public stares. My parents constantly suppressed my so-called undesirable behaviours and chided me for causing embarrassment. If society were more accepting and less judgmental, my parents would not have had to resort to this nor be overly-conscious of public perception. Instead, our unaccepting society deprived me of a healthy p...

Preamble International Women's Day (IWD) has gotten a lot of attention this year (2021) in Singapore. In fact,  The Ministry of Social and Family Development has dedicated 2021 as the Year of Celebrating SG Women . As a believer of Equality, Inclusion, and Fairness for all, I find this inspiring. More importantly, I find many fundamental principles/values and attitudes on which this concept of gender diversity operates upon, which I feel can be emulated and applied to disability inclusion , including Autism Awareness Day   coming up next month (April). 2nd April was declared as Autism Awareness Day by the United Nations General Assembly A bit of History 8th March is International Women's Day (IWD) . Officially recognised by the  United Nations  since  1977 , today it is celebrated by many countries globally. The Women’s Rights Movement  dates all the back to 1848. Readers keen to read more history may refer to the links appended below in the Appendix...

A note from the Poet, Wesley Loh: This Poem is dedicated to my beloved autism community. I intend to capture/express some of things we go through inside us.  To our non-speaking autistics counterparts: We feel your pain of the misconceptions people have of you. It is tough living in a world where your way of communication is different from the mainstream.  This poems also seeks to be a voice for you to some extent (especially the 2nd segment), debunking common myths of non-speaking autistics and helping the world understand the inner thoughts and feelings that are going on inside you that you otherwise don't vocalise.  Given that I am a speaking autistic, I don't think my poem does justice to fully represent you and your thoughts, but do know I tried my best and that we are all a part of each other as fellow autistics from the same beloved community. The Neurodiversity Movement need not divide us, on the contrary, it unites us! Title: I May Not Look At You But I am Listen...

https://elemental.medium.com/autism-is-an-identity-not-a-disease-inside-the-neurodiversity-movement-998ecc0584cd The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) annual gala in November (reference article link above) is a very good example of how a truly inclusive event and/or autism event should look like. Just to point out a few features/attributed. 1. Colour-coded badges for Communication Preferences Autistics have differing personalities; some love to talk to everybody (or for some, like me, is because I yearn for company and friendship), some prefer to stick to only those they know , while others prefer to be alone . "But isn't that the same for everyone?" Some non-autistics may prefer to be alone too", some may say. Well, there is more to that than meets the eye. It is not merely a matter of preference for us. It is due to some inherent autism traits or challenges. For example, those who prefer to be alone might need that to find solititude and calmness from t...

https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/autistic-or-has-autism-why-words-matter-and-how-to-get-it-right/10903768 The link above explains the right autism terminologies. Indeed, there is a lot of deeper meanings in the terminologies. We should never dismiss it as just "mere terminology" or reduce it to "let's not get hung up on terminology". Different terms can mean very different things,  and that is partly attributable to the nature of the English language. Moreover, it has underlying mindsets/paradigms  behind the terminology, which is further reinforced through the use of the terminology. The shift from "person with autism" to " Autistic person " is a paradigm shift on a very deep and high level and in many ways. I hope those whose lives have been touched by autism will be players of the bigger plan of breeding a culture of acceptance, appreciation and celebration of Autism and Neurodiversity . For Autistics, and Caregivers, if you are on the...