Advocate for Inclusion and Neurodiversity

Autism Acceptance 2020 Poem This month we celebrate Autism Acceptance This annual occasion never turns into one of obsolescence But is one we await with renewed expectance What does this really mean in essence Awareness is already omnipresent What we need so dearly is acceptance Kindness, love and affection All too often we autistics find others keeping a distance Or denying us into that their social circle an admittance Because they don’t understand our difference Must our interaction with the world be met with so much resistance Causing this to accumulate within us a sense of sadness and resentment? Everyone has differing personalities and needs, we are no exception Exercise some patience, compassion and forbearance That we may reciprocate likewise, instead of in vengeance Pardon a bit of awkwardness when into social events we make an entrance Like a party or a wedding reception We are sincere in showing our support through our attendance ...

ANONYMOUS QUESTION : this is for my own self reflection, I would like to understand better, what do you mean by love and accept you because of your autism and not in spite of? ANSWER from an autistic person: It means to love yourself in your entirety. Don’t say “I love who I am even though I’m fat” for example. I love myself for my differences - my hyperactivity gives me energy when I need it, my lack of focus enables me to concentrate on many conversations simultaneously, my ability to hyper focus combined with my need to “deep dive” into my special area enables me to be an expert in things I love. Does this make sense. I love who I am because of my Autistic traits. It is a “strength-based” approach to loving who you are. Instead of seeing your Autistic traits through a negative lens, you see them through a strength based lens which means you will love yourself for these traits. MY OWN ANSWERS Examples for illustration below: IN SPITE OF Autism mentality - we dislike ...

https://youtu.be/kT0eqy-_s7A Materials manufactured from a factory go through standard Quality checks (QCs) to discriminate between the good quality ones and the bad, the "pass" and "fail" ones. But humans are not factory produced homogeneous products. Humans are more DIVERSE than we imagine. Yet we are all put through similar tests to discriminate between the "pass" and "fail", the "normal" and the "inferior", where "normal" parameters are set by what is the majority, the average, and the rest are somehow deemed inferior. In the context of the Neurodivergent (including but not limited to autistics, ADHD, Dsylexia, and those labelled to have Learning Disabilities ), we are, by the "standards of normal" (whatever that may be), deemed inferior to others, just because we behave differently, think differently, socialise differently (or have trouble socialising or don't socialise). Those who lack a...