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Hey can we stop telling people that eat simple or not-complex foods that they have a “childs palette” and need to “be an adult?”

Some people have Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, some people are Autistic, some people just like simpler foods

I’m autistic and i get sensorally overwhelmed if too many flavours are dancing in my mouth at once, sometimes it would make me literally vomit. So sorry i cant eat your eggs bacon tomato avocado pitachio almond salad with 15 different spices and 2 sauces mixed into it, Janet, leave me and my fries and nuggets alone.

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Reblog if ur autistic and people using the phrase ‘suffering from autism’ causes u to suffer

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People who judge Asians that can’t speak an Asian language are rude and annoying 

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controversial opinion i guess, but refusing to acknowledge adhd symptoms in your child sets them up for a lifetime of shame, anxiety, and poor coping mechanisms

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So I never post on Tumblr anymore but I felt like this needed to be put here.

I’m really bad at infographics, but someone asked a question in a group I’m in that merited this one being created.

We always talk a lot about why certain organisations are bad and others are good in the autistic community, but what we don’t usually do is establish where most of those good organisations are and what the GREAT ones are doing on top of that.

Here’s a handy guide we can use when examining local and national organisations! It is in no way comprehensive, of course.

(And yes, it does have a copyright with my real name on it because I really don’t want this being shared without proper credit.)

[Image description: Infographic with title ‘A Guide for Identifying Good Autism Organizations (and how they can improve!)’.

© 2017 Samantha Perry

There is a table with two columns labelled ‘Baseline’ and ‘Better’. The text from left to right in each row is transcribed below.

Does the organization have multiple autistic people in their leadership?

Is the organization founded by or run entirely by autistic people?

Does the organization use proper language (identity-first, no functioning labels)?

Does the organization actively renounce and denounce person-first language and functioning labels?

Does the organization avoid imagery such as puzzle pieces or ‘light it up blue’?

Does the organization use neurodiversity imagery such as the rainbow infinity symbol?

Does the organization support legislation that benefits autistic people and reject legislation that harms them?

Does the organization actively campaign for/ against legislation that impacts the autistic community, and encourage civic participation (calling lawmakers, protesting, etc.)?

Does the organization focus on supporting autistic people through self-advocacy?

Does the organization denounce ‘treatments’ and ‘cures’ for autistic people?

Does the organization fundraise only to support its daily operation and not for ‘research’ or ‘treatments’?

Does the organization fundraise to directly benefit autistic people and their families in the local community?

Does the organization validate self-diagnosed autistic people and communicate reasons why many autistic people may be self-diagnosed?

Does the organization actively include self-diagnosed people and work to create solutions within the medical community that reduce barriers to diagnosis?

Does the organization acknowledge autistic adults exist?

Does the organization involve, support, and validate autistic people of all ages?

Is the organization focused on helping autistic people rather than focusing on families and caregivers?

Is the organization focused on pioneering coping strategies and self-advocacy for autistic people, regardless of age or ability?]

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Why is it our job as disabled people to educate our doctors on our conditions and tell the what medication, treatments and specialist referrals we need? Why do we have to research information before seeing a doctor if we want the right help? With the amount they’re paid shouldn’t they do their own damn research?

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Invisible disability doesn’t mean no disability. 

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There is no such thing as “severe/mild/high/low functioning autism”.

There is no difference between Aspergers and autism. Same thing.

There is no levels, there are no intensities, there are no scales.

A spectrum is not a scale. There are no ends to a spectrum. There are no ends to being autistic.

Every single autistic person is completely 100% autistic.

Autism awareness is bullshit.

Stop listening to non-autistics about autism. Start listening to us.

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Physical illnesses are not worse than mental illnesses.

Mental illnesses are not worse than physical illnesses.

This is not a competition of who suffers more. We can do so much more together than we can apart. 

Personally, I love each and every one of you. I will defend you to the fucking last, my friends.

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please respect people who are mentally ill and disabled who cannot work. please respect people who look like they’re just relaxing all day when really they’re waging an internal war just to stay alive or fight their pain. please respect people who could not finish school, people who had big plans and could not see them through because of disability. people who look from the outside like they’ve “given up” or “aren’t doing anything.” people who are hospitalized repeatedly or permanently, and people who are grown adults who are still dependent on others. please respect disabled and mentally ill people. 

this is not a polite suggestion, by the way. it’s an angry demand. we are people, and we deserve the same respect as anyone else.

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“since when is being normal a privilege”

i hear this from abled people a lot and one thing they dont get,

the simple fact that you, as an abled bodied person, are what society considers normal, while disabled people are not considered normal, is privilege.

you will never have to prove your human status as an abled person in the way disabled people do, because you are already considered normal, and human, to the point that you dont realize that disabled people dont have that right, that is privilege.

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via [x]

[Brooke Winters tweeted: “As a disabled person I don’t want to be told I can do anything if I put my mind to it. I want to know that what I can do is good enough.”]

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Disabled Person: “I struggle with this.”

Ableist: “I don’t believe you. It’s not normal to struggle with that.”

Disabled Person: “I struggle with this because of a disability.”

Ableist: “I don’t believe you. Unless you’ve been diagnosed, you don’t have a disability.”

Disabled Person: “I struggle with this because of a diagnosed disability.”

Ableist: “I don’t believe you. You’re high functioning. Disabilities are overdiagnosed. You’re nothing like those low functioning people who actually struggle.”

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"Is ableism an actual thing?"

Yes.

Many of you don’t seem to believe that it exists so here are a few statistics and please keep in mind this is a very short list and doesn’t get into anything even as “trivial” as representation in the media or as specific as how high these numbers go when you include intersections of race and sexuality and anything besides binary gender

Being disabled in public was illegal in the United States until the mid-1970s (x)

Segregation of the disabled still exists; from designated parking spaces to refusal of hiring disabled people in visible jobs to denial of basic education (x)

Disabled people are still legally allowed to be paid slave wages, as little as $0.22 an hour (x)

To receive disability benefits, which can be around $700 a month, a United States resident can be required to not have any savings, to own any property, to never inherit money or property, to never have more than $2,000 in their checking account, to never work for anything above the aforementioned slave wages, as well as many other restrictions (x)

Disabled people, even simply the seeing or hearing impaired, often have their children taken away from them by social services for no reason (x)

Disabled women are twice as likely to victims of domestic violence as abled women (x)

Disabled women are less likely to seek help for their abuse, and oftentimes the little help the receive is not appropriate (x)

Disabled women are more likely to experience abuse over a longer period of time and suffer more severe injuries as a result (x)

Reports of sexual violence against disabled women range between 51% and 79% (x)

Forced sterilization was legal in the United States until 2014 and was most often performed on the disabled and/or women of color (x)

85% of disabled women have experienced domestic violence (x)

80% of women with intellectual disabilities have been sexually assaulted, and 50% of those women had been assaulted more than 10 times. (x) 

Half of the people murdered by police officers are disabled (x)

Family members of disabled individuals are not only legally allowed to “put down” their disabled family member but they are often praised in the community and media as heroes for it (x)

EDIT: Another great example of ableism: the fact that most of the comments on this post are about how it’s ridiculous I included handicap parking under an example of segregation

So let me explain once again,

That was an example of how segregation can range from understandable to the inhumane

Not to say that things like segregated parking doesn’t have its disadvantages. Disabled people are very often violently and sexually accosted in the spaces because would be abusers know exactly where to find us and can very discreetly follow us or force themselves into our cars. I don’t know that anyone’s done statistics on it but I also don’t know if anyone who is disabled who hasn’t been assaulted in handicap parking.

These spaces are also huge issues of contempt able-bodied people have against the disabled. You are probably more familiar with the story of Rosa Parks being asked to leave her seat because a more privileged (white) person wanted her seat and therefore she was expected to give it to them. This is how segregation works. Handicap parking is often used by able-bodied people and although this is illegal, when a disabled person notifies security they are often met with hostility and the chances of it ending up in assault either by the security themselves or the able-bodied person who parked goes up exponentially so it’s often not an option to do anything but quietly leave.

Very rarely people do get ticketed for parking illegally in the spaces but it’s usually only ever done when officers are trying to meet a quota of fines given out and the backlash is never aimed at the police, it’s aimed at the disabled community. A few years ago in central California where I live the police “cracked down” on people illegally using the segregated parking spots and the general statistics for disabled people being assaulted skyrocketed.  

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I was sitting in the group room at my intensive outpatient program. I had just finished recounting an incident where I believed a security officer had been following me, but the person with me at the time had disagreed and said we weren’t being followed. 

The head psychologist said “Your goal this week should be letting in alternative theories to your paranoia. It isn’t likely anyone is following you.” I said “What do you mean? How can I trust someone else’s perspective over my own, especially when that someone is white?” Another person spoke up, suggested increasing my anti-psychotics.

I looked around the room at the other patients and the professionals in group with me. I was the only Black person there. 

I’m mentally ill, and sometimes I’m paranoid, and sometimes I’m delusional. 

I’m Black, and I’m more likely to be followed around by security, or have negative interactions with the police. The racism in this world is real, and it can affect me.

I’m mentally ill, and sometimes I have persecutory delusions, and there wasn’t any drugs in my orange juice or bugs living in my arms even though I was convinced there were.

I’m Black, and I’m mentally ill. And that intersection has never been acknowledged online or in therapy. That intersection makes us more vulnerable to abuse, domestic violence, and police brutality. 

Black schizo-spec people face challenges that others don’t. We are more likely to be be labeled as dangerous and violent and be disbelieved when we share about how racism has impacted our lives, among many other things. That makes it harder for me to trust others- not to mention that difficulty trusting others is a symptom.

Was I being followed that day? I wish I had an answer, but I don’t know. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. But that isn’t the point. 

A simple search will tell you that schizophrenia is more readily diagnosed in Black patients than in white (source), and some say it is overdiagnosed.

But where are the positivity posts for Black people with stigmatizing disorders?

 Where is the positivity for the Black schizo-spec people trying to figure out what level of fear and suspicion towards the police is reasonable and what is a symptom? Where is the positivity for Black schizo-spec people who have everything blamed on their diagnosis while their other mental health problems get ignored? Where’s the positivity for Black schizo-spec people who distrust the medical professionals they deal with, who have ugly symptoms, who are pigeonholed as dangerous?

We have died because we are Black and schizo-spec. Remember those of us who have been murdered.

Keith Vidal

Dontre Hamilton

Khaleel Thompson

Darren Rainey

Jason Harrison

Deborah Danner

And? Don’t forget to include us in your activism while we are living. 

(ok to rb)

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My parents always beat eggs with a pair of chopsticks, I still haven’t learned how to do it