#ASD Awareness

[noisycowboyglitter]

Wear Blue for Autism Awareness: Tow Truck Driver T-Shirts Available

"Tow Truck Driver Wear Blue For Autism Awareness" represents a unique initiative where tow truck drivers show their support for autism awareness by incorporating the color blue into their work attire or vehicles. Blue is the internationally recognized color for autism awareness, symbolizing the spectrum of experiences and challenges faced by individuals with autism.

Buy now:19.95$

This campaign highlights how various professions, including those in the automotive and emergency services, can participate in raising awareness for important social causes. Tow truck drivers, who are often visible on roads and highways, become moving billboards for autism awareness when they wear blue uniforms, display blue lights, or add blue decals to their trucks.

The initiative serves multiple purposes:

Raises public awareness about autism spectrum disorders

Demonstrates community support for individuals with autism and their families

Encourages conversations about neurodiversity and inclusion

Shows that autism awareness extends beyond traditional settings like schools and healthcare facilities

Buy now

Tow truck drivers participating in this campaign might wear blue shirts, jackets, or caps. They could also add blue ribbon magnets or decals to their vehicles. Some may even paint parts of their tow trucks blue or use blue emergency lights when permitted by local regulations.

This effort not only spreads awareness but also helps create a more inclusive and understanding society. It reminds people that support for autism can come from unexpected places and that everyone, regardless of their profession, can play a role in promoting acceptance and understanding of neurodiversity.

Buy now

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Awareness Month, observed annually in April, is dedicated to increasing understanding and acceptance of individuals on the autism spectrum. This month-long observance aims to educate the public about the diverse experiences of autistic people, challenges stereotypes, and promotes inclusion.

Throughout April, organizations, schools, and communities host events, share personal stories, and provide resources to raise awareness. Key focuses include:

Promoting neurodiversity

Highlighting early diagnosis benefits

Advocating for support services

Encouraging inclusive practices in education and employment

Buy now

The month emphasizes the strengths and unique perspectives of autistic individuals, moving beyond deficit-focused views. It also calls for increased research funding, policy changes, and societal adaptations to better support those on the spectrum.

ASD Awareness Month serves as a catalyst for ongoing efforts to create a more inclusive world for autistic individuals year-round.

[yourmomhasadhd]

Hi and welcome! I wanted my first post to introduce yall to who I am and why I’m here.

Who I am:

My name is Sara, I’m 29, and I live in California with my family. I haven’t exactly decided how much explicit detail I’m going to give yet, so right now you’ll hear me refer to my husband as R and my son as E. You’ll probably see some references to my dad as well, as he is part of our household, too.

I was diagnosed with general anxiety, severe social anxiety, and PTSD in 2021, and diagnosed with ADHD in January 2024. I’m currently on an array of medications for those, and so far they’re working really well.

Why I’m here:

In 2021, after E was born, I became a stay-at-home mom. And in early 2022, I began studying for my AS in Early Childhood Education. I chose ECE due to the similarities in schedules between that field, and for when E started school. 

Beyond that, though, there were two additional experiences that led me to where I am today. First, in the hospital, I chose to formula feed; this was due to many circumstances, including the fact that E was 10 pounds at birth. When I left the hospital, the nurses gave me a folder of information and told me that most of my questions regarding my newborn could be answered by the papers in the folder. A few days later, I was worried about E’s bowel movements - so I consulted the folder, only to find that all of the information was regarding children who were breastfed. I felt incredibly alone in that moment, and almost shamed for my choice to formula feed. The second experience came when E failed his first screening for Autism at age 2. I struggled with my emotions regarding his potential diagnosis and didn’t necessarily feel as if it was a time for me to struggle. As a mom, I felt like I should be able to focus solely on my son and how to get him the support he needed…but while I did feel those things, I also struggled with the enormity of ASD and what that diagnosis would mean for not just E, but our family, too.

Those two experiences led me to one important realization: I am not alone. And if I felt this way, other new parents and caregivers must, too. So I want to advocate for them; I want to be their support, be their person. I want to be the person that I needed to hear from during my experiences, so that no other caregiver feels alone or unheard in their journeys.

Why I’m here, part two:

I often feel the need to write my experiences down and put them into the world. I feel like others can benefit from what I’m going through. I have this hope that, one day, a caregiver who is struggling will stumble across a post of mine and not feel so alone. Honestly, if I can help one person with what I put here, that’s enough for me.

With that being said:

My inbox is always open. Vent to me. Ask me questions. Tell me about your life, about your journey, about your experiences. (And if you want it kept between us, that’s totally fine! Just let me know in the message so that I don’t post it publicly.)

[4threset]

Happy Autism Awareness Month! I AM SO TIRED OF BEING AUTISTIC!`

[kyahcomic]

[weirdplutoprince]

Bchan is a 15 year old girl who just found out she's autistic. Keep up with her highs and lows in a world where "normal" is not the norm!

Since I'm still working on the 'Autistic? Me?' reboot, for this autism acceptance day I've put up all the original 19 episodes for free on Gumroad and Itchio!!

You can donate if you'd like, but I thought it'd be nice to make them available before I edit out the site. :)

Happy autism acceptance day, everyone!

[crazycatsiren]

I don't think I can say this enough times as an autistic person:

Autism is not a superpower, nor a gift from any god, nor a blessing in disguise from another planet/outer space/the universe/wherever out there.

Autism is just autism.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Seriously I have a love/hate relationship with showers…

Funny ADHD ASD Memes

[autism-affirmations]

three posts today for autism day

[sprinkleofquirk]

Reposting but with the original collage that I made and would have posted if I wasn’t such a scaredy-pants

“buT hE’S A clonE He Can’T Be aUTiStIc THeY hAVe THE sAmE PerFEcT geNes sO He’S NORmal”

Shut up. Echo’s the OG 😇

…

Link to original post ->

https://www.tumblr.com/sprinkleofquirk/746705019921940480/in-honor-of-autism-acceptance-month-i-present-to

[zoetheneko]

Boop! Gotcha! :3

(Just one more boop for the road c'mon!)

Happy Autism awareness/acceptence month 🎉

[fumifooms]

Laios Touden and autism; admiring the non-human

Do you think people exaggerate when they scream about Laios being autistic? Do you feel like it’s weird that so many people including autistics are so set on Laios, the problematic (but incredible and kind) king TM, being the most autistic that has ever autisticed? Why do we cheer on autistic people wanting to be monsters?? Isn’t that weird?

Well, of course it depends on the way it’s done, it can be done quite offensively, but long story short Kui blew it out of the park. The thing is, autistic people really do like monsters and animals and robots. Nonhuman does not mean subhuman, it just means Other. Feeling a connection with them has been shown to be an extremely common autistic experience for that very reason.

Because some people don’t understand why we autistic Tumblr Laios stans cheer “autism! Autism!” whenever he talks about monsters and feeling alienated to humans so! Here’s a post about how yes even research papers are analyzing the special connection we form with animals. I’m not even joking but Laios Touden & the mass cries of relatability with autistic people he gets and all the love for him could be used as study material and evidence for future papers because the link is that strong. Oh also I think it’s notable that being autistic and undiagnosed vs diagnosed makes a huge difference. In my experience as someone who was undiagnosed up until 18, it’s even more alienating to not know that there’s a reason why you’re different, being gaslit that you’re ‘normal’ and you just need to try harder and get with the program, etc. Personally when getting diagnosed I went through the 5 stages of grief because the thought of having been fundamentally different all your life (a difference which you will never be able to change) and mistreated for it when you weren’t “wrong” all along makes you unload all the anger and sadness and loneliness and sheer trauma you’ve built up over time. Like it’s world shattering.

So! Back to seeing dogs as family. Also I implore you to value experiential evidence when it comes to autism and other neurodivergences because brains are complicated and neurotypicals not being able to understand us well even with scientific research is like, a whole thing even though we’re right there speaking about how we feel and being right every time because the topic is literally us and how we experience the world. 

Disclaimer for this whole post that, of course, no group is a monolith and everyone has different experiences or can diverge from the norm of the group, and that doesn’t diminish the validity of either side! Like, I know autistic people who have trauma with dogs and hate them. But, trends do happen, and in this case... Autism is very “My experiences with humans make me feel dehumanized in a bad and lonely way so instead I’ll dehumanize myself in a good and inspiring way”.

“I was treated like a failed human my entire life and you’re surprised that my response was to become a dog.” -Patricia Taxxon

It’s literally well recorded that autistic people relate to animals more than humans globally. With this post, besides spreading autistic Laios truthism and explaining why the portrayal hits so deep for so many,  I want to show in what way this is a very specific experience and not looking at his character through an autistic lense really misses a lot of why he’s everything that he is. (Tacking allegedly onto here for legal reasons, different interpretations are valid etc etc /gen). This honestly isn’t super long though.

To define an important term, anthropomorphism in the studies and in this post means to attribute human traits to the nonhuman, which not only includes anthro furry designs but also animals irl, inanimate objects, and animated media as opposed to live action, to humanize them and empathize with them.

Paper: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/aut.2019.0027 

“Dogs taught me how to hunt and socialize and work in groups”, Laios having internalized body language... So real so real. I, too, make a great dog impression. And I want to emphase the part that it helps greatly develop a sense of emotions and relationships! For Laios, he didn’t get along with kids his age, it was him, Falin and the dogs against the world. Since it’s a group of dogs too, it taught him group dynamics and social hierarchies (like with Falin being considered as being below the dogs in authority according to the dogs rip), and the importance of group coordination when hunting.

For me, I cannot like, concisely explain just how much animals were important to me developmentally. I also grew up with dogs, but like I vividly remember encounters with like hamsters as well just radically shaping my understanding of boundaries, the importance of giving something space and the way you interact with them and respect their side of it. Unlike humans they don’t really mask how they feel, it’s direct cause-effect reaction and data gathering. There are no words involved, so the focus on having a perfect phrasing and tone is gone, leaving just pure interactions. 

There’s also no reason to mask how you feel either, and you don’t have to feel silly over wanting to form a connection and it showing, what, is the dog gonna laugh at you because you obviously want to make friends with it? Toshiro or Kabru might, but dogs and cats will just tell you to fuck off and leave it there worst case scenario. I often say that I think one reason Marcille is special to Laios and he feels comfortable around her is because she emotes INTENSELY, she gestures, she puts her whole body into it, her facial expressions are pretty exaggerated and her ears even emote too- like with a dog’s ears!

I think there’s def also things to be said about how he gravitated towards Izutsumi at first, all excited, was eager to sleep in the same bed as her, but in the Izutsumi sleep rating chart we see they really just casual and chill so it’s not a Laios talking to Shuro deep into the night situation just a “I like sleeping besides animals” situation and that is enough to hype him up. I love how he pet her in the extra about why Chil let her sleep with him too. He’s just so transparently eager to befriend her, even if in the end they weren’t all that compatible and he accepted that.

There are honestly so many examples I could give for this. Like Grandin the famous cow lady.

More about autism & empathy:

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/double-empathy-explained/ (Also mentions a study in which groups of autistic, allistic then a mixed group played a game of telephone and both singular groups had similar levels of information retention, but the mixed group was significantly worse. As an autistic person yeah duh, obviously autistic people are different from one another and can have plenty of interpersonal issues, but communicating with other neurodivergent people feels pretty intuitive and straightforward and comfortable. One of the reasons why neurodivergent people tend to naturally gravitate towards each other I suppose.) 

^ Paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932358/  For good, extensive summary of why we relate to animals so much you can go to the “anthromorphizing and asd” section of the paper. This paper extends to our widespread liking of cartoons and robots as well. Ok so this is a whole thing I won’t get into here but this is a big reason why a lot of autistic people are agender leaning as well. Genders and queerness in general is a lot about social constructs, and being queer is being marginal to these, not fitting into boxes or challenging those social norms and conventions. Queerplatonic relationships are a great example of this, where the framework of the relationship is platonic but the intangible nature of what it is exactly is the point, not familial not anything but everything at once too, just adoration, I like to say having pets is a bit like it as well, bc obvi it’s not romantic and often not fully familial, very platonic but also sooo much cuddling and adoration and kissing and whatnot that you wouldn’t typically do with a friend or family member. I’ll talk about qpr and labels another day though.

I got carried away but queerness in Dunmeshi is something I 100% want to make a big post on one day. Experiencing the world with different guidelines and not registering things to have the same boxes, sigh. Personally I also relate to Laios on a gender level, “cis by default because I don’t care all that much but if I were to dig deeper I’m probably otherkin and I want to be socially associated with traits of monsters and animalistic rather than man/woman” sighh hard to be a cryptid in this day and age. I wish we had a term like furry but for monsters, I want to be in the fantasy or folk tale genre ty, like changelings. Goshh changelings... You know, the irl myth where people said their neurodivergent kids were fairies’ children instead of human. Diminished physical sense of self means I see myself as some unknowable black  void aesthetic wise, but like in a way that simultaneously makes me feel seen. Like becoming a monster, losing your sense of self but also somehow just being simplified and seen for what you are, it’s weird to try and explain. This post is more about relating to the nonhuman than about seeing yourself as such, but like connect the dots right, that IS an important point of Laios’ character. It’s because our brains literally work different than allistics which makes us feel as other, but also because of social ostracization and functioning in a different way than society at large, living in the margin of society, being weird and non-conforming.

Meanwhile, animals and social norms... Like ok, showing your neck and rolling on the ground to show that you’re friendly and harmless and play biting might not be proper. But have you considered that it’s also fun and feels very intuitive. Play with a dog in the dog’s way I promise it is so nice and freeing. Play tug of war and growl back when they growl. Hiss at your cat to tell them they do something wrong, engage with them on their level.

Autism made social life hard, but it made animals easy. Do you have anyyy idea how good it feels to mask all day every day and feel constantly misunderstood or like you’re doing a performance but then you can just, drop all of that in the company of animals and they understand you. They understand you. You form an understanding and rapport so easily.

And this whole thing with Laios is so explicit too, with the Winged Lion saying “You’re sick and tired of the human world”. Notice the choice of words. Sick and tired of the human world. Exhausted from the constraints, sick of the mind games. It really isn’t as much about loving monsters as it is about loving the nonhuman. Relating to them because you feel that you can actually understand how they work and think, and feeling like they could understand you back as well. Animals are safe.

Like I could go on about how Laios admiring even just demi-humans like orcs is because they’re socially seen as non-humans more than any true physical thing, that they’re not bound by human society and its rules and live with their own lifestyle. But it would deal myself 1000 points of psychic damage and I am not ready to cry today. It’s idealization 100%, and like, Laios DOES want to be treated as human, to be valued, but it feels like an unreachable thing meanwhile becoming a monster is instant gratification and freedom and a sense that now no one will be able to hurt you in a way that reaches you, never again shall you be defenseless, and then if people dehumanize you then that only strengthens your sense of identity as a monster and UGHH ugh ugh.

And like. This post is a mess at this point but if you want to kinda delve into the more “why” then I recommend this Patricia Taxxon video essay. It starts out on a very different topic, but it’s all about autism and finding comfort in the inhuman. Long story short is othering made us like this also animals are just simpler to intuitively get along with.

So when I post this

I mean it. I really mean it when I say he’s me. I have never felt so seen. So many conflicting emotions all wrapped so concisely yet so intangibly woven into the whole storyline so subtly. 

Not being depicted as a monster of an human being for feeling/having felt that way?? The manga understands you. The world can understand you. Other humans can understand you. You can bond with them. You can. And I think that’s a big part of Dungeon Meshi too- Laios opening up to others about how he really is and his interests, and all the bumps on the way but how it was the only way to truly get to know each other and bond. With the climax being Laios confronting head on his complex with monsters and humans, and his monster-loving side and animalistic side being exactly what saves the whole world, what saves humanity. Because Laios does value his friends, does think humanity has beautiful sides to it, he wants to help it thrive and eat and become more accepting, carving out a kingdom for misfits and demi-humans. At the end of it, transforming into a monster and being free is a daydream fantasy, and the reality of it is that Laios does belong in the world as he is, and does receive and give out love.

If you enjoyed this you’ll probably like some of my other Laios analysis!  Here’s an analysis of his succubus and what it says about his relationships with other humans. And here’s an analysis about his relationship with Shuro from his perspective.

[frail-and-freakish]

today, april 11th, is the anniversary of Mel Baggs' death. Mel Baggs was one of the early founders of the neurodiversity movement and believed that no one was too disabled for human rights, something that modern nd movements fail to understand to this day. sie was so instrumental to my understanding of literally everything. sie died from medical ableism and neglect during the beginning of the pandemic. we would be nowhere fucking near where we are now without hir. i've decided to make a masterlist of some of my favorite posts of hirs, organized into different categories.

(some of these are listed in more than one category because they overlap so much)

here are some of the "essentials" (what you might have already read by hir/should read first):

hir memorial site hosted by ASAN:

In My Language

the oak manifesto

There is ableism at the heart of your oppression, no matter what your oppression might be

Getting The Truth Out (many pages, parody of bad autism awareness campaign called "getting the word out")

the meaning of self-advocacy

what makes institutions bad

aspie supremacy can kill

here are some of hir beautiful writings on perceiving/communicating with hir environment as an autistic person, and on communication in general:

up in the clouds and down in the valley: my richness and yours

distance underthought

the naked mechanisms of echolalia

empty mirrors and redwoods

the fireworks are interesting

hir tumblr tag #sensing (@withasmoothroundstone)

on personhood and who has the authority to take it away:

being an unperson

what it means to be real

empty mirrors and redwoods

on institutions and the I/DD service system:

caregiver abuse takes many forms

"i don't know that person's program"

what my home means to me

dd service system tag

god help the critic of the dawn: glamour and its fallout

what makes institutions bad

post on the JRC

outposts in our heads

on online social justice communities/their inaccessibility:

Your politics have a problem when they contradict the real-life experiences of the people they're supposed to be about.

politics, ethics and mental widgets

hir tumblr tags #outside the wall and #little packages (@withasmoothroundstone)

misc:

The Bones My Family Gave Me

Please violate only one stereotype at a time

My sort of people, just as real as theirs.

Reviving the concept of cousins

gender tag

this is hir poems and creative works:

this is hir writing on autistics.org:

may hir memory be a blessing/revolution.

[pebiejeebies]

Remembered that stupid sentence when my mother said it to me

I finally have a good explanation for it :D

[kyahcomic]

[lemonxlimee]

I do not project onto people. That is. That is my least favourite thing to do. /ref

[crazycatsiren]

Autistic meltdowns aren't synonymous with temper tantrums, by the way.