#presume competence

[schar-aac]

"presume competence"

Images: a figure with a slight smile thinking about another person, who has their hands on their hips and is wearing a cape. in the first image, the person being thought about is green and has a gold cape. in the second, they're emoji yellow and have a green cape.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

this should go without saying but “everyone can have ability to self advocate” and “everyone can self advocate right this second” are two different concept.

i say this even thought it sounds obvious because! see parents of nonspeaking level 3 autistic kid (but also adults) w high support needs say their kid don’t have functional communication, that they worried abt their offspring’s future—what happens if they die and not able to be here to take care of them anymore? their offspring dont have functional communication, can’t tell you anyone mistreated them abused them right now, and no idea if they will able to develop it in future.

and late diagnosed, lower support needs, and/or level 1, mostly speaking autistics come in very strong (many attack parents bc see “parent of autistic kid?” immediately think “ableist autism mom!!!”), accuse parents of not presuming competence, accuse parents of abuse, accuse parents prioritizing words over behavioral communication, accuse parents not listening to offspring’s behaviors. say “your child is self advocating, they can, don’t say they can’t!” or say or imply their child don’t self advocate right now because parents not do enough.

i’m all for presume competence. presume competence so so important. but, presume competence means “everyone can learn with proper support and accommodations, even if they may not seem like it on surface.” not “everyone have hidden skills they possess right this second everyone can do everything right now or eventually in the future!”

yes, most behavior is communication! (most not all bc tics, severe apraxia, etc). but the truth is behavior only goes so far. you can only communicate so much with behavior. even if other people presume every behavior as communication, may still misinterpret.

yes! you can argue screaming meltdown is communicating is self advocating! but screaming even two words “too loud! too loud! is different than screaming noises. in first scenario you immediately know what trigger meltdown! you immediately know what stimuli to remove! but the latter, just screaming noises—is it the noise? if it clothes scratchy? is it wrong spoon wrong plate? is it being interrupted? is it too many feelings?

“you can show them picture options and let them point! that is still self advocacy!” yes, but needing someone to provide you pictures is hardly same as able to go to pictures AAC yourself and select spontaneously.

not to mention that… the ability to know what you want to communicate, then go to pictures (whether app or physical printed), recognize what the pictures are, know what picture correlate to what you want communicate, have the motor skills and visual skills to pick the picture out of all the other pictures, then hand it to someone—all very basic skills taken for granted by most late diagnosed low support level 1 mostly speaking autistics. most probably never ever struggled with it. most probably don’t even realize so many nonspeaking kids and adults struggle with this. not everyone have ability to do this!! giving a nonspeaking minimally speaking person communication is not as simple as handing someone an AAC board and they magically can communicate.

what if what you want to communicate is not in picture?

all of these facts has become a taboo thing to admit in autistic circles.

and like i’m even nervous to say “everyone can have the ability to self advocate” because it’s such a extreme definitive generalizing sentence. who am i to make such a generalizing statement? do i know every possible manifestation of every possible disability that affect visual/motor/communication/cognition/etc? NO!

because you don’t know, because you are never sure, 100% presume competence. you never know. give them the chance to learn. see if any environmental factors are limiting them. try as much as you can.

but presume competence shouldn’t be weaponzied… not “if your child/client/etc unable to do this, you’re definitely bad abusive incompetent not doing enough all your fault” without nuance. sometimes it is the parent/professional/etc’s fault. sometimes it’s not.

a randomly selected nondisabled person, able bodied and neurotypical. learning to ski. not olympian champion. the parents are abusive, not providing them with all the lessons all the best equipment all the support? the coach are incompetent, not believing the person, not presuming competence, not believing they can be olympian champion? the equipment not the best in the world (even if best, not enough!!)!

[thechekhov]

I have this conversation with myself at least once a month. 

[stimpunks]

Changelog: Presume Competence. “Nonspeaking” or “Nonverbal”?

We updated “Presume competence. Never assume that the ability to speak equals intelligence.” with a selection from “AAC and autism resources | This Is Not About Me”. Presuming competence is essential to inclusive education. When we presume competence, we assume that everyone can think and learn. This is often called, the “least dangerous assumption” tied to the most basic pillar of medicine to…

[columboscreens]

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance - Braig / Xigbar

[redbean-nom]

quite poetically ironic for demagol to do all those jedi torture-experiments in the name of "finding out how the force works" only to turn out to be force-sensitive himself

[pilots-and-protons]

How do people on here make gif sets? Is it photoshop? Are there any ways to make gif sets if you don't have photoshop?

I really want a specific Star Trek gif set, but I don't know how to make one - and I don't have any friends to ask either. :/

[duckapus]

Dumb Danny Phantom/Invader Zim idea:

Dani ends up in whatever city IZ takes place in and decides to go to school Because Why Not, and she and Gaz develop crushes on each other. Unfortunately, Gaz immediately figures out that Dani is part ghost and assumes that these Weird New Feelings are the result of a curse that she has to cure by getting rid of Dani, because she is not nearly as different from Dib and their Dad as she likes to think she is.

Meanwhile Dani is dealing with the realization that she has the same taste in girls as Danny...and is also dealing with the teasing from the rest of Team Phantom when they find out about it.

[green-mountain-goose]

whatever happens i cant fail is an *abysmal* strategy for living life. and yet rn....

[ms-hells-bells]

props to the iranian male football team refusing to sing the iranian national anthem

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

intellectual disability real.

yes, some people misdiagnosed with it, because “look like it” because apraxia motor hard control body. or because not give way communicate all thoughts and fact that always do understand. because different struggles make see their actual intellectual functioning hard.

once hard work learn control motor, or once get tool communicate, able show that hey, am highly intelligent all along! able go write long about own experience closest to norm “normal”—long sentence, correct grammar, big words. so more people listen.

but. there are real people who ID diagnosis. is correct diagnosis. who do struggle intellectually.

ignore people w ID because secret genius misdiagnose ID, not right.

“do ID/intellectual functioning actual matter?”

well, no, because everyone deserve be give respect and help and support and resource learn and live life. smart or average or mild ID or profound ID.

but also yes, very much yes, because there people who do struggle intellectually, some severely, and experience thing different need different type help than those who not struggle intellectually.

[airyairyaucontraire]

further criticism of "Christmas With the Joker":

quite apart from the question of where on earth the Joker, an incarcerated mental patient, obtained the resources to build undetected a rocket inside a Christmas tree upon which to escape through an Arkham Asylum skylight, then send a (presumably remote-controlled) tank with a crude figure of Santa on top of it rumbling through the streets of Gotham before launching a custom pyrotechnic display of his face, then shoot and broadcast a mock TV holiday special (with title graphics, a soundstage, functional lighting, laugh-track and cameras, and an audience of cardboard cutouts of his enemies) blocking all other TV broadcasts in the city, and abduct the commissioner of police, a senior detective and a prominent journalist

we can all go along with that

there is no reason why a healthy adult should be unable to spit a candy cane out of their mouth

use a fucking ball gag like everyone else

[malcolmschmitz]

So, there's a dirty little secret in indie publishing a lot of people won't tell you, and if you aren't aware of it, self-publishing feels even scarier than it actually is.

There's a subset of self-published indie authors who write a ludicrous number of books a year, we're talking double digit releases of full novels, and these folks make a lot of money telling you how you can do the same thing. A lot of them feature in breathless puff pieces about how "competitive" self-publishing is as an industry now.

A lot of these authors aren't being completely honest with you, though. They'll give you secrets for time management and plotting and outlining and marketing and what have you. But the way they're able to write, edit, and publish 10+ books a year, by and large, is that they're hiring ghostwriters.

They're using upwork or fiverr to find people to outline, draft, edit, and market their books. Most of them, presumably, do write some of their own stuff! But many "prolific" indie writers are absolutely using ghostwriters to speed up their process, get higher Amazon best-seller ratings, and, bluntly, make more money faster.

When you see some godawful puff piece floating around about how some indie writer is thinking about having to start using AI to "stay competitive in self-publishing", the part the journalist isn't telling you is that the 'indie writer' in question is planning to use AI instead of paying some guy on Upwork to do the drafting.

If you are writing your books the old fashioned way and are trying to build a readerbase who cares about your work, you don't need to use AI to 'stay competitive', because you're not competing with these people. You're playing an entirely different game.

[six-of-ravens]

anyway on a lighter note: funny truck fact I learned today.

according to my dad, Toyota (and maybe other companies I lost track) are having to redesign their Big Hypermasculine Dick Extender Fuckoff Can't Drive In One Lane Trucks because....the cabs are too small for big men. like, big fuckoff hypermasculine dudes who are their main customer target can't comfortably fit in the cabs, because the floor slopes up and the roof is low so they're all squinched up as if they were driving a Yaris. Even my dad who's only 5'8" was having a hard time getting in/out of a truck he was looking at bc the roof was too low.

How...how do you fuck up design that bad. "We're gonna make this truck look sooooooo big!! But big people can't actually fit in it. And the bed is actually shorter than normal. What are we doing with that extra space? Unimportant!"

[clueless1995]

ok not to fairy tail post but i would Not participate in the grand magic games like. you’re telling me everyone thought just over 20 fairy tail guild members Including their master and all their strongest wizard went missing and were presumed dead for Seven years and instead of like. showing kindness and compassion to the members left behind everyone belittled and took advantage of them??? and now you want to participate in the stupid magic tournament to prove to everyone that you’re the strongest guild now that everyone is back?? fuck no i’m not going to be a little performing circus clown to entertain the people who treated my friends like that i’ve got nothing to prove to anyone who would behave that way ok BYE