#the low support needs autistic community needs to do better

[variantoutcast]

Honestly with regards to this post (and this wasn't the issue op was adressing hence my own post) the biggest determinant when hanging out with other autistic people for me personally is solidarity. Many of the groups of autistic people I spent time on the periphery of during college believed the autistic experience began and ended with their own. You can pathologize this if you're so inclined and say this is typical of the low empathy found in many autistic people but I will not because I don't find that a useful metric to justify behavior. In particular many of them seemed at best unaware of other autistic people with greater support needs than their own, or at worst actively tried to set themselves up as one of the "good" autistics who can function independently in contrast to "those" autistics who can't always. And honestly, I would rather hang out with an autistic person who sends me into sensory overload every time and has no shared interests, but who is aware of and shows solidarity to high support needs autistics.

[engagemythrusters]

“Neurospicy” lends itself to those who are able to be viewed as “quirky” by society. By using it as a replacement for “neurodivergent,” you are alienating a large population of the people who fall under that category.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

ok i need. need. NEED. you all to understand what high support needs autism actually is. not just higher support, but highhhh (high) support.

& honestly me, am not even fit to talk about this!! but knowing popular (often low support) autism content creators & authors tokenize me & include me in justification “well i listen to high support needs people and they need—”

high support needs not just need remind take meds, not even need remind eat, need remind shower. if you think “high support needs” & those struggles come first in mind & see those as most represent of HSN, most classical way of be HSN, then you wrong. you wronggg.

many HSN autistic, not even “advanced” enough (for not have better word) to able use reminders. on average day often need physical help. for a lot, need complete physical help. need complete physical help hold spoon n fork, or not able be a part at all and need other people do it. need be told open mouth chew swallow sometimes. need other people clean up drool & spill from mouth & mess.

they have worth. deserve all the fucking help they need.

“difference between low & high support is not actual amount struggle because all struggle inside same but that high support show more external outside struggle & those struggle more annoying for people around them” hear this so often and make blood boil because cannot be farther from truth yet some you all so loudly proclaim.

then tell me why only hear LSN say this. why only hear LSN on internet. why all big content creator big authors big autistic speakers all LSN.

tell me how someone nonverbal and no robust communication no functional language struggle even nonverbally communicate not even AAC not yet or not ever ever, how that same inside as someone who able speak who speak fluent who able communicate want needs dreams have conversation with words

both struggle. but not fucking same struggle.

many people in between. but you not get use people like them like me to give self shiny credential of “i know high support needs because i listen”

don’t use me. you embarrass me.

[nightcolorz]

always thinking about the development of abed and Brittas dynamic. Pov ur Britta and ur starting community collage and u meet a visibly autistic guy in ur Spanish one class and when ur introduced to him u can’t help but think of ur older brother who works with autistic kids and u wonder if ur capable of making positive change in someone’s life the way he does or if ur always going to fuck everything up like everyone says u do, and u befriend this autistic guy in ur Spanish class who realize as u soon become close friends rlly needs a type of daily support that he isn’t and has never been accommodated with and ur like wow, sad, what if I can be the support he needs, and obviously you can’t, bcus ur one person and also u know nothing about autism and also this random man from ur Spanish one class has an acute mission to push u into emotional despair bcus ur earnest desire to help him bcus of ur personal internal conflict combined with ur huge amount of ignorance reminds him of his mother and he wants to consciously emulate his relationship with her with u so that he can use footage of u to make a shitty art film about his childhood trauma and that’s when u realize that u aren’t ur brother and also are stupid asf to think that u can be like ur brother for ur adult friend who is low key having some form of psychotic episode but even still you’ve grown to love this autistic Man U met at ur Spanish one class and it breaks ur heart everyday that u will never be enough to meet his neglected emotional needs so u decide to become a psychology major so that maybe one day u will be adequate enough to do this right, bcus rlly u have a lot of unaddressed existential terror that the world is a cruel unjust place that u are too insignificant to do anything about and it fills the hole in ur heart a little to feel like u are making an impact in at least one vulnerable persons life, but ultimately ur an ignorant and self centered collage student and ur autistic friend from Spanish one loves to remind u that u are not enough and ur attempts to help him will only ever backfire or register to him as infantilizing condescension and as u try to therapize ur adult friend u become the one getting therapied as he turns every attempt of urs on its head so that now u are the one being confronted by ur own psychological problems which eventually come to a head when he comforts u about ur own failure while he’s having a hallucinatory psychotic episode prompted by his mom giving up on him where he tells u in song form that you are “broken” bcus u desperately want to help people but u lack the tools to make any positive change and u cry a whole lot about this bcus from now forward u are forced to reckon with the reality that u are not qualified to fix ur disabled friend bcus ur a psychology student in collage and he has autism and psychosis and childhood trauma and all u can rlly do about that is be a good friend and an adult about it and also accept that ur disabled friend is just as much of a person and an adult as you are and u cant violate his autonomy by using him as a tool for ur own self betterment and now u don’t use ur baby voice on him quite as much bcus you’ve learned that ur friend is going to psychologically torture the shit out of u if u try to be his mom so instead u set ur sights on being his collage friend who he can talk shit with and such and everyone’s just going to try their best

Then pov ur abed and ur like lol. Britta is Talking to me Like im five. What if I stop talking to her to emulate my childhood speech delay so that she’s forced to deal with the burden my mom did and she leaves me like everyone else does so I can make a movie about it. Oops she’s still here. Well, her romantic subplots would make rlly good sitcom storylines in the tv show that is my life. 🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜coolcoll

[autismaccount]

I've reached 35 responses! They're very interesting, but the sample size is still small, and I don't think it's at all representative of the Tumblr autism community. If I can't reach at least 100 responses, I don't think I'll be able to analyze Tumblr community views on support needs in depth. I'll still post descriptive statistics for the overall sample, but I won't have the statistical power to do anything else.

I'd really appreciate if everyone could help by taking the survey and reblogging this post to their followers!

As a reminder, the survey is meant to understand how people use support needs labels. For example, what makes someone low support needs and not moderate support needs? The survey also helps show what the community is like in general in terms of demographics and experiences!

A summary of the current survey results are under the Read More. Again, especially if a community that you're in is under-represented, please help by spreading the survey link! I'd especially love to hear from more people AMAB, racial/ethnic minorities, people who are not yet diagnosed or were diagnosed as adults, and higher support needs individuals!

Age: Most participants are young; 60% are under age 25%, and 20% are under 18.

Gender: Over half of the sample is AFAB nonbinary, almost 1/3 is trans men, and almost all of the remainder (14%) is cis women. Only 2 people who are AMAB have taken the survey.

Race/Ethnicity: Non-Hispanic White people are very over-represented, making up 82% of the sample.

Diagnosis: 57% are professionally diagnosed, 20% are informally or soft-diagnosed, and 14% are seeking a diagnosis. Only 9% are neither diagnosed nor seeking a diagnosis.

The most common diagnoses are ASD with no level (33%), level 1 ASD (25%), and "mild autism" (13%).

16% were diagnosed before age 8, 24% between ages 9 and 15, 32% between ages 16 and 18, 12% between ages 19 and 25, and 16% over age 25.

Autism Support Needs: The most common self-identified support needs label is "low-moderate" (43%), followed by low (23%) and moderate (14%). Most would benefit from but do not need weekly support (31%), only need accommodations and mental health support (17%), or rarely need any support (6%).

Autism Symptoms: On a severity scale of 0 (not applicable) to 3 (severe), the average is 1.7 overall, 1.8 socially, and 1.7 for restricted-repetitive behaviors. The most severe symptom is sensory issues (2.1), and the least severe are nonverbal communication and stimming (both 1.5).

83% are fully verbal, and 97% have no intellectual disability.

38% can mask well enough to seem "off" but not necessarily autistic. 21% can't mask well or for long.

Most experience shutdowns (94%), difficulties with interoception (80%), meltdowns (71%), alexithymia (71%), echolalia (69%), and autistic mutism (66%). Very few experience psychosis (14%) or catatonia (11%).

Self-Diagnosis: 20% think it's always fine to self-diagnose autism, 29% think it's almost always fine, 31% think it's only okay if an assessment is inaccessible, 71% think it needs to be done carefully, and 11% think it's okay to suspect but not self-diagnose.

15% think it's always fine to self-diagnose autism DSM-5 levels (including if the person has been told they don't have autism), 15% think it's fine as long as autism hasn't been ruled out, 21% think it's almost always fine, 18% think it's only okay if an assessment is inaccessible, 36% think it needs to be done carefully, and 36% think it's okay to suspect but not self-diagnose.

26% think it's always fine to self-diagnose autism support needs labels (including if the person has been told they don't have autism), 29% think it's fine as long as autism hasn't been ruled out, 37% think it's almost always fine, 29% think it's only okay if an assessment is inaccessible, 43% think it needs to be done carefully, and 6% think it's okay to suspect but not self-diagnose.

Disability: 71% feel disabled by autism, 17% feel disabled by another condition but not autism, and 11% are unsure.

Comorbidities: The most common mental health comorbidities are anxiety (68%), ADHD (62%), and depression (56%).

The least common mental health disorders are schizophrenia spectrum disorders (0%), bipolar disorders (3%), tic disorders (6%), substance use disorders (6%), personality disorder (9%), and OCD (9%).

The most common physical health comorbidities are gastrointestinal issues (29%), connective tissue disorders (29%), autoimmune disorders (24%), neurological disorders or injuries (24%), and hearing/vision loss (24%). All others are below 20%.

Overall Support Needs: When considering comorbidities, the most common self-identified support needs label is moderate (37%), followed by low-moderate (31%) and low (17%).

[pompomtheprincess05]

A bit of a hot take

I don't like it when people compare low support needs autistic characters to Music (the girl from Sia's infamous movie) who is meant to be a high support needs autistic character.

First let me clarify that I'm not defending Sia or that movie that she made, I do agree that it has a lot of issues and should not have ever been made.

However those "good" autism rep characters being either level 1/low support needs autistics (Abed from Community for example) or not canonaclly autistic but are viewed as autistic (Lilo from Lilo And Stitch for example) while labeling Music as the "bad" autism rep is a little unfair, because they aren't very comparable, it's like comparing a part time wheelchair user to a full time wheelchair user.

Not to mention the fact that there has been saying things like "no autistic person would eat gum off of a bench" when in fact, some autistic people espsecially level 3/high support needs people would as well as having meltdowns the way Music does or make "odd"/"funny" faces, I will say that the way Music is potrayed isn't good and is poorly written, however there are autistic people irl who do have the same traits as Music and therefore while probably not intentional, the people who are framing Music is the "bad" autism rep for having traits that level 3/High support needs autistics have as well is being ableist.

Overall what I can say is I think higher support needs autistics deserve much better rep than what they get and to be included.

[martha-autie]

Levels are important and so is using them correctly.

There is a misunderstanding about levels that borders on abelist. Some of you may have seen others say "levels are harmful to low support needs autistics" or "some days I'm level 1, some days I'm level 2 and some days I'm level 3".

These statements are harmful for an assortment of reasons and I plan to discuss some of those today.

First:

Levels are not inherently harmful to lower aupport needs autistics the idea that level 1 means no support needs, is not built into the level system. Level 1s require support, level 2s require moderate support, level 3 requires a lot of support. Instead of attacking the level system, the focus should be on addressing the incorrect belief that level 1s don't need any support. For moderate and high support needs people, levels can be invaluable. It can be very difficult for me, a level 2, to explain how my autism effects me. Being able to tell my doctors and the government, that I am a level 2 takes the pressure of trying to verbalize how my disability impacts me. If you can explain how your autism effects you that's great but many of us cant and that is why levels are important. It is shorthand for low, moderate and high support needs people who cannot put into words how autism impacts them.

Some may say that level 1s will be denied services due to misconceptions, this could be possible, though I know level 1s on SSI and such. However, the diagnostic criteria notes level 1 autistic people need supports as well. The level system is very beneficial for many moderate and high support needs people and the problem that some level 1s bring up are the fault of misconceptions of the level system that would be better addressed by educating those who think level 1s don't need support, than by attacking the level systems.

Second:

"Some days I'm level 1, some days I'm level 2 and some days I'm level 3".

Is a perplexing and disturbing saying. Many people, often level 1s, use this phrase to refer to their bad days and in argument against the level system. Some will say levels are useless because "some days I'm level 1, some days I'm level 2 and some days I'm level 3". They are referring to how stressful, difficult, or painful a particular day is and conflating it with levels , not referring to an actual level change.

This is problematic because that isn't how levels work. It is also insulting because it implies that level 2 and 3s are always having bad days and that our level is a state of a bad day. It also implies that if level 2 and 3s had better days or better environments they would become level 1s. This gives an unrealistic impression of how varying degrees of autism works and contributes to misinformation that can harm the autistic community.

I would like to share an example of something a low support need autistic person said about high support needs people "they have tricked everyone into thinking they can't do more so everyone does everything for them". This horrible statement is fueled by the idea that levels are just a measurement of good and bad days. I am a level 2, I am not the imbodiment of a moderately bad day, I am autistic person who needs moderate support. Please think hard the next time you say "some days I'm level 1, some days I'm level 2 and some days I'm level 3". And ask yourself, what that statement really implies.

[the-guilty-writer]

No one asked for this but it's too late now.

disabled/mentally ill/chronically ill child and which BAU parent would be the most accomodating.

(of course all of them would be supportive and do their best but some of them would be naturally more accomodating for certain things. Just trust me.)

Some of these are really specific and others are more general be kind please it was 2 am when I thought of this

Spencer- absolutely the best dad an autistic kid could ask for. He knows the signs before a meltdown and exactly what to do. If you're non verbal he learns sign language to help you, gets you stim toys based on what motor function you find the most soothing, and this man would be the biggest supporter of your special interests (really this needs no explaination. I could go on for hours about this)

JJ- a learning disability. Not only is she mama bear who will fight a teacher that critisized you but her whole job revolved around communicating well. She knows how to adjust and break things down and go slow. She would figure out the best way to accomodate you and follow through every time. You never have to worry about her losing her patience with you, she knows you need breaks, and she doesn't care what grade you get- she's just proud that you tried your hardest and got through it.

Penelope- Depression. Not only is this woman nearly impossible to be sad around, but Garcia understands sadness and grief and darkness. She doesn't like it, but she understands it and how awful it feels. She also understand that sometimes you just have to feel the feelings and not try to fix them right away. She's all sunshine and rainbows, but she knows you have to weather the storm first. She helps you get through it, slow and steady, but once it's time to get up and going she knows how to do that too.

Morgan- Any physical disabilty. This man would find the best house possible and then restore it and fit it with any ramp, handles, resizing, etc. you need. Would totally redo your dining room to be a first floor bedroom if you needed it and outfit it with an accessible shower. He finds a way to modify just about any sport you want to try so you can play. Can and will fight buisnesses over their lack of following of accessible laws.

Emily- Ambulatory wheenchair user/dynamic physical disability. She makes sure you have any mobility aids, modifications to the living space, and will fight people if they don't follow accessible laws. But she also makes you feel badass- she points out that canes and crutches make great weapons (talk shit get hit) and using your wheelchair is a power move she always encourages you to take if you need it. If you need bravery, she'd let you borrow hers. Would cut a death glare to anyone who questioned your validity.

Hotch- emotion and mood disorders. Hotch is so steady when it comes to his mood and emotions and he's great at not taking things personally. So it doesn't matter how high or low you are or if you blow up at him and say things you don't mean because he knows it's not always in your control. You can depend on him to be okay when you aren't and make descision when you don't trust that you're in the right state of mind. He's your rock- always stable and consistent and reliable, even when you can't be.

Rossi- disordered eating. HEAR ME OUT OKAY. A lot of people who restrict have one special dish/snack that has significant and GOOD meaning to it and a lot of times it plays a really big role in recovery and Rossi would make sure you have that whenever you want. If you have more selective tendencies he's sure to get the exact thing you like every time because no child of his is going to eat generic we all know the brand name is better. Rossi believes that a relationship with food should be one of love and he helps foster that in the most sensitive and kind way possible

[musashi]

Pffff you sure do manage to piss a lot of people off, and not know why or how. Perhaps you should look inward.

i'd love to look inward, unfortunately these people i piss off never actually give me anything to work with. they'll say like "wendy, you eat babies" and then i say "can i have an example of when you saw me eat a baby" and then they block and ghost me and i go to my friends like "hey, did you ever see me eating babies? i'm trying to figure this out" and they all unanimously are like "uh no we never saw anything like that??? you did look at a baby once, maybe someone misunderstood???" and then five years pass and the person mad at me for eating babies leaves a long apology in my inbox and i connect with them through DMs and say "i'm just still confused. can you explain the thing where you said i ate babies? like do you remember what made you say that?" and without fail every time they reply "i don't know man, it just seemed right to say at the time."

i'm actually quite interested in bettering myself, and a great deal of my vent posts on here DO end with "i just don't understand" because of that desire. but i think a lot of people really do just forget that i am autistic and a huge part of autism is needing very clear examples of situations/behaviour/whatever. asking lots of questions, receiving lots of clarification, etc. with how mean and quick to abandon people have gotten on the internet lately, no one wants to give me that actionable feedback, or sit with me and help me understand what i might have done wrong/inelegantly. most of them just get angry, take my "maybe we should sit on this and come back to it later?" as an insult, and block me without answer.

currently, the person maligning me fully believes that i'm not "disabled" enough, claims i am "low support," and quite literally said "all [wendy's] symptoms [of disability] improve their life." i think this is very telling of a larger picture--people see how well i hide my cracks, how i boast my function, and how happy i am despite being disabled and file me away in their head as an arrogant neurotypical who is a little bit quirky.

but i would like to remind you, anon, that i am autistic. i am disabled. my social functioning is atypical. my way of understanding myself, my actions, and how those all mesh with the people i share a space with is atypical. "look inward" is great advice, and though I think you were trying to be mean, i welcome it with open arms! however, "look inward" only helps when i have additional help to guide me toward what exactly inward i am looking for. so, in this case, it is a little misguided.

if anyone who KNOWS ME PERSONALLY NOT ON TUMBLR who hates my fucking guts would like to give me some examples of how i act/talk/exist and why it makes them want to set a library on fire i am always, at any given moment, eagerly awaiting that feedback. but currently, the feedback is "none at all." every single person who has had a problem with me for the last half-decade of my life has simply blown up on me over things i did not do/intend/understand, or hardblocked me without a conversation and left me clueless as to what i did wrong.

until someone (friend or foe) is willing to actually communicate with me instead of being a sniveling coward, i will never know where inward to look. them's the breaks!

[auschizm]

Hello, auschizm!

I’d really like your opinion on the phenomenon (caused by internalized ableism) where autistic people that have lower support needs/are better at masking actively look down on or harass autistic people that may have higher support needs/are “worse” at masking.

Although I am relatively low-support, it’s incredibly difficult for me to mask due to 10 years of isolation. So knowing that other autistic people - those that you would think would be most understanding about perceived social or functional failings - are the same ones that may be judging you (even more harshly than neurotypicals) really stresses me out. Especially because more often than not they don’t seem to have any problem feeling this way and justify it.

Basically, what are some ways that someone might deal with/confront (internalized) ableism from other (autistic) people.

I have noticed this tendency too, and it really upsets me! I personally try to combat it by only following and associating with autistic people who are explicitly supportive of high support needs autistic people, by following said high support needs autistic people and including/boosting their voices and perspectives in my own activism, and by taking a clear stance against this kind of lateral ableism in my own posts about autism and by calling it out when I see it. If we all do this, we can slowly push the "autism community" in a better direction! (Also, I want to note that this phenomenon is caused by lateral ableism, not internalized ableism. Internalized ableism is when you hate/judge/blame yourself for being disabled, whereas being ableist towards people who are disabled in a different way than you are is called lateral ableism. Both are tendencies we need to take a stand against in the autistic community, but a high masking autistic person hating on autistic people who can't mask is not an example of internalized ableism).

[science-lings]

Extra details bc polls have a character limit and I am a certified yapper

1- Naturally quiet Bruce my beloved, selectively mute even. He knows he's bad at words and if he doesn't know what to say he just doesn't say anything at all and that is not good for being a decent communicator. Thankfully Cass doesn't need words to know, so they just hang out without saying a single thing.

2- Brucie is who he is when he HAS to interact with people and HAS to come off as 'normal' and it has never been who he really is. Also, this guy fixates on strategizing and some of the most random things with the excuse that it could be useful at some point, he has trouble in social and emotional situations. Yes, Battinson opened my eyes to this concept and I am not letting it go.

3-As much as I like the masks having glowing white lenses, I need them to put makeup on each other for crime-fighting reasons. Battinsons raccoon eyes are so important to me. I want to see him carefully putting some green eye makeup on a hyperactive 9 yo Dick Grayson RIGHT NOW

4-Titus and Ace have gone through therapy dog training (specifically for PTSD) and the rest are only qualified because they make Damian feel better, they don't actually get much special treatment. He just likes introducing people to his emotional support cow/turkey/bat-dragon-demon creature/ Alfred (cat).

5- I think canonically he can cook and the joke is that haha he needs Alfred to do everything for him but like this guy went alone off the grid for years and can in fact take care of himself or at least his basic health needs. The thing is that when he cooks he gets distracted while things are cooking and forgets to put on timers. He just puts food low on the scale of things that are important to pay attention to so if anything comes up to take his attention he's screwed. He works better if he's part of a group of people cooking or there's someone there to tell him to pay attention.

6- I think while the Waynes were alive, Alfred was mostly pretty distant, he was part of the staff even if he was one of their favorites. He wasn't Bruce's nanny or anything. But he was trusted by them and they didn't trust any other family to take care of Bruce in the event of their death. Even after the Incident, Alfred wasn't really prepared to raise a child, I feel like we always make Alfred the emotionally intelligent one when he mostly raised Bruce post-horrific trauma. I don't think Alfred is perfect, I think there was always that barrier keeping him and Bruce from really connecting during his childhood.

Bruce saw everyone leave, his parents, the rest of the staff, and he is convinced that one wrong move means that Alfred will leave him too so he doesn't want to do something wrong and drive his last person away. Even though he is a traumatized child filled with rage, every time it becomes too much and he gets into a fight or breaks something he is terrified that means Alfred will find someone else to take care of him. Slowly this fear fades but it comes back when he turns 18 bc that's when he becomes an adult which means Alfred won't be obligated to stick around. But it comes and goes and Alfred is... still there? It's only at this point that he starts to think of Alfred as part of his family and over the years he actually allows himself to think of Alfred as his father.

7- I don't think I have to explain this one, I think he has a weird relationship with sex and will seduce people for the Mission but has never been particularly into it. Sometimes he does it because that's what his partners want but if no one asks for it or there's no outside reason to do it, he has better things to do. Maybe he's even uncomfortable with it but can do it to keep up pretenses and because that's what Brucie would do.

8- I think the big scary vampire-coded vigilante should take off his big scary cape and wrap it around his kids and carry them off into the night. It's good for people going into shock as well. I think it is secretly very warm. It is also a good hiding place for robins of a certain size. Full-grown Jason would have trouble hiding there but its blanket use is still fully applicable.

9-We typically only see the big cavern with all the vehicles and the batcomputer but I think it would be fun if that was just the Hub of the cave system. There are tunnels that lead to labs and rooms made for the creation and upkeep of armor and other vigilante wear, there are quarantine rooms and containment vaults, target ranges and a surgery center and so much more. It is a labyrinth in there and there is always a new section being worked on. There is also a tunnel that leads to the Drake residence which made it especially easy for Tim to sneak home when he needed to.

10- how is this 40(?) yo man doing the splits while fighting, he does flips, how is he moving like that. He's not just a big strong guy, he's also fast and evasive and I like to think that aside from the lack of quips, he did a pretty good job convincing ppl he was Nightwing that one time.

[autistic-zukoao3]

Just saw a low support needs person claim that support levels are ableist because "there is no real difference between level one and level three autism"

Bro. You are so wrong,

Support needs aren't comparing autistic people to allistic. It's compared against other autistic people. A level three autistic person is going to have substantially higher support needs. It's not ableist to say this. It's not ableist to say someone has higher support needs than you.

Please, for fucks sake, stop erasing high support needs autistic people from discussions. They're autistic and human too. They exist. They are on here telling you this.

Stop fucking pretending that a low support needs autistic has the same needs as someone high support needs.

I'm medium support needs. My milestones and accomplishments look a bit different than a low support needs person. Going to a restaurant and not having a meltdown within 30 minutes is a significant achievement for me. Going into the store by myself and buying three items is a significant achievement for me. Saying anything to a stranger is a significant achievement for me. Remembering to go to the bathroom, eating, and drinking water is an accomplishment.

My friend's brother is very high support needs. He will never be able to live independently. He is nonverbal. He cannot read. He can't write. He can't spell. He can't learn sign language. AAC for him is offering two hands, a verbal option for each hand. Left hand for no, right hand for yes; left hand for iPad, right hand for toy (as examples). That is his only way to communicate.

He is high support needs. That is not ableist to say. That is a fact. His severe intellectual disability is inherently connected to his autism. There is no end to his autism and then start to his ID. They are connected.

Anyways. I'm just sick of seeing low support needs autistics claiming that "y'know one day I could be level one and another I'm level three." It just doesn't work that way. Level 3 autistic people don't have days where they could be seen as level one or low support needs. They are visibly disabled and even if you have zero knowledge of autism, you can still tell they are disabled.

I type better than I speak. My friend speaks better than he types. His brother can't do either.

Stop erasing high support needs autistics.

To the high support needs autistics on here (because they do exist on here, they aren't hard to find), please correct anything I've said that is wrong. I am still learning, and want to be a good ally.

I'm not tagging this with nonverbal, or high support needs, because that's their place. I'm not nonverbal, I'm not high support needs. Those aren't my places to post. That is their space.

[ammonite-collective]

Autism terminology

Person with autism vs autistic person

I know that professionals dealing with disabled populations are taught directly to use person first-language regardless of what the person they’re working with prefers. Person first language is the idea of stating that the person with a disability is a PERSON and their disability is secondary.

I have seen a significant portion of the autistic community, including myself, preferring identity first terminology. My reasoning is that my autism cannot be separated from me to be to end up with the same person. My autism is very much a part of me and it shapes my experiences so I would not be who I am now without my autism. That’s not a good or bad thing. It is simply a neutral fact.

Person first language also includes using “person with a disability” as opposed to “disabled person.” The idea seems to be that the disability doesn’t define a person but a lot of the time it does and it’s important to say that. I am also physically disabled and chronically ill and being disabled has impacted my life so immensely. It is a daily occurrence that I go through. In addition, disabled is not a dirty word. It is okay to say that a disabled person is disabled. They aren’t “differently abled.” I don’t have special abilities, I literally just can’t do some things.

Honestly, I think it’s probably the best idea to just ask someone how they prefer to be talked about and the words they use to describe themselves. Some people prefer person first language to describe them and that’s okay too. Please just talk to disabled people instead of just assuming or talking over us.

Nonspeaking/Nonverbal

I unfortunately see a lot of people using “going nonverbal” to describe intense overstimulation that causes a person not to be able to speak for a period of time. Based on interactions with nonverbal people, this trivializes their experiences. Being nonverbal is a permanent of not being able to talk at all or talking very very little. You cannot become nonverbal for an hour. Your experiences matter but you don’t need to take words from people who need them to describe their struggles and experiences. Nonverbal people have different support needs to speaking people. Like they may need/use an AAC device, use sign language. They also have different struggles. People tend to talk over nonverbal people as if they are not sentient human beings. Their communication attempts can be ignored and they often are put through intense and traumatic ABA therapy to force them to speak and act more “normal��� rather than just listening to their other forms of communication.

Alternative terms to use:

• verbal shutdown- inability to speak due to overstimulation

• temporary speech loss episodes- self explanatory

• selective mutism- anxiety disorder where a person cannot speak in specific situations but can speak in others

Is autism a disability?

Short answer, yes.

For most autistic people, it is a disability but for some low support needs people, they don’t consider it to be for themselves. Both views are perfectly fine. However, if you deem it to not be a disability for yourself, please do not determine that for other people. If you were to do that, you’d be wrong. The presence of a disability is generally required in order to receive care that many autistic people require to live their daily life. There are also a significant portion of disabled people in general that cannot access accommodations or support regardless of need. If you do not need support to succeed, you are privileged. You are also not the majority and you need to keep other people with higher support needs in mind when you make blanket statements. Or better yet, don’t make blanket statements at all.

High/Low functioning labels

These are not accurate ways to describe autistic people. The correct terms would be high/low support needs. Functioning labels are harmful to low support needs folks because we are unable to access support we need and they’re harmful to high support needs folks because their thoughts are disregarded with the assumption they don’t have important insights and experiences.

Asperger’s/aspie

I do not support the use of aspie/Aspergers to describe even oneself. The reason being that Hans Asperger was a Nazi. The term was used to determine which autistic people got to live during the Holocaust. Usually, I’m all for people determining which words vibe best with them but this word reeks of supremacy. It’s the same concept as saying you’re “one of the good ones.” I don’t support acting like this in any community. We all have the same disorder and it’s not cool to separate yourself from those you view as lesser, even if that thought is subconscious.

ABA

Applied behavioral analysis therapy is a way that neurotypicals try to force their societal standards onto autistic people, mainly high support needs folks. It is generally regarded to be abusive because their whole philosophy is to “break” a person down and “rebuild” them again in the way the therapist wants them to act. If your thought process surrounding disabled people involves breaking them, you are not safe. Autistic people are whole people and the opinions of allistic (not autistic) people do not matter on that.

Autism Speaks and the puzzle piece/Light it up Blue

A lot of well meaning allistic people donate and support Autism Speaks. I understand the appeal if you are uneducated on the harm they have caused. Their overall goal is to cure autism. A lot of “autism moms” (mothers of autistic children that make their child’s autism their whole personality) say that they hate the autism but love their child. The autism cannot be separated from the autistic person. Autism is a neurotype. It influences the way autistic people interact with and perceive the world around them. An autistic person without their autism would have entirely different experiences and mannerisms. They would be an entirely different person. That’s why autistic activists fight against the search for a cure. My autism does cause immense difficulties in my life but I don’t want to be allistic. I would not be me as an allistic person. If there is a cure, I don’t want it. We should be spending resources helping autistic people in the moment and meeting them where they are instead of trying to change them. Searching for a cure when we are actively in need of support is disrespectful at the very least.

The puzzle piece is incredibly offensive to most autistic people. The whole idea behind it is that autistic people are not whole. That we need our “missing piece” to be whole human beings. That we are somehow lacking. I hope I don’t have to explain why that sucks.

Light it up blue isn’t exactly bad on its own but it comes with the whole of autism speaks. It also symbolizes that autism was a “boy’s disorder” for a very long time.

Awareness and Acceptance

While I believe that autism awareness is important, it can only do so much. Plus, most people already know about autism, and they’re terrified of it. Acceptance is so much more important. You may be aware of autism but unless you accept autistic people with open arms, you are not safe to us. You must accept us as we are and let us breathe in your presence.

Final thoughts and a call in

I am only one autistic person. I do not have all the insight of every autistic person. I tried my best to cover many of the things I believe are important but I definitely couldn’t cover everything. This already took me a week to research and write because I’m disabled and struggle with projects like this. If you have more to share, please reblog with your own experiences and stuff you wish people knew. If I got something wrong, tell me (kindly please). I hope we can work together to make the community and society as a whole safer and more welcoming!

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

Hey, I just wanted to hop in here and thank you for all the advocacy you do. I'm low support needs autistic and I'm planning on going to college to become an slp next year. There’s so much more to so many different communities that you're part of that I never would have heard of or considered without people like you.

I know you probably get a lot of hate for talking about what you do but I've learned so so much!! Both things about the autistic community that I never would have heard from other low support needs folks, and other things that I never would have considered but am so appreciative to be able to going into the career path that I am.

Sorry for the wordy ramble! I just wanted to thank you. I know on the internet it probably feels like either no one cares about, or is actively hateful of what you say. But you DO make a difference and I thank you for everything I've learned so far <3

this make me so happy!!!!!!! we need more better SLPs that listen to population they work with!!!!! wishing bestest of luck for your SLP education career & SLP career!! thank you!!!!!!!!

[thousandyearphantombunker]

"just give them an aac device!"

"just teach them sign language"

"body language and facial expressions alone are good enough for communicating what you need"

Nonononono f*!k off. Stop acting like nonverbal people have easy solutions to their lack of verbality. Not everyone can use an aac device- some people struggle with spelling or can't spell at all, some people have motor skills issues that makes typing a nightmare that takes a long time, some can't articulate themselves without outside help. Learning sign is hard if you again have motor skills issues or struggle to make facial expressions that convey what your feeling (flat affect applies to more than just a person's voice- some people really struggle to make facial expressions and have stilted or strange body language- you people can understand why autistic people get burnt out from masking all day- you know often having to control their body language and make certain facial expressions etc yet you can't understand why nonverbal autistics can't just learn sign- a language very heavy on facial expressions and expressive body language?) also again spelling and motor skill issues are a pain and also a lot of families with deaf or nonverbal children refuse to learn sign for said children and I'm sorry in day to day life I haven't met many people who speak sign- yeah you can move to a community with a lot of deaf or nonverbal people that use sign but that's not always possible and its very limiting. And do I even have to explain the third one- autistic body language is confusing to neurotypicals and I hate the stereotype that its just so blunt and obvious/better than neurotypical communication- maybe that's what its like for you and your 'smart sheldon cooper/Wednesday Addams' style autism but not every autistic person 'says exactly what they mean' often times autistic people struggle with semantics and articulating sentences that make any sense! and all these misunderstandings surrounding stimming are annoying to!- spinning can be a 'happy' stim but it can also mean your overwhelmed or understimulated, a lot of people with autism have voices that lack inflections, mix that in with being unable to use words and no it does not help communicate their needs- f!*k off with acting like its easy not all autistic people who are nonverbal can spell, not all autistic people w are nonverbal have good motor skills and body language alone is never enough to convey a persons needs. Before anyone comes after me yes Sign is body language but its also actual symbols and can convey full thoughts and ideas and sentences and also body language is hard for a lot of autistic people to convey like stated above.

Not every form autistic communication is being 'logical' and unoffended because 'we're just more logical than those superfluous, shallow neurotypicals that let their feelings control them and are never direct about what they want-we value facts and logic unlike those butthurt neurotypicals' and being overly blunt- no a lot of autistic people find that communication is messy and the ways they can communicate are ineffective and your 'logical, facts dont care about your feelings' style of communication isn't as amazing as you think it is. Stop speaking over nonverbal autistics- their is no real perfect solution to them not being able to speak. And I'm gonna say it- while not all nonverbal people are low functioning or high support needs or whatever the new term is-being nonverbal is a massive disadvantage and having your disability be visible like that is scary in many situations and being unable to communicate your needs can make it impossible to meet your needs-

[autisticlee]

I can't relate super well to autistic people who are lower support needs and high masking. the ones i've tried to be friends with get frustrated at me for ~not being able to do things that are easy for them/they were able to do~ knowing these people are autistic and observing them has made me realise I have more support needs than most of the high masking, and i'm in fact bad to nearly incapable of actually masking. this includes masking being able to function if you have responsibilities and managing your get through, no meltdowns, no shutdowns, no loss of ability, but pushing through. they expect me to have the ability and masking levels they do and get too frustrated by me lacking that. there ends up being too much of a communication barrier between us, despite both being autistic. often they communicate with me the way they do allistics because they learned how to mimic allistic communication style and it causes our communication to fall apart because I can't communicate in that manner.

but I also probably wouldn't get along with higher support needs autistic people. I admit I haven't personally tried to become friends with any, because I don't know how to friends, but also haven't met many. but just from random ones i've seen post in tumblr or twitter or from random responses ive gotten, I can't share in all their specific experiences. they make sure I know their experiences are different and harder than mine no matter how much i feel i struggle. and i've accidentally made posts that resulted in at least a few getting upset at me because they feel like i'm not taking their needs/struggles seriously by trying to speak about mine and having some overlap on both the high and low sides. while probably seeming more "low support needs" and less struggling due growing up obsessed with words and grammar and writing. I tried super hard to find ways to communicate better with people since I couldn't speak to them, so I desperately learned how to write as well as I could. it has taken more than half an hour just to write this so far. very tired...

anyway, back on topic, they think I don't need as much support, so I can't speak up about needing support? not sure. even obsession with words doesn't mean saying right words and people understand. people still misunderstand. I try to take their feelings into consideration, but i'm still not sure what they want from me exactly? there's a communication barrier with high support needs just as much as with the lower support needs and allistics.

i'm always told when posting about friendship/people struggles "you just need to find/be friends with other autistic people! you can't expect to get along with allistics!" but these people saying this don't know I am talking about other autistic people. it's mostly people who tell me they're autistic who have misunderstood me and hurt me because they are ones I try to talk to.

anyway the point of this long ramble post where I keep getting off topic is I feel stuck in the middle. like i'm between the low support needs and the high support needs. is medium support needs real? I only see high and low talked about. I can't mask, have meltdowns, sensory processing and executive dysfunction problems so bad I can't do normal daily things correctly like shower and brush teeth and make food, am forced to do things I can't/mess up every time because i'm denied any help and support, so suffer alone, then I burn out in a single day. talking is very difficult, and i'm still punished if I don't do it. can't get jobs. pushed to mask but reminded I can't do it right no matter what and it upsets people...I'm rambling off topic again

I don't see many post (if any? can't remember) talking about "medium" support needs autistics. would I get along with them better? or would our needs and struggles still clash? dont know. but would be cool to relate at least if I saw more posts. writing this was too tiring. not going to proofread. hope makes sense and doesn't upset anyone because words are wrong and explained bad. but too tired to fix sorry. Just needed ramble for myself