How is the rich inner world of autistic people a gift to the world?

The Rich Inner World of Autism, Its Gift to the World

I don’t know if it is just plain too hot and dry here in Phnom Penh this month — April is the last month before the monsoon rains come, so it is generally the hottest — or whether it has been organizing Autism Awareness Day activities for our school or whether it has been anticipating Autism Appreciation Month for the past year or what it is, but I am READY to post weekly or even more frequently about autism. So buckle up, we’re going on an autistic ride.

Appreciating Neurodiversity in Challenging Times

We live in trying times when close mindedness, bigotry, and xenophobia are seemingly everywhere. As neurodivergent person who has never fit in anywhere with anyone, I’m ready to push back in the only way I know how: sending blog posts into the ether.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about the message I want to send out into the great Internet and beyond. Ma Belle Femme sent me this video just today, quite providentially and it was perfect! We need diversity over heterogeneity and conformity in these troubled times.

Damn the buffering and watch it, dammit! It is good for your soul:

A Paradigm Shift about Neurodiversity is Needed.

Are schools and PDA a good fit?

Autism AWARENESS Month: Easing the Guilty-Conscious of Schools, Administrators, and Teachers

The idea that neurodiversity is a part of biodiversity, and biodiversity is part of the resilience of the world in the face of change, is a profound paradigm shift. It takes us from diagnosing, treating, and curing to adapting, adopting, and affirming is one that will benefit us all as the climate crisis deepens.

One of the statistics about autism that still bowls me over is that 50 – 75% of people with autism are either unemployed or unemployed and 88% report maintaining employment difficult. Cast against that backdrop, the notion that neurodiversity is a net positive not only for humankind seems impossible.

The prevalent deep culture in the major or dominate societies of our modern world is that people who are different are burdens at best and need to be fixed or helped to fit in better. The level of change that is needed before we can see all human beings as valuable contributors to our communities is immense.

I don’t know what the solution is. I do know, though, that we are better together. Like John Stewart Mill said — probably, it was Harriet Taylor Mill, his wife — we waste half of humanity by denying women equal rights with men. Given the difficulties we face in overcoming climate change and maintaining our democracies, we’ll need the contributions of everyone. We don’t have the talent or abilities to waste.

If you want to support people with autism during Autism Acceptance Month, you can do one or more of the following:

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Image Attribution

This image was generated using Poe’s StableDiffusionXL bot using the prompt, An image for appreciating neurodiversity around the world –no neurons