peeingturtles

[peeingturtles]

autism awareness & autism acceptance not either or. not mutually exclusive. can coexist. need coexist.

“there enough awareness for autism already 🙄 we need acceptance”

ok. you aware of high support needs autism? aware what that even means? not “need reminder take meds need remind take shower” “high” support needs autism, but “need full physical help do bADLs lack danger awareness may accidentally hurt self or even kill self without support” high support needs autism? not just higher support needs people who can be independently online do advocacy, but those who need help from others even be online, or those who cannot be online at. all.?

aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people? not just nonverbal nonspeaking people who can write grammatically correct cannot tell apart base on writing. not just nonverbal nonspeaking people who can be online who can advocate online.

aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people who cannot communicate in way that easily understood, either for now, or ever? aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people without functional communication, aware of how without functional communication, how that drastically limit communication, even though behaviors are valid communication? aware of nonverbal nonspeaking people who may never use AAC fluently even with best support?

aware of technically verbal but very limited verbal autistics who may only able say wants & needs but not other things and certainly not online advocacy, “despite being verbal”?

aware of just how much our life depends on caregiver/carer/PCA/etc? aware how vulnerable that make us? aware of abuse from caregivers? aware of caregiver burnout from lack of support for caregivers, & how that impact our care we receive? have you even heard of term respite care? aware of those of us who cannot separate ourselves from caregiver? aware of those of us who cannot participate in autism community without caregiver?

aware of visibly autistic people? aware how we not automatically believed? aware how we often bear blunt of violence because we most easily identified target because we visible? aware visible =/= get support, aware that many those diagnosed severe who now adult so no longer qualify for services under 21 year old, languish in hospitals because nowhere to go? aware how long life saving necessary waitlists are? aware that even to this day parents have to fight school fight day service fight government fight insurance for them give their nonverbal nonspeaking child AAC & be properly taught how use it? actually, are you aware of how properly teach AAC to nonverbal nonspeaking, developmentally delayed child who may or may not have intellectual disability?

actually, aware of autistics with (correctly diagnosed) intellectual disability & how they make up big amount of autistic? aware of institutional systemic & legal impact of mental [r word] right & the human rights abuse justified using r word right? wait, you aware that r word come from old term for intellectual disability, that, actually, still in many laws because no one bothered updating, right? aware of what severe profound ID look like? and aware they real and they still human deserve education deserve life deserve care, yes?

aware of early diagnosis 20 30 or even 10 years ago, not same as now, even less resources & knowledge about autism now? aware that while gender race class 1000% impacted diagnoses, a lot of early diagnosed people early diagnosed because… they die without support unlocked by diagnosis, right? but also, aware that in old times, early diagnosis often did mean doom, not because autism bad or anything, but because severe lack of support & diagnosis can literally bar you from so many things including basic education?

aware that for many people in special education, which impact specific group of autistic people, they not get degree when graduate high school, they just get certificate, which limit their educational & employment opportunities & others?

aware of life saving importance and necessity of masking for autistic of color especially Black autistic people, despite stress inducing traumatic? aware that live in broken system be victim of hate crime & police brutality just as traumatic often even more traumatic than masking? aware that many Black & other parents of color forced to teach their child masking because of this?

are you aware of most marginalized autistic people? aware of leadership of most impacted?

aware you can and need to care about autistic experiences & form of autism you not experience? aware that you can and need to do that without try twist your experience into our experience into our words our community?

aware that advocacy goes beyond about you?

aware that you can’t speak for all autistic? aware that you shouldn’t speak for all autistic?

are you aware of when you need to stop talking & listen & amplify others? aware of when and how to decenter self?

aware that even this long post, barely scratch surface? still so much to say?

[better worded version of original post]

[peeingturtles]

Felt this post needed to be memorialized in cross stitch on my wall for *those* days

[peeingturtles]

We’re babysitting a caique (alongside their cockatiel) at the moment for our friends.. boy oh boy oh boy is he a menace!!

I was not at all prepared for the level of work he requires 😂😂 and I’ve previously lived with a red tailed black cockatoo who thought he was a human, multiple galahs with a vengeance for feet and a corella who is intent on destroying every window frame in the house..

This guy is by far the most high maintenance (but not the noisiest)

As I said to the other half yesterday, never again will I underappreciate how well behaved and quiet our green cheeks are.. because their level of cheek and chaos is nothing 😂😂

NO WORMK

ONLY BIRB >:(

[peeingturtles]

My sons old paed literally said to us “if he was a girl we would give him a diagnosis, but boys present very very typically and he does not meet the diagnostic criteria” WHAT THE FUCK DUDE YOU LITERALLY JUST SAID HE WOULD MEET THE DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA IF HE WERE AFAB!!

Maybe consider that he has 2 mums, and gender norms are very much not present in our lives. Also that his bio mum and maternal grandfather are both diagnosed.. ARGHHHH

“AFAB autism this..” “AFAB autism that..”

Please STOP. I literally want to BITE you.

AFAB autism isn’t a thing. You’re either high masking or you’re not. You’re either autistic or you’re not. There’s no AFAB and AMAB autism. Stop it. You sound dumb.

I get it, AFAB people are DRASTICALLY underdiagnosed due to the social standards that they are held up to so they mask more. Not to mention that the majority of autism research is done on white boys.

However, that doesn’t give you the excuse to use AFAB autism. IT. ISNT. A. THING.

Instead, use terms such as “autism in AFAB” “how autism affects AFAB” “AFAB and their experiences with autism” etc etc. not “AFAB autism” isn’t a thing. Never will be.

[peeingturtles]

Good as our intentions might be, few of us feel inclined to take initiative in a crisis while other capable do-gooders are nearby. A survey conducted by researchers from York University and University of Toronto in Canada suggests individuals with autism may not be quite as susceptible to this hesitance. Researchers have known about the bystander effect since the late 1960s, when the American social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané found male undergraduate students were less likely to report smoke when in groups compared to when they were alone. [...] Now we can include the neurological wiring of those in the crowd, with self-reported evidence suggesting people with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD) might be less easily influenced by the social norms that would keep others from stepping up. "Our study shows that to the extent that they would act if they saw something wrong, employees with autism were much more likely to intervene, regardless of the number of people present," says lead author Lorne Hartman, a behavioral scientist from York University. "And in situations where they would not intervene, they were more likely to identify the influence of others as the reason, whereas neurotypical employees were more reluctant to acknowledge this."

Continue Reading.

[peeingturtles]

therapy isn't enough I need to fistfight a medical practitioner

[peeingturtles]

Pickle would also like to share that as of last week, he is also a member of the proper wingalings club having grown his first blue flappyflap feathers.

Everybody’s full of wingalings today

[peeingturtles]

Quick shoutout to everyone whose disability directly conflicts with their passion.

People who love light and color and photography but have extremely sensitive eyes. People who love food but have digestive disorders and intolerances. People who would play every instrument they could get their hands on but lack dexterity and muscle strength to play. People who can’t make themselves focus long enough to study the field they want to be in. People who want to paint and draw and sculpt but can’t coordinate their hands well enough, or cramp up every time they hold a brush/pencil/tool. People across all passions who face a massive barrier to learning because following a set of instructions is difficult when they don’t feel specific enough.

There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing you’d be good at something and that it’s not your fault you can’t prove it. Especially in a world that seems to only recognize top level picture perfect talent at all times. Your passion isn’t negated by not being able to follow it, and neither is your potential. You’re not lazy. Do what you can and fuck ‘em if they think it’s not good enough.

[peeingturtles]

Please don’t feel guilty for using your spoons on something you love. On something that is deemed “not productive”.

Doing the things we love is crucial to our mental health and I think that’s pretty damn productive.

[peeingturtles]

the problem with autism is sometimes you want to do something (brave) but you need someone to gently walk you through each step so you know what will happen. and people don’t like doing that

[peeingturtles]

Can I stake a claim? I need pretty much the whole goddamn thing though 😭😭

does anyone wanna trade spines? id prefer one that wasn’t fucking bent in multiple places! :-]

[peeingturtles]

having one of those executive function days where everything is too many steps

[peeingturtles]

Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.

[peeingturtles]

One common experience of disability all across the board - relating to everything from learning/intellectual disability to neurodiversity to physical impairment to chronic illness - is the way that “one little thing” can make everything - work performance, school performance, ability to communicate etc - go right off the rails and collapse.

This is an issue I frequently see abled doctors, therapists, psychologists, teachers, social workers etc speaking about in terms of “poor flexibility”, “need to teach resilience” etc etc, focusing on this as an issue *with the disabled person.*

And that illustrates absolutely *perfectly* why a) disabled people are the experts in disability, not abled “specialists”, and b) why the social model of disability *needs* to be taught and centred.

The issue in such circumstances is not some sort of “innate preference for rigidity” (you may laugh, but that’s a phrase I sadly *still* see used about autistic folks far too often) or even “innate widespread lack of capacity” in the disabled person. It is a symptom of a system - in this case, a disabled person’s *life* - that is under immense strain and operating without spare capacity available to be used to respond to unforeseen circumstances.

Disabled people are, almost universally, *master* adapters. Incredibly adept at adaptive thought; incredibly resilient and incredibly dogged. We are that way because we *need to be* to survive in a world that is incredibly ill-adapted for our needs. The reason we are *perceived* as “inflexible”, “rigid”, “fragile”, “incapable” etc etc is because we are, very very frequently, *already* operating at the limits of our capacity just to survive in a world that is incredibly hostile to our needs and to our existence.

The medical model of disability judges all people to exist in the same world under the same circumstances, and thus judges the disabled person to be “lacking” when we struggle. Thus the onus is put on *us* to “correct” this “lack”. “You need to build resilience”.

It is the exact same mindset that blames people living in poverty for their lack of available resources, and suggests “budgeting classes” or “stopping spending money on avocado toast and Netflix” instead of recognising the need to raise wages to liveable levels in low-paid work and provide genuinely affordable housing. Focusing on, and *blaming*, the individual rather than recognising the systemic injustice and the desperate need for systemic change.

“Resilience” as long-term quality more or less means “having the resources to put into dealing with unexpected difficulty while still maintaining other functions.” Whether those resources are time, energy, money, family or community support - if a person does not have access to enough of them, the system - in this case, their life - *will* become overstretched, and they *will* fail on one, or, very often, on multiple points.

That does not represent a personal or moral failure. It represents having access to insufficient resources to meet needs. It is genuinely that simple. And that is what needs to be addressed for disabled people to live and thrive.

[peeingturtles]

This was useful too; I'm just happy we're going to have a BOOK, a real COOKBOOK for chronically ill and disabled people TOO.

[peeingturtles]

https://australian.museum/blog/at-the-museum/progress-shark/

Here’s the story fyi.

“Progress Shark” outside the Australian Museum, ahead of Sydney Mardi Gras/World Pride Festival 2023.

[peeingturtles]

Even better! The shark is a permanent statue! It got a Lycra jacket made for pride. I can confirm this is real!

“Progress Shark” outside the Australian Museum, ahead of Sydney Mardi Gras/World Pride Festival 2023.