#neurodivergent visibility

[systemserendipity]

[zebulontheplanet]

Just a reminder that people who still live with their parents as adults deserve respect and for you to stop being ableist. There are multiple reasons someone could still live with their parents! From invisible to visible disabilities, finance issues, and more!

Stop using the “well they’re gonna turn into a creep living in their parents basement” punchline! It’s disgusting. STOP. BEING. ABLEIST. STOP. FORGETTING. THE. POOR.

[theamphibianmen]

"low support needs disabled people are often not believed to have a disability at all and therefore struggle to get accommodations."

"high support needs disabled people's accommodations are often seen as 'too much' and therefore are not met."

"neurodivergent people's needs are often dismissed because nothing is physically wrong with them."

"physically disabled people people often cannot physically access buildings and people refuse to do anything about it."

"invisibly disabled people are seen as lazy by society."

"visibly disabled people are ostracized from society."

IT'S ALMOST LIKE THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE DISABILITY

[i-may-be-an-emu]

Shout out to people who can not tell the time

Shout out to people who need a little longer to figure out the time

Shout out to people who can't do "quick" maths in their head

Shout out to people who need to use a calculator for even "simple" maths

Shout out to people who need others to read number a for them

Shout out to people who cry over maths and numbers

Shout out to people who say the wrong numbers when reading or talking about prices and the time of day

Shout out to people who can't read charts and graphs

Shout out to people who get confused with mathematical concepts

Shout out to people who can't read music because it seems mathematical to them

Shout out to people who's maths struggles limit them

Shout out to people with dyscalculia or math struggles, basically. I am with you. I am here for you. I see you. It sucks, and most of the world doesn't even know about dyscalculia. But it'll be ok. It won't go away but people will help you, you can adapt. I love you. Screw math ❤

[anomalousmancunt]

this disability pride month i'd like to remind y'all that "visibly disabled" does not imply "mobility aid user" (nor anything else other than "people can see there is something about you that doesn't fit abled hegemony")

OP is autistic and talking about its experiences being autistic (AND multiply disabled). don't fucking touch if you have no solidarity towards autistic people.

[willtheweirdrat]

Being visibly autistic is so wild cause you'll either get treated like a lost toddler or like you're high and have 27898 contagious diseases

[angelboybreakdowns]

ppl will say “i hate being seen with you in public because you stand funny and wear your headphones all the time and talk too loud” and then get all defensive when you say thats ableist

[flowercrowncrip]

Growing up I was always expected to be the good disabled person and say things like “I wouldn’t wish my disability on my worst enemy”

Now I’m a grown up cripple there’s a long list of people I’d give a taste of my life to, including:

Bad carers

Asshole doctors and nurses

Benefits assessors

Policy makers who influence disability benefits

People who think accessibility isn’t worth it

People who think reasonable adjustments are “cheating”

Anyone involved in cutting funding for health and social care

People who think we should be grateful for crumbs

People who think visibly disabled people have it easier

People who stigmatise medications and/or mobility aids

Everyone who’s made fun of my movement, speech or other aspects of my disability

But also I’d like to gift the fullness of my life to:

People who think disabled people can’t experience joy

People who think disabled people are “a drain on society”

Every single person who’s told me I’m better off dead/ they’d kill themselves if they were me

[xt0t4llys4n300x]

my family started complaining about today being trans visibility day, because today is easter and supposed to be to "worship the Lord not celebrate the sinners"

My grandma turned to me and said "I hope your happy" in a really ominous voice and then started fake crying while eating her eggs

[fastbrain]

Me? ADHD? Nah, that's the misbehaving hyperactive sporty kid thing. I prefer staying at home and researching the history of calendars. Did you know that the ancient Egyptian calendar year started when Sirius rose at dawn? It signified the start of the flood season. Speaking of stars, I think Venus is visible in the early evening right now. Hang on, I have an app for this. I think it's in the folder called "lunch time".

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

on one hand i know why like in online autistic space, people are really against assuming support needs online. because sure what put online is only a fraction of experience. some only want post positive things. and other people mask difficulties so appear better off than actually are, etc. know all that!

but issue comes when… there is consistent pattern of a specific type of lower support needs (LSN) autistic generalizing their LSN experience, pathologize every little experience as autism, spread misinfo, use aspie supremacist rhetoric,

erase higher support needs (HrSN) autistic experience, speaking over us, perpetuate extremely harmful ableism against us, do not reflect own privilege, pose self as most oppressed,

and misusing support needs label

and it’s important to note that it’s mostly being done by (a specific group of) lower support needs autistic. because they have more communication abilities, more self advocacy abilities or more able to learn self advocate, more independence, more closer to the mythical “neurotypicality” ideal, more able to mask, etc etc… loudest, most majority, most listened to.

“how dare you assume my support needs when you don’t know me” has been conveniently used as a shield to free them of responsibility. “if conveniently don’t mention that have lower support needs, or have level 1 autism, then they can’t criticize me of perpetuating aspie supremacy can��t criticize me of not reflecting on my LSN advantage, and i can become the victim and escape accountability.”

and. another layer of issue is. some of them genuinely think they high support needs or have substantial support needs because they need support and don’t have needs met. when they’re… not.

i have been putting off addressing this topic because i don’t want a slippery slope to fake claiming, or give off “i know you more than you” because i don’t.

but. i know the autism spectrum more than them. i know the support needs spectrum and autism levels more than you. and maybe even most important, i know what i don’t know about these topics more than you.

yes, HrSN autistics can achieve great things, as much or maybe even more than LSN and nonautistic nondisabled people.

yes, some HrSN autistics can speak relatively fluidly. some HrSN autistics may be able to mask. some HrSN autistic may be not as visible HrSN/autistic every single second of day—less likely, but who am i to generalize?

BUT. and i have addressed this over and over and over again in my posts. being HrSN is not just about needing help with “eating” (and by eating they mean cooking and not actually feeding), reminder to shower, budgeting, getting groceries, some of the time. being level 2/3 is not just about other people think you “weird” sometimes, or meltdown once in a while (like weeks apart).

overwhelmingly more HrSN autistics struggle with masking or unable to mask at all, with most or all communication, living independently is often not even an option to consider for us, can’t hold job (mayybe unless very specific employment support), visibly autistic, visibly disabled.—as in, you can tell. strangers can tell.

for many of us, there is no reasonable deniability, there’s no benefit of the doubt, there’s no hiding.

for many of us, we are concerned and focusing on basic living skills.

and i’m trying to be generous here. i’m trying to give these people & behavior i’m critiquing the benefit of the doubt. there are harsher things i want to say that im holding off right now.

not saying there’s nothing wrong with assuming support needs. not saying we should all start random assign internet people support needs labels.

but there is nuance. some people don’t like that nuance tho because it not in their favor and they can’t play victim anymore

[vexedsystem]

Help Needed!

We're an autistic transmasc system and are really short on money again, and won't be receiving any more funds until May.

Right now we only have $4.96 left after paying for April's rent, and our phone bill of $58.75 unpaid.

On top of that we're just about out of cat food, groceries, etc.

If anyone can spare anything or reblog to signal boost, we'd be really grateful!

ko-fi @ vexedspecter

[ahxiang]

with the focus on the revolving door again in ep 16, i just want to say a little smth abt the door as an autistic person myself.

i know some ppl are frustrated with wyw's difficulty in using the door, saying it infantilizes her and that "she's a 27 year old lawyer, she's seen a revolving door before, she knows how they work." but the thing is, it's not abt her being familiar with revolving doors at all. at least not in the way you think. it's not "oh look at this lady, she doesn't understand this door bc she's autistic." it's a sensory issue.

autism affects our senses and the way we process them. what many allistics don’t understand about autism is that we’re not just overly sensitive to sounds and bright lights. we can be underly (is that a word??) sensitive to stimulus as well and have a hard time controlling our senses. this includes all seven senses. that right, seven. there’s the five you know, but also two you probably don’t: the vestibular sense and proprioception. these two have to do with body awareness, balance, and spatial orientation. that’s why many of us walk “weirdly” (if i ever catch you saying someone walks weirdly i am coming into your house and punching you in the face) or are clumsy. we have issues with our bodies in relation to the world around us and often have a hard time balancing. i walk into walls all the time and miscalculate and walk into doorways instead of through them. 

so it’s not that wyw doesn’t understand the social concept of a revolving door, but that they’re difficult to navigate through due to her vestibular and proprioceptive sensory issues. i myself have a hard time with revolving doors! so pls no more “this makes her look dumb” or “this is so unrealistic”. if wyw is bad representation and is stupid for having problems with a revolving door, then i’m an unrealistically stupid autistic that walks into walls.

[locketdream]

let's not forget:

autistic children become autistic adults.

disbaled children become disbaled adults. - shane

[normal-with-adhd-is-a-joke]

If you have trouble reading text on computers, I highly recommend Pixie

Pixie is an add-on for Firefox. It has a variety of features that disabled people might find useful like:

The ability to change all text on a page to a dyslexia-friendly font.

The ability to make all text on a page bigger.

The ability to change the color of all text on a page.

The ability to change the spacing or alignment of all text on a page, including customization for spacing between letters, words, and lines.

A "mask" feature that highlights the current text you're reading, or greys out the rest of text, to keep you focused on a sentence and prevent line skipping.

A variety of contrast options.

An (experimental) text-to-speech feature that can read a page for you and will highlight the text as it reads so you can follow along.

And more!

I struggle with chronic fatigue, ADHD, and chronic tension headaches and I've found Pixie to be a great tool. I recommend setting aside a half hour or so to mess around with the features and optimize, that way you don't get distracted trying to optimize while you work. Enjoy!

[cy-cyborg]

Looking back, people were so weird about my non-physical disabilities.

Oh no, we can't tell the obviously queer kid with no legs that they're also autistic with an intellectual disability due to a brain injury, then they might know they're different!