3 Quick Steps for Identifying Autism Hate Groups and/or Materials :
Dear friends who are not a part of the disability and autistic justice communities, Autism $peaks is a hate group, please do not send me links or related materials you might find 'interesting' about autism. I understand your intention is to connect with my lived experience, AND hatred works in ways that may seem harmless to mainstream ways of life. Thank you!
Because I realize there are other seemingly harmless sources you may feel interested in, here are some clues to look for in identifying hate groups and/or materials :
1. Autistics, in general, do not want to be 'cured' from autism (there are no cures for autism, because autism is not a disease) - we are actually pretty proud of who we are and of the ways in which our brains work. As do many other disabled people, we also experience internalized ableism - a learned form of thinking of ourselves as 'less than' neurotypical people. There is a good chance that, with the help of the austitic acceptance movement, many of us are now in the process of unlearning imposed beliefs that have caused enormous pain and trauma. Receiving messages from friends wanting to 'cure' us only serve to reinforce dominant beliefs and assumptions about the so-called 'tragedy' of being autistic.
2. Autistics who have access to their own self-direction and self-determination processes and/ or those who are not being legally forced to comply with either parents, guardians, and medical professionals, reject ABA 'therapy' - ABA is a form of torture and its goals are to 'turn' autistics into 'normal' people. First, standards of 'normalcy' are a construct (built on white supremacist, heteropatriarchal, able-bodied assumptions). And second, there is no assimilation possible that comes without its good dose of trauma and suffering.
3. Autism is not a disorder - we do not make people suffer with our disorderly 'behaviors' - autistic people have been given little to no room to be ourselves, with integrity and dignity, in this world. In like manner, the concept of 'order' is quite skewed - since it actually rests entirely on the fiction of linearity and progress - à la West