Category Archives: Neurodiversity

April Publicity: Newspaper Article & AutismBC Interview

It’s April again, which tends to be a difficult month for most autistics. Not sure if it’s worse or better this year, with the world working on staying under cover due to COVID-19. But so far, it’s actually been a fairly good month for me, in terms of advocacy. (And Twitter giving the neurodiverse ribbon to the #AutismAcceptance hashtag!)

So far, I’ve had two pieces of excellent publicity this month. The first was part of a series of articles about autistics in the Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador) by freelance journalist Colin Hodd, which was published on April 2nd (World Autism Day). Here’s the link from the local newpaper (The Telegram) to the article focusing on me: ‘It’s just the way my brain works’: Adult autism spectrum diagnosis offers insight, relief to Newfoundland woman. (It’s a full page spread in the paper version!)

The article was restricted to 1,000 words, which isn’t very much… but Colin managed to really get across what I was hoping he would. Thanks again, Colin!

Of the other two articles, I’m familiar with Hugh and Ally Garber, who appear in the article about autistic children (though I haven’t yet met Hugh): ‘Autism makes me good’: Looking at autism through the eyes of a child in Atlantic Canada. I don’t know anyone in the teen/young adult article, but that’s also quite a good one: Autism through the eyes of East Coast teens and young adults.

The second one just aired last night at 19:30 Pacific Time; I had an interview with Corey Walker of AutismBC (whom I’ve worked with before on the CAPP) about being autistic and what my advocacy journey has been like. It’s up on AutismBC’s Facebook at: Trudy Goold Interview with AutismBC. AutismBC has devoted this month to amplifying autistic voices, for which we thank them a lot. 🙂 I had an excellent time chatting with the people involved (Julia Boyle, the CEO; Selina Lim, the social media guru; Brock Sheppard, the tech guy and program director; and of course Corey).

I had a great time chatting throughout the interview, and even got a link from Brock while Corey was busy with something: a website that’s working to compile and promote sensory friendly locations and programs – Sensory Friendly Solutions. It’s run by someone in New Brunswick who has sensory issues herself. Pop by and check it out, and provide feedback!

So, that’s been my month so far. What about yours?

🙂 tagÂûght

Link

So. Here is the preliminary video of the autistic advocates’ panel at the CASDA 2018 Summit. This is not the official video, which CASDA is working on getting professionally edited; this is basically the raw footage with a few edits (title and removing the final remarks of the day) by me. Once the official video goes up, I will remove mine and put a link on this post to the new one.

CONTENT WARNING: The video is just over an hour long, and as I state up front, there are some very difficult and painful things to hear (including mentions of suicide and filicide).

Comments are welcome.

😐 tagÂûght

Let’s Talk About: #Neurodivergent ≠ Saint

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Bit of a rant here, just warning you….

Disclaimer

Additional Disclaimer: I am not naming names; this may have been prompted by one incident, but I have no desire to start a flame war.

So, a friend recently sent me a link to a post by someone else that was written in response to a comment they’d left on a previous post. A calm, rational comment, that did disagree with some (though definitely not all) of the author’s viewpoint, but explained why they disagreed. The subsequent post (the one I was directed to) did a not-very-good job of “paraphrasing” certain elements of the comment (i.e. they were not direct quotes, they were the author putting their own spin on what was said), and seemed to feel that my friend was NT because they disagreed with the author.

Continue for more details and my reactions.

Let’s Talk About: Emotions – #Grief

#BoycottToSiri: Here’s Why #ActuallyAutistic Reviews

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Disclaimer

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve got some links for you of excellent reviews by other autistic adults (pretty sure all of the ones I’ve got are by autistics, but there might be a couple of allistic responses in there as well) about the reasons why we need to boycott “To Siri With Love” by Judith Newman.

But first, I want to express just how disappointed I am – and why – at Ms. Newman’s recent claim that To Siri was not meant for an autistic audience. I know I mentioned this yesterday in my list of grievances about it, but I want to reiterate today as a separate thing.

Any books about autism, no matter who they are written by, have an effect on autistics – in a lot of cases, because they affect the way autistics are treated by the readers of the book and, in a number of cases, by society at large. We may not be the ones targetted as readers, but because of the effect those books have, our opinions, needs, and desires about them need to be taken into account.

No author of a book about autism – or anyone else discussing that book – has the right to say that it has nothing to do with autistics. No one. By definition, a book about autism involves us.

You want to read a book written by an allistic parent about their autistic child? May I recommend Iris Grace by Arabella Carter-Johnson? (Also see my post BBC Video Article: Cat Helps 6 Year Old Autistic.) The author doesn’t try to hide the challenges that can come from raising an autistic child, but neither does she shy away from the joys that can come from the same. And she is respectful of both her daughter and the autistic community, which is always good to see in a book about autism.

Now, on to the links. (Please note that they’re not in any particular order, save how they’re saved in my Evernote.)

To the links and my descriptions….

Recommendation: Unstrange Mind – Neurodiversity: Creativity and Innovation Thrive When We Welcome Diverse Minds

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I haven’t been reading many other blogs for the last little while, due to various reasons including my concentration on CAPP issues, overall fatigue (ended up with low iron anemia again this past April, and that’s taking a while to clear up), and trying to focus a bit more on my writing (which has mainly meant doing a lot more reading of fic).

However, I recently (like Thursday) noticed a tweet referring to an interesting-sounding post by Unstrange Mind, and thought that I might as well check it out. So I followed the link I had on this site, and discovered that he now has his own site (rather than one hosted by wordpress.com). So I’ve been reading his posts on that blog, in chronological order (which included updating the links to the DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Criteria Analysis), and in the midst of doing that, found the title post.

Neurodiversity: Creativity and Innovation Thrive When We Welcome Diverse Minds is the text of a talk Unstrange Mind gave at University of North Carolina’s Fourth Annual Disability is Diversity Week celebration, on Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 in Asheville, North Carolina. (CONTENT WARNING: Post contains mention of suicide and attempted suicide.)

Despite the aforementioned content warning, this is a hopeful post. Unstrange Mind explains the basics of neurodiversity – including the biological factual basis – and how that can apply to support creativity and innovation. He looks at the advantages that supporting and encouraging a neurodiverse environment can provide, and names examples. he also points out that accomodations… don’t really cost all that much.

So. Highly recommended post. And at least a few more to follow.

‘Later, all!

🙂 tagÂûght