Category Archives: Acceptance

Let’s Talk About: Not A Compliment

First of all, I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything in the last year-plus. See Update & Devastating Last 6 Weeks on my Other Blog for some of the details.

Onto the topic of conversation: why “I would never have known you were autistic if you hadn’t told me” is most emphatically not a compliment.

So, some of you (any who have read the aforementioned post, definitely) will know that I broke my ankle in April. Yesterday was my last appointment at the Orthopedic Clinic (it’s well-healed). I was talking to doctor there and happened to mention that I was autistic, and the above paragraph mentions what she told me in response.

This is definitely not a compliment. This is, in fact, a summary of just how badly our culture/society regards autism/treats autistics.

Continue on….

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

#ASNL: #AskAboutAutism 2: Everybody Grows Up

First of all, I apologize to Tess and Will – I meant to get this up Tuesday, but didn’t manage to.

So, Monday evening, the ASNL (in the person of Tess Hemeon) organized the second Ask About Autism Livestream evening. (The first was last year – see my post ASNL: Ask About Autism #1.) This time, rather than some professionals and an autistic, there were two of us, both autistics – Will and myself. The theme this year that the ASNL has been concentrating on for Canadian Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month is “Everybody Grows Up”, and that was what the first part of the livestream was about. The second part looks at sensory issues, stims, and executive function, on a very basic level (we did this in half an hour, so it had to be basic 😉 ).

(We’re hoping to do this more frequently, and Tess and I were even discussing the possibility of short daytime livestream discussions as everyone was closing up.)

To see the video, read on! 🙂

ASNL: Ask About Autism #1

This October, the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador is celebrating Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month with the theme of “Ask About Autism”. The (genius) brainchild of the Advocacy and Communications Manager, Tess Hemeon, Ask About Autism involves activities all month long encouraging people to ask questions to professionals and autistics about autism. Something I can thoroughly get behind, because how can we teach people what they want to know if they don’t ask? (Yes, we can tell people things; but those may not be the things they feel they need to know.)

Click to read the plans and watch a video!

#AutismAcceptance Day

April 2nd. WAAD. Officially World Autism Awareness Day, though I can’t think of an autistic I know who doesn’t feel it should be World Autism Acceptance Day.

This was going to be a very short post, because today I did most of my “getting my point across” on Twitter. But then I decided to look at this a different way – what have I done over the past year to contribute to Autism Acceptance?

Because for once, I can answer that I’ve done more than maintain my blog.

Last year, I wrote a letter to the ASNL about Light It Up Blue (which the ASNL continued this year, unfortunately) – it’s also been passed out to Autism Canada’s leadership.

Since then, I have also joined both Autism Canada’s ASD Advisory Board, and the Canadian Autism Partnership Project ASD Advisory Board. I have been part of discussions about creating conferences specifically for autistics in Canada, and about building a Canadian Autism Partnership. I’ve made friends with more autistics throughout Canada by this – really good friends at that. And those have helped me gain the confidence both in myself and my views of being autistic to speak out even more.

I have also started work on the project that my Social Club group is calling Spectrum Storybooks. It’s going to be a long-term project, but will be so useful. Something like that is needed, and we’re going to help fulfill that need.

So I don’t know about the world as a whole – there’s still a lot of things wrong with the public view of autism – but I’ve done things this past year that I can be proud of. And that? That’s something worth celebrating.

Link

My dad follows the BBC for the quality of their reporting, and sometimes finds interesting tidbits on there. This was one of them. Very positive message here. You go, Iris and Thula!

How a cat enabled an autistic six-year-old to communicate

Turns out there’s also an article on CNN about Iris and Thula, which goes into greater detail about Iris’s accomplishments as an artist.

Portrait of a 6-year-old artist with autism and her therapy cat

Thanks to Autism Canada for that link!

🙂 tagÂûght

Recommendation: Hamilton FeminAuts’ Resources

So, I’ve been poking around the Autism Canada forums, and one of the members there has a link to a group called Hamilton feminauts. To quote from the About Us portion of their website:

FeminAuts was founded as a safe, inclusive, and accessible meeting space for women and female identified individuals on the Autism spectrum to meet likeminded individuals and learn valuable skills such as self esteem building, sensory self regulation, and adaptive and social skills.

http://hamiltonfeminauts.weebly.com/about-us.html

I went there to poke around as well, and I would say that their resource page definitely warrants a recommendation! So: Resources – Hamilton feminauts. They’ve got a bunch of useful free phone apps, for both executive dysfunction and communication; links to various resource sites (including the ASAN welcome packet and the Geneva Centre); online diagnostics and test resources; inventories and social stories (including ones related to sexuality); and usual open source therapies and courses links.

Yep, high on the recommended resources list!

Note that I’ve also included a link in my links page.

🙂 tagÂûght

Autism Canada

So, the website for Autism Canada has just gone live: autismcanada.org. I’ve been poking around, and so far it looks fairly good. I have, however, felt the need to send them a copy of my letter about Light It Up Blue, since that’s one of the National Awareness campaigns they have listed. I have also joined their forum under the username tagÂûght (just waiting for official approval), so anyone else who wants to join is welcome to discuss this blog with me. 🙂

Still poking around, but note that they do have the DSM-5 criteria listed, including the severity criteria (3 levels – I’d say I’m either level 1 or 2 in communication, and level 1 in “restricted” interests, although my sensory issues might push me up to level 2 in that as well).

They also have a directory, called Autism Junction, at autismjunction.ca, which has a wide variety of service providers for autistics, both child and adult. It’s not complete, but is still under construction; there’s a form to fill out for any service providers who aren’t listed already. (I’ve sent an email to two that I know of, advising them of this.)

Going to be seeing if there’s any way that I can include blogs in the list of resources, and let them know about my blog. 🙂

[Edit] Under “About Autism”, they have a good listing of co-morbid diagnoses, and what may indicate one (I’m going to check out the PDF they include for further details). However, the “Evolution of Autism” page is not about how autism can evolve throughout a person’s life, it’s about the recognition of autism since Leo Kanner first identified it. Honestly? I think details about how it can change throughout a person’s life would be more useful. [/end edit]

‘Later, all!

🙂 tagÂûght

Autism, Depression, and the Difference

I was just (less than an hour ago, as I write this) reading the most recent post Unstrange Mind put up on her blog, entitled I have a depressing, socially-isolating disease. In it she explains about how celiac and Non-24 (see her post for details) affect her in ways that are depressing, socially isolating, and very much not good for her overall health; in contrast to autism, which is not something isolated from her “self” and has a number of things about it which make her happy.

That post got me thinking, and it reminded me of a question that I think I remember my father asking me at one point, about the effects of autism vs. the effects of depression, and why I considered them to be different (the context being about how “curing” autism would make me a completely different person). I think I now have an answer.

To read my thoughts, go on.

[tagÂûght] Acceptance, Love, and Self-care: #AutismPositivity2015

It’s early morning April 30th as I’m starting to write this post, which is highly ironic, as I should be sleeping right now. Unfortunately, houses in St. John’s don’t seem to have soundproofing, and the housemate whose bedroom is next to mine is talking on the phone.

But aside from that, this topic is more than just a positive one, it’s a pertinent one for me this year. (And likely to be a long post, with many examples.)

Read on for the actual positivity!