The Occupation of Autism by the Autistic

I became an autism advocate because of one simple principle. That people who have autism deserve equality and respect. It’s a message so simple it tends to allude the experts. That any individual, regardless of limitations in cognitive skills, verbal skills, or motor skills, deserve the same opportunities and treatment as any other individual.

This principle isn’t a perspective, and it shouldn’t be intended to make anyone feel better about themselves or their autistic child. It’s a basis to demand the same level of accommodation that others are provided. Be it legislative or otherwise, the need for autism diversity isn’t about identity but inequity. People with autism are at a disadvantage and that needs to be fixed.

In the last few months there has been a growing movement compromised of mostly white, 20-30somethings recently diagnosed (in many cases self-diagnosed) with some form of Autism who have turned what was once a community of advocacy into a bastardized knockoff movement that has cobbled together various bits of social justice from other groups and reduced them to a concentrate that focuses strictly on the most superficial and self-serving of characteristics. It has no specific demand but to be continually branded as autistic and subsequently given attention.

The tenets, which they propagate continually, are simple:

1. One must be autistic to speak credibly about anything regarding autism
2. There is no such thing as high or low functioning autism
3. All forms of therapy are bad, and pointless, as autism is simply a difference in perspective not a disability requiring any particular accommodation
4. Parents, though they spend the vast majority of their days caring for, attending to, or otherwise immersed in the world of autism (and are often on the spectrum themselves) can’t be trusted as reliable advocates for autistic causes, and should not be trusted because they only desire to silence autistic voices
5. One does not require a diagnosis to be autistic

It’s an “All Lives Matter” kind of thought puzzle that ensures that this very small subset of the autistic community can occupy its voice without any dissent. And it also removes any challenge to its authority, allowing a number of self-appointed prophets to stand on soap boxes propagating mindless rhetoric that not only disparages the notion of a “low functioning” community, but erases it by pretending it doesn’t exist.

And while none would outright denounce those who have disabilities, they’ll proclaim that autistic individuals will eventually “grow out of” any limitation as though it were a phase and the ones who don’t are a small percentage, a hyperbolic myth or stereotype meant to disparage their community. The rest of the inconvenient facts — that autistic individuals are more likely to die from wandering, have seizures, be shot by police, be killed by loved ones, be sexually assaulted, be bullied, or commit acts of self-harm just never seem to make their way into the zeitgeist. (Odd a social justice movement wouldn’t be laser-focused on police violence or sexual assault, right?)

It’s beautiful in its simplicity — those on the autism spectrum who would have the most difficult time communicating and are least likely to be on social media, the ones whose existence has cultivated the very stigmas this group has co-opted, can’t reject it because their most likely avenues of advocacy, parents or caregivers, are disqualified as representative voices because caregivers are frauds and parents are meanie-heads. But were an individual who is non-verbal, incapable of communication, and confined to a wheelchair able to voice their dissent or demand a higher degree of urgency, they wouldn’t get it because low and high functioning somehow don’t exist.

This kind of dynamic, in which a group of individuals whose condition has not prevented them from being successful, independent, or happy can claim to be the rightful heirs to an identity through self-diagnosis while trouncing those whose condition prevents them from having all those things which they have, would be rejected by any other disparaged group as being disconnected voices of privilege who don’t really represent the whole. It impedes the community’s ability to acquire needed resources and accommodations by presenting a dangerously false perspective of what life is like for many on the autistic spectrum.

That a diagnosis, which one typically obtains after seeking help for some quality of life issue, isn’t required to join the club is not only absurd, it’s an insult to those who have lobbied to ensure that those who actually are diagnosed have access to a wealth of life-assisting resources. At worst it’s a brazen disrespect for a community who was diagnosed because of the challenges facing their quality of life, at best it’s like pea-cocking one’s privilege while treating the whole matter like a shiny new toy. Call me crazy, but if you’re going to co-opt the struggle of a group of people who have faced literal genocide you should at least shell out a copay.

Regardless of what magic one possesses by simply being some kind of autistic it does not give them the clairvoyance to speak to the statistically real challenges that face this community. Children with autism continue to wander. Adults with autism continue to have difficulties finding work. Individuals on the spectrum will suffer a higher likelihood of being sexually or physically assaulted. Those on the spectrum, particularly those of color, face a greater likelihood of being killed by police. Access to education, social safety nets, and life-assisting devices are a day-to-day necessity for the autism community.

That those things exist doesn’t mean that autism is bad, that autistic individuals lead horrible lives, or that autism makes one unequal. It simply reiterates the need to continue pursuing meaningful changes in public policy. That is not going to happen when the community is being misrepresented with falsehoods of autism as being something one can simply “realize” they are, grow out of, or find a way through without accommodation. Some can, and that should be celebrated. But until we have true equality that should not be mistaken for the norm. Autistic individuals have needs which have festered for long enough. Anyone presenting a message to the general public that everything is hunky dory in autismland please step aside, I could list the #actuallyautistic friends I have who are fighting daily for accommodation on fingers and toes.

Author’s Note: If you’re thinking to yourself that this isn’t you, then I am likely not talking about you personally. You know your struggle, high functioning, low functioning or otherwise. However, if you’re the type of person who has tweeted @ me that “I’ve never experienced the downside of being autistic” then yes, I am speaking directly to you.