Trigger warning: Erasure/objectification, passing reference to murder of disabled people, suicide
Is it really that hard to say "Autistic people did A Thing," or even "Autistic advocates did A Thing"? Is it really that hard to write Autistic people doing things, Autistic people as the protagonists instead of the quiet objects to be acted on?
Those were rhetorical questions, by the way. The answer is no, in case you were curious. If you think the answer is yes, or if your writing suggests that the answer is yes, that means that you are part of the problem, in case you were wondering. You probably weren't, though. You need to hear it even if you weren't wondering.
If you don't know how to write as as active agents in our own lives, you should step aside. Let us tell our own stories ourselves- we will tell ourselves as people who do things. We will say what it is we want to say, using oral speech, using AAC, using other means, however we have to. We will tell you.
We will do. We are doing. We are active in our own stories.
Autism Speaks disagrees. Disability Scoop disagrees. Autism Speaks writes the Google event as a thing that just happened. Disability Scoop says it was autism advocates, apparently unwilling to say that Autistic people did a thing. But we did.
Both have histories of this.
Disability Scoop reprinted an article where a support line was made because they didn't want what "happened to Elizabeth Hodgins" to happen to another mother. Passive and active, subject and object. Elizabeth was not the object in her choice to murder and then to kill herself. When we do things, it is written as things happening to us. When things actually are happening to us, they are apparently written as happening to the people who did it to us.
Autism Speaks made a video about AAC called "I Want To Say" but never let anyone use their AAC on film to say it.
The old "I Am Autism" video, the old "Autism Every Day" video. Both of these have the autistic person as objects, in their way. Objects that autism acts on, then objects that their families act on in an attempt to take them back.
Passive objects.
In their rhetoric, we must always be passive objects.
And when we aren't?
They change the story so that we seem to be.
Is it really that hard to say Autistic people did something? New Jersey News doesn't think so- even when it was more about Google and the organizations, it was still clear that Autistic People Did A Thing. Their first article, the best coverage I have seen yet in a "news" source, was the story of us doing a thing, and by the way, Google listened! It was, in fact, the story of Autistic people doing a thing so well that we made Google do a thing.
Is it really that hard to say Autistic people did a thing? Autism Speaks and Disability Scoop seem to think so. So we should make it even harder to shut us up than it is to say we did a thing. We did just get Google to do what we wanted, after all.
Is it really that hard to say "Autistic people did A Thing," or even "Autistic advocates did A Thing"? Is it really that hard to write Autistic people doing things, Autistic people as the protagonists instead of the quiet objects to be acted on?
Those were rhetorical questions, by the way. The answer is no, in case you were curious. If you think the answer is yes, or if your writing suggests that the answer is yes, that means that you are part of the problem, in case you were wondering. You probably weren't, though. You need to hear it even if you weren't wondering.
If you don't know how to write as as active agents in our own lives, you should step aside. Let us tell our own stories ourselves- we will tell ourselves as people who do things. We will say what it is we want to say, using oral speech, using AAC, using other means, however we have to. We will tell you.
We will do. We are doing. We are active in our own stories.
Autism Speaks disagrees. Disability Scoop disagrees. Autism Speaks writes the Google event as a thing that just happened. Disability Scoop says it was autism advocates, apparently unwilling to say that Autistic people did a thing. But we did.
Both have histories of this.
Disability Scoop reprinted an article where a support line was made because they didn't want what "happened to Elizabeth Hodgins" to happen to another mother. Passive and active, subject and object. Elizabeth was not the object in her choice to murder and then to kill herself. When we do things, it is written as things happening to us. When things actually are happening to us, they are apparently written as happening to the people who did it to us.
Autism Speaks made a video about AAC called "I Want To Say" but never let anyone use their AAC on film to say it.
The old "I Am Autism" video, the old "Autism Every Day" video. Both of these have the autistic person as objects, in their way. Objects that autism acts on, then objects that their families act on in an attempt to take them back.
Passive objects.
In their rhetoric, we must always be passive objects.
And when we aren't?
They change the story so that we seem to be.
Is it really that hard to say Autistic people did something? New Jersey News doesn't think so- even when it was more about Google and the organizations, it was still clear that Autistic People Did A Thing. Their first article, the best coverage I have seen yet in a "news" source, was the story of us doing a thing, and by the way, Google listened! It was, in fact, the story of Autistic people doing a thing so well that we made Google do a thing.
Is it really that hard to say Autistic people did a thing? Autism Speaks and Disability Scoop seem to think so. So we should make it even harder to shut us up than it is to say we did a thing. We did just get Google to do what we wanted, after all.
Yes, you Did A Thing so well that Google listened. I am impressed by how well you Did A Thing. Go you!
ReplyDeleteYay, for us doing a thing!
ReplyDeleteThe best part of Doing A Thing is that it leads to Doing More Things. Like This Thing. Tweeted!
ReplyDelete