I'm introducing two Autistic people to you today. They get psudonyms. I'll call them Rose and Hillary.
Hillary is currently living with her parents. She is sometimes able to speak and sometimes unable to speak, and even when she can speak, typing is often easier. She often carries a blanket with satin binding with which to stim. While she is usually able to look at people, she does not make eye contact. She is completely unable to keep her space organized, so someone else has to keep her organized. She will refuse to eat certain foods, such as prepared eggs and anything which contains mint, and can not be convinced to eat a typical breakfast. She is hypersensitive to many kinds of sound, and does not tolerate flashing lights. When upset or overloaded, she has been known to chew on her hands. In the classroom, she has consistently fidgeted, with varying educator reactions. Several have tried and failed to stop this self-stimulating behavior.
Rose is preparing for a year abroad in China, where she will be taking advanced Chinese language courses along with one or two direct enrollment courses conducted in Chinese. Graph theory is almost certain, and she is attempting to find an appropriate engineering course. She generally does well in school, balancing school life with activist life. She has presented at Debilitating Queerness and the Society for Disability Studies, and her work has been featured in a book. She also has an accepted article in an upcoming book, and is working on a single-author work of her own related to neurodiversity in the works of a specific author. While keeping organized is a challenge, she has learned to get things done anyways, and she has accommodations in place for herself that allow her to accomplish most of what she wants to do. (She's not convinced that neurotypicality would let her get the rest done, either.)
Now. What do you think of Hillary and Rose?
I'll wait. I'd actually really love it if you wrote down what you think of each of them from this, see what kinds of assumptions you made, maybe commented with them.
No, really. I'll wait. You're not finding out the point of this today. :p
Once I reveal the point, this sentence will be a link to the post where I do so.
Well, it's already a link. Because I already wrote it. But it won't go anywhere.
Hillary is currently living with her parents. She is sometimes able to speak and sometimes unable to speak, and even when she can speak, typing is often easier. She often carries a blanket with satin binding with which to stim. While she is usually able to look at people, she does not make eye contact. She is completely unable to keep her space organized, so someone else has to keep her organized. She will refuse to eat certain foods, such as prepared eggs and anything which contains mint, and can not be convinced to eat a typical breakfast. She is hypersensitive to many kinds of sound, and does not tolerate flashing lights. When upset or overloaded, she has been known to chew on her hands. In the classroom, she has consistently fidgeted, with varying educator reactions. Several have tried and failed to stop this self-stimulating behavior.
Rose is preparing for a year abroad in China, where she will be taking advanced Chinese language courses along with one or two direct enrollment courses conducted in Chinese. Graph theory is almost certain, and she is attempting to find an appropriate engineering course. She generally does well in school, balancing school life with activist life. She has presented at Debilitating Queerness and the Society for Disability Studies, and her work has been featured in a book. She also has an accepted article in an upcoming book, and is working on a single-author work of her own related to neurodiversity in the works of a specific author. While keeping organized is a challenge, she has learned to get things done anyways, and she has accommodations in place for herself that allow her to accomplish most of what she wants to do. (She's not convinced that neurotypicality would let her get the rest done, either.)
Now. What do you think of Hillary and Rose?
I'll wait. I'd actually really love it if you wrote down what you think of each of them from this, see what kinds of assumptions you made, maybe commented with them.
No, really. I'll wait. You're not finding out the point of this today. :p
Once I reveal the point, this sentence will be a link to the post where I do so.
Well, it's already a link. Because I already wrote it. But it won't go anywhere.
I've already figured out the point, so it becomes really hard to read the individual pieces and gauge a separate response to each. It's an interesting question though. Maybe with fewer identifying points?
ReplyDeleteHaving read someone else's description of two different people, I also have what I think is a pretty good a guess. I may even feel inspired to write my own list of qualities of two people, just to see what people I know think of them. I don't know that I'll post online, though, because I think it's been done very well already. Or do you think that would make for a good campaign? I mean, getting lots of us to do it, to make the point... The descriptions might reveal a lot, given their variations and similarities with regard to other people's lists.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I could always be wrong about what you intended to do here, so I'd better check back when the "reveal" is done.
I think it could be a *very* good campaign. But who will run it?
Delete... wait. I'm the one with the twitter handle @flashblogautist, aren't I.
People assume that autism is a strict progression of low to high... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly.... timey-wimey.... stuff.
Deleteare they two different people? or the same person?
DeleteWe all have strengths and challenges. Hillary is a Rose and wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI think they both blog under the name Yes, That Too, and I'm going to go see whether I'm correct.
ReplyDeleteTechnically that's a blog title, not the name a blogger claims to have... :p
Delete