Content Note: discussions of abuse, denial of communication, functioning “levels”
Continue reading “The Presumption of Competence”Tag: autism
A Poem for Mel
in memory of Mel Baggs, 1980-2020, autistic self-advocate, teacher, friend, and unapologetic defender of human rights and the undeniable dignity of all people.
Continue reading “A Poem for Mel”A Short Reaction to “Music” and the Reactions to It
Content Notice: discourse around the movie “Music”; ableism and discrimination against semi- and non-speaking autistics.
Continue reading “A Short Reaction to “Music” and the Reactions to It”AAC Phrases For Medical Advocacy
Content Notice: medical, mentions of blood, fasting, surgery
Continue reading “AAC Phrases For Medical Advocacy”How do you symbolize intimacy? For many AAC programs, not particularly well.
Content Note: mentions of sex, genitalia, abuse, assault, violence against disabled people, infantilization of disabled people, removal of autonomy. Also, this post is over 5,000 words long.
Continue reading “How do you symbolize intimacy? For many AAC programs, not particularly well.”Poetry as AAC
Content Note: mentions of misogyny, anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes, ableism, racism
this is a poem about
how i communicate and
how i think and
why that matters Continue reading “Poetry as AAC”
An Essay: “Disability is Natural”
Content notice: (reclaimed and unreclaimed) anti-LGBTQ+ and ableist slurs, mentions of anti-LGBTQ+ and ableist violence, discussions of anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice and ableism.
Dispatches from a Pandemic: On Being Socially Distant Even Before This All
Content Notice: (internalized) ableism and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, suicide/self-harm, cure/shiny Aspie autism politics, drug use, smoking, drinking, COVID-19, sex/relationships, (reclaimed and unreclaimed) slurs.
I wrote a thing. I haven’t written here in almost a year but I needed to write this, right now. There’s a lot of discourse from disabled people who were homebound/socially isolated before COVID-19 stay-at-home orders around abled people complaining about being stuck at home. I have thoughts. I have a lot of thoughts about this. Being at home, with my family, is not good in a lot of ways for me. I’m safe and secure, don’t worry, but I miss a lot of the things I had. But a lot of the things other people had and complain about missing are things I never had.
I hope you like it.
EDIT at 2119 hours on 11 April 2020: About an hour after posting this, I learned that Mel Baggs, whose work I cited in this post, died today. I am heartbroken. Mel was an unyielding, blunt, incredibly advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Hir video In My Language was the first piece of by-and-for autistic people media I ever consumed. I owe so much to Mel’s advocacy. We all do. Rest in power, Mel. We will carry your work forward.
Continue reading “Dispatches from a Pandemic: On Being Socially Distant Even Before This All”
hometown (an indictment of sunnyvale)
content notice: death, murder, filicide, death of disabled people, death of children, gun violence, Fire, suicide, ableism, ABA, murders of George Hodgins, Tracy Latimer, and Daniel Corby.
Language, Language, Language!
Content notice: person-first language, dehumanization, ableism, medical discrimination, academic discrimination
mumblings from an autistic fairy 