I thought it might be helpful to put together a list of things that are red flags when looking for autism-related resources. This is mostly for my mom, so she knows how to tell when something isn’t going to be helpful, but I thought it was probably a good idea in general.
If you have any suggestions for things to add, let me know and I’ll add them here.
Red flags (in no particular order):
- “Autism parent”, “Autism mom”, etc
- Puzzle pieces
- Everything is in primary colours and looks like it was made for children
- Everything is talking about young (white, cis, male) children
- “People with Autism” (instead of “Autistics” or “Autistic people”)
- “High functioning” and “Low functioning” (or anything implying that some people are ‘really autistic’ and should be pitied/ignored, and others are ‘barely autistic’ and therefore respectable/really people)
- Autism Speaks
- “People with autism are so inspiring!”, “Autistic children are gifts/treasures/etc”
- Nothing written/said/contributed by actual autistic people; no connection with/input from the autistic community itself
I’m really interested how some of these could be red flags. Things such as puzzle pieces and primary colors? Could someone explain- I’d just like to know some more information 🙂 if anyone could answer that’d be swell.
Basically, blue is for Autism Speaks – you know where most of the profits for that “advocacy group go”? Fancy dinners for the board of directors and there are no actual Autistics on the board.
Plus they were sympathetic to anti-vax nonsense for a long time so….yeah.
The primary colors/childish graphic design can signal that they view ALL autistic people as children regardless of age, and the puzzle piece symbolizes that they see us as people needing to be fixed or with missing pieces.
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