Victoria Duncan

This is what the "decolonize research" advocates are trying to say!

I didn't read the interview because that much rage is bad for my health but from what I gather this is about trying to push autistic people back in the bogeyman box because we were more profitable when people were scared of us

"There is no scientific evidence autistic children benefit from ear defenders" is technically true if you don't count the child asking for the ear defenders as evidence

I needed to be reminded this is a thing social media can do 💜

We gotta help them out 😭

Reader: They seem to think I'm pretty good at it.

Every so often I have a little cackle about being an autistic consultant who works in communications and change management 👀

It's always "have you considered medicating your ADHD" and never "thank you for the mentally-stimulating sentence structure"

This one is too real. My parents are highly anxious, fully masking undiagnosed NDs and being around them sets my self-work back a decade 😭

Just so people on bluesky are aware…I was very early bluesky and I very much actively followed every dog account I could find that signed up and now when I open bluesky I basically am given pure dog content straight to the brain stream every time. I am proposing everyone else do this. The end.

I know, milk isn't actually health food, but looking back it was still nice to have it marketed to us so earnestly. Can't imagine what they'd do now.

"Everyone thinks they're autistic now" is just code for "I might accidentally treat an autistic person like a full fledged human, unacceptable", I will die on this hill

I mean sure but I have Legalese Autism and would happily watch the video as is 😭 a good tip in general though!

It costs zero dollars to put entertaining gifs in your messages to your ADHD coworkers so they have a fighting chance of remembering what you asked them to do. Follow me for more tips on herding the cats that are your ND coworkers 💜

I agree it has to be an age appropriate discussion, but I'm still not sure if parents should shy away from using the actual terms.

Just because I didn't understand small talk didn't mean I didn't know I was different. Tell your autistic kids what their deal is or they'll have no choice but to believe the schoolyard bullies

They also used to tell us to drink milk!

They made educational tv shows and commercials!

Remember when governments used to like people and want to help them??

It's terrible how healthy self esteem and a willingness to set boundaries disrupts an autistic person's life 😭 or rather everyone else's, apparently 😭😭

"I don't want to have to explain to my kids what gay people are" is ridiculous. You have to explain everything to them! They've never seen anything before! What else are you doing this about? You don't like broccoli so you just refuse to ever let your child know about what broccoli is? Okay man

I think I know what you mean. There are some things it never occurred to me to sacrifice, and I knew others who did or had to.

People who work with animals know this. People who work with children know this. I don't know why we have this mental block when it comes to understanding what autistic people need.

Maybe the whole "just push through" "you'll get used to it" thing works for other people. I think autistic people can get used to things, but it can take far longer than anyone expects, and the clock doesn't start until we're allowed to choose if/how we engage.

If I can't say no, the experience isn't safe, and I won't learn or gain anything while I'm in it.

I sit on the sidelines until my nervous system calms down and my mind gets curious. Then I look for a way to do just a little bit of the thing. Not a whole party, just a quiet coffee with one person.

There are a lot of things that I avoided as soon as I was able; a lot of socializing events, a lot of sensory things, anything I found overwhelming. Later on in life, I got many of those things back, once I learned my own ways of engaging.

When people see autistic people avoiding things we find uncomfortable, they sometimes think we just need to be pushed. But sometimes, I'm not avoiding an experience - I'm making sure I'm allowed to say no.

*me sitting stubbornly in front of the screener refusing to continue* look if I can't say "library" I'm not playing

Libraries FTW! I like the ones on university campuses best. And this is the even more stereotypically autistic answer but I'm not mad about it

Non autistic people: "You don't speak for all autistic people" "My autistic nephew isn't like that" "Autism doesn't define you"

Also non autistic people: All autistic people prefer museums to theatres 🧐

The museum question is such crap because I see what they are getting at, but theatre performances are more structured than museum exhibits, and theatre productions make just as good a special interest as history.

We studied history thinking it would stay history 😭