To start with:
- M. Kelter on self-diagnosis and the myth of “official”
- Jess Wilson on the idea of “age-appropriate” interests
- Rover.com on autism service dogs
- Barry M. Prizant on enhancing abilities rather than “fixing” behaviour
Dating and sex:
- An academic paper by Alyssa Hillary about the erasure of queer autistic people
- Rachel Sanoff on a new sex ed curriculum for special education students in Michigan [TW discussion of sexual abuse]
- Dani Alexis Ryskamp and Emma from Lemon Peel continue their amusing series of rants about dating guides for autistic people and general sexism.
- If you need a palate cleanser after all of that, here is autistic dating advice from Real Social Skills.
Pan-disability posts:
- Emily Morson has the simplest explanation of the social model of disability that I’ve seen yet
- Taylor Lewis on how ableism is as structural as other axes of oppression
- crippledscholar on how celebrations of new accessible technology can be problematic
- David M. Perry on ableism, transhumanism, and the future of assistive technology [TW eliminationist statements from interviewees]
- Robyn Powell on disability and parental custody rights
Misc:
- In the US, people are talking about the Transition to Independence Act, which would be a pilot project for closing sheltered workshops and other segregated settings and moving to integrated employment of disabled people.
Here is an ASAN Fact Sheet on the Transition to Independence Act - A research study on making the dentist more pleasant to autistic kids
Sad Things:
- Kerima Cevik on how we respond inappropriately to hate crimes against autistic people [TW, um, descriptions of hate crimes?]
- Sharisa Kochmeister, an autism activist and non-speaking person, was recently put into a nursing home against her will and denied access to the devices that allow her to communicate. Here is a petition to free her
- Jim Jacobson on his inner autistic child [TW for… I actually don’t know? like I don’t know how to tell if this is literally about Dissociative Identity Disorder or if it is a metaphor? But either way, it’s difficult and important?]
- Also an important response to the article by Dani and Emma again [TW psychological abuse]