A truly excellent piece from Michelle Sutton…
Category: Autism
Autism Related Finds
Three autism related links including one featuring a seriously good infographic and one in which I get an honourable mention, and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
I was planning to do a major sharing post today, but other factors have intervened, so I am just going to share three autism related pieces.
AUTISTIC ADULTS WANTED
FOR ART PROJECT
This was posted on messymiscreation and is exactly what you might expect a piece titled “Autistic Adults, I’m seeking your input on an art project” to be. I hope it gets plenty fo responses.
AN INFORGAPHIC ON DIVERSITY
This is an example of why Erin Human is a firm favourite of mine. This post has wonderful title: “Diversity is Beautiful“. Below is a screenshot of the feature infographic. I urge all of you to visit the original and read the accompanying text.
NAS WEST NORFOLK OFFICIAL POST ABOUT THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY
Our vice-chair Rachel Meerwald with some input from the rest of the committee created a post for our website about this event, which you can see here. Below is a screenshot of the end of the piece (my reasons for choosing this section will be instantly apparent!).
A FEW FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
A Couple of Announcements
An announcement, a warning and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
I am planning a major blog post for tomorrow morning, but there are a couple of things I wish to share now.
HERITAGE OPEN DAY
Heritage Open Day 2017 is on Sunday September 10, and as usual many King’s Lynn buildings will be opening their doors for the occasion. This year I will be among the volunteers. I will be stewarding at 11-13 King Street between 12 and 2PM. Here are a few pictures of the place taken today:
A WARNING FROM AMERICA
There is an online magazine called Autism Parenting Magazine. Amy Sequenzia, a very well known autistic person and autism advocate has had a very bad experience with them recently, as has one of her friends. I found out about this from americanbadassactivists, who put up a post linking to Amy’s original, which appears on the Autism Women’s Network. As someone who is both autistic and heavily involved witha charity that helps autistic people I am shocked by the attitudes and behaviour of the people who run this online magazine. Below, in screenshot form, is some of the detail from Amy’s piece:
A POSITIVE ENDING AND PHOTOGRAPHS
I always like to end my posts with pictures, but before I do here is a link to something much more positive than the last piece I linked to. This piece, from Science Whys is titled “We Are Family” and it ends with a wonderful quote from Maya Angelou: “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
Now for those photographs:
NAS West Norfolk 10th Anniversary Celebrations
A personal account of NAS West Norfolk’s 10th anniversary celebration garden party.
INTRODUCTION
Yesterday saw the celebration of NAS West Norfolk’s tenth anniversary. We had a garden party in a quite magnificent garden in Castle Acre which we had been very generously allowed to use for the occasion. Here as a reminder is the poster we used to advertise the event:
MY ROLE IN THE CELEBRATIONS
As branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk I was involved in running the event – I helped to set things up at the start and with the clear up at the end. As an autistic person I was also delighted to take part in the event in between times.
THE GARDENS
These gardens are truly amazing – this is where the original fortified village that adjoins the castle was located, and at one point there is a steeply sloped bank that leads down to a section of the old town moat. There are some amazing plants and grasses in these gardens, some excellent garden sculptures, a pond with ducks of various breeds and dragonflies around it, many fowl which run free and a swimming pool the excellence of which I can personally vouch for having spent an hour there. Near the pond is a summerhouse which was our designated Quiet Area (an absolute necessity at events for autistic people, or if you want autistic people being comfortable attending your event). There was also a house that was open to the public in which cakes (some baked by our wonderful hosts and some by members of our group), raffle prizes and such were set up.
The hosts had provided a few games for us, and one of our members brought along a swingball set as well.
THE DAY
Once the set up had been accomplished there was plenty of time to enjoy the day, and it went excellently. For me the magnificent setting was one half of a superb equation, the other being autistic people enjoying themselves without worrying what anyone else was thinking because everyone present had some sort of connection to autism, and therefore some degree of understanding. Everyone present was at least at the ‘Understanding’ stage of the Awareness-Understanding-Acceptance-Appreciation line. I was regularly taking photographs except for the hour I spent in the swimming pool and we had a photographer from Your Local Paper present as well. The raffle prizes were presented by the Mayor of King’s Lynn.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are my photographs from the day…
Note of Warning to Autistics (via Nico Ian Nicholson)| Problematic Authors Seeking Interviews on Intersection of Queer/Trans and Autistic Identities
A warning about two people not to be co-operated with (nb I have a long record of assisting with autism related research, and as some of you will recall recently spoke to my local radio station – I am not remotely disinclined to co-operate with those who deserve it)…
ATTENTION AUTISTIC/ND FOLK! Read this carefully. This is important.
Eva Mendes, MA, LMHC and Meredith Maroney, MS are contacting Autistic people, particularly LGBTQ+ and racialized Autistics, and asking them to participate in interviews for an upcoming book project to be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
The email will state that the book is about the intersection of queer/trans and autistic identities, and any accounts included will be anonymous.
Mendes is particularly problematic because of her book, “Marriage and Lasting Relationships with Asperger’s Syndrome.” It contains a great deal of pathology-based language, including “theory of mind” and “emotional intelligence” nonsense that suggests that Autistic people in relationships must be the ones to change.
RECOMMENDATION: Refuse to participate. And PLEASE SHARE WIDELY, especially with LGBTQ+, POC, and racialized Autistic people. — Nico Ian Nicholson
Note of Warning To Autistic Community (via Nick Walker) | Anti-Autistic, Anti-Neurodiversity Documentary Alert
A warning about an upcoming documentary – please visit original post, read in full, comment an d share…
Dear Autistic Community & Allies: John Donvan & Caren Zucker, authors of the book “In a Different Key” – a book that promotes anti-autistic bigotry and abuse of autistic children, and deliberately smears and misrepresents the neurodiversity movement – are making a documentary film which they claim is “about the neurodiversity movement.”
Obviously, this is going to be another anti-autistic, anti-neurodiversity hit piece. If you’re pro-neurodiversity and you allow them to interview you for this film, you can bet the footage will be edited and presented in a way that misrepresents you and makes you look bad, just like they did to Ari Ne’emanand others in their book.
Best thing would probably be if all of us just completely refused to talk to them or be filmed by them.
Please share this information freely in the community – there are plenty of people in the neurodiversity movement with…
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EXCLUSIVE #Disability Discrimination means Son is removed from Home?
This is a story that needs to be read and shared…
The following true tale is the introduction into what will be a series of posts regarding a seeming miscarriage of justice and potential disability discrimination; names have been changed to protect the identities of these involved. The purpose of this post is to help the family concerned achieve real justice; please share as widely as possible.
Alison is a single parent of14 year old Adam, both live with various diagnosed and pending diagnosis health disorders including Fibromyalgia and Elhers Danos; Alison is also Autistic and symptoms suggest Adam is as well.
Due to Adams health, he found it difficult to cope with school from the beginning and despite special educational needs intervention, including one to one lessons he struggled experiencing bullying which resulted in him developing depression. These experiences became worse during Adams transition from junior to senior school, so much so that in 2015, Alison began to home educate…
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Monday Madness 3: Mainly Autism
Some autism related links, and some photos from Musical Keys.
INTRODUCTION
As NAS West Norfolk branch secretary and an #actuallyautistic person I always like to share good stuff about autism. I am including within this a piece that is not directly about autism but relates to many of the issues that autistic people highlight.
AN ERIN HUMAN INFOGRAPHIC
This piece from erinhuman.com titled “Disability 101: Medical Model vs Social Model” features a really excellent infographic, reproduced below:
AN OLD FAVOURITE AND A NEW FIND
Laina over at thesilentwaveblog has, as she so often does, hit the nail smack on the head with a piece titled “Depathologizing Asperger’s / autism ~ The strength vs ‘lacking’ edition” The feature graphic is below:
Laina is the old favourite of the title of this section, while the new find, brought to my attention by Eve Hinson of americanbadassadvocates, is Michelle Sutton of michellesuttonwrites whose recent piece titled “THE LANGUAGE OF IDENTITY, OR “I AM NOT AN AUTISM PARENT”” I heartily recommend.
PHOTOGRAPHS
These photographs were taken at Muscial Keys on Saturday, which I am involved in due to my association with NAS West Norfolk.
A Variety Post
A mixed bag of a post, featuring local politics, libraries, autism, science, nature and photography.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this post in three parts. I am going to start by mentioning a local election that took place in my area today and in which I voted, then I will be mentioning an event that will be taking place at Gaywood Library (one of four such establishments in Norfolk that I visit at least semi-regularly) and I will finish up with some links to do with nature which will lead naturally to some of my photographs.
A FORCED BY-ELECTION
The election in which I voted today happened due to the laziness and arrogance of the incumbent councillor, who in spite of living just across the road from the Town Hall never attended meetings.
Four candidates were in the contest, in alphabetical order:
Rob Archer of the Green Party
Francis Bone of the Labour Party
Helen Russell-Johnson of the Liberal Democrats
Mike Taylor of the Conservative Party
In the ordinary course of events my inclination, especially given that the displaced councillor had been from the Labour Party would have been to vote for Mr Archer. However, the Liberal Democrat candidate happens to be my aunt. Therefore I voted for her.
I have started this post by covering this election for two reasons:
- I want to make it clear to the Liberal Democrats that I voted for my aunt IN SPITE of the fact that she was representing them not because of it.
- Also, just in case Mr Archer happens to be reading this, I hope he will take it as both explanation and apology for not having voted for him on this occasion.
I conclude this section of the post with a picture of my Political Compass certificate (it is free and does not very long to answer the questions which are used to assign your score):
THE GAYWOOD LIBRARY EVENT
The event at Gaywood Library is a Business Evening at which I hope it will be possible to raise the subject of the Autism Hour, one of the National Autistic Society’s recent initiatives. I have already confirmed that I will be in attendance. Here are a couple of pictures to end this section:
SOME NATURE PIECES
My nature links naturally divide into three segments, with a few photographs of my own forming a fourth. We will start with…
A NEW DINOSAUR FIND
This story courtesy of scienmag.com is about a dinosaur that has been named Albertavenator Curriei (“Currie’s Alberta Hunter”, named in honour of Canadian paleontologist Dr Philip J Currie). Below is a representation of this creature by Oliver Demuth:
- Credit: Illustrated by Oliver Demuth. © Oliver Demuth
OPPOSITION TO TROPHY HUNTING
Stan Kroenke, current owner of Arsenal Football Club, has just launched a new TV channel devoted to blood sports. I have two links to share, and some words for Arsenal fans at the end:
- A Guardian piece titled “Trophy hunting is vile. Stan Kroenke’s TV channel must be banned” which gives full detail on this.
- A change.org petition aimed at the sponsors of Arsenal Football Club asking them to withdraw support and so help force Kroenke out, screenshot below:
For ordinary Arsenal fans my suggestions are simple – boycott all home matches until Kroenke goes, and if you are a season ticket holder return your ticket and demand a full refund, making it clear that you will return if and only if Kroenke is no longer involved with the club.
MORE ON THE FIGHT TO PROTECT TROSA NATURE
This morning I reblogged Part 4 of Anna’s series of “Paradise on Earth” posts highlighting the wildlife that can be seen around Trosa and the Tureholm Peninsula. Since then she has added yet another post to that series, and I include links below:
- Part 4, concentrating on birds including the Osprey shown below.
- Part 5, also dedicated to birds. I have chosen as my sample image a Linnet.
Finally, to end this section, and the post as a whole we have some of…
SOME OF MY LOCAL NATURE THEMED PICTURES
Autism Infographics and Some Photographs
A couple of classic autism infographics I spotted in the last 24 hours and some photographs of my own.
INTRODUCTION
The photographs which will be appearing in two tranches at the end of this post are mine, all taken yesterday. The two autism related infographics are shared from elsewhere (credit given at appropriate points). I saw the first of these yesterday evening and the second this morning.
AUTISM INFOGRAPHICS
First, courtesy of Patricia, who tweets as @pgzwicker, comes this gem:
The second was originally posted on Our Autism Blog this morning, and I link to that post so that you can comment on it there should you wish:
PHOTOGRAPHS
The first of the two sets of my photographs that I am putting up here were taken while out walking yesterday morning:
The last few pictures for today were taken yesterday afternoon while sitting outside my parents house in East Rudham. These are probably the last shots I will have from there as my parents are moving to Plymouth.
aspiblog 