Left handed scissors, diversity and hope

Hello everyone.

I may have said it about 37 times already, but I work in a primary school and the other day I was going around the classroom handing out these kind of scissors from a drawer full of them and it got me thinking.

Later I looked up history of left handed people. 

About 500 years ago, they were thought to be in league with the devil.  During the witch trials, being left handed was considered evidence enough to be convicted and executed as a witch.

Less than 100 years ago, left handed children had their hands tied behind their backs and were physically punished and forced to use their right so that they would fit in.  The world was all designed for right handed people and the variants just had to learn to conform.

But now I have a drawer full of left and right handed scissors and nobody thinks twice about how inclusive that is or how long it took to get there.  It's just what we do to make sure that everyone has something that works for them.

It gives me hope that one day society might reach the same point for autistic people.  That schools will make suitable provision as a matter of course.  That we won't need a diagnosis to prove it because everyone will understand what being autistic can look like and allow them to communicate and work in their own way.

I know it's probably still going to be a long time before we get there, but we are beginning to crack the egg open.  I just did some training for work which had about 70 people from schools in the area attending, and it was all about autism in terms of identity and neurodiversity, and it included several voices from young, autistic people and other autistic people had been included in the research.  It was progress, and it's happening.  

Now every time I see a pair of scissors, I think about how much attitudes can change, and I have hope.