New BBC Series, Inside Our Autistic Minds.

I thought I would recreate discussion on this programme as it has been replayed tonight (and also aired yesterday).

The individual films of each autistic participant are great however there are few issues with the programme in general and Chris Packham:

1. Firstly, Chris Packham is not immersed in our autistic community enough in order to reliably represent us.
2. Secondly, Chris describes the majority of our nonspeaking members of our community as having a learning disability which is false- many of our nonspeaker members are apraxic (brain/body disconnect).
3. Our dedicated interests are described as obsessive- this is unnecessarily pathologising instead our interests are passionate and specialised.
4. Masking is portrayed very simply and inaccurately. In my opinion, autistic advocates such as Kieran Rose describe masking brilliantly.

I thought I would recreate discussion on this programme as it has been replayed tonight (and also aired yesterday).

The individual films of each autistic participant are great however there are few issues with the programme in general and Chris Packham:

1. Firstly, Chris Packham is not immersed in our autistic community enough in order to reliably represent us.
2. Secondly, Chris describes the majority of our nonspeaking members of our community as having a learning disability which is false- many of our nonspeaker members are apraxic (brain/body disconnect).
3. Our dedicated interests are described as obsessive- this is unnecessarily pathologising instead our interests are passionate and specialised.
4. Masking is portrayed very simply and inaccurately. In my opinion, autistic advocates such as Kieran Rose describe masking brilliantly.

I found the programmes interesting, insightful and well put together.
The one problem that I had with them is that all 4 participants were of the younger generation - late teen / 20's.
It would have been nice to also feature a couple of older autists - maybe have one that has lived the majority of their life with an early diagnosis and talk about how they have coped. And one who only received their diagnosis beyond 40 / 50 years and talk about the challenges that they now face.

I take your points but I think a programme like this would only really work if they had a famous face to front it, who's openly autistic. He's also the presenter, I don't think he necessarily needed to be immersed enough in the community when you consider how toxic it can be.

I think it was a good attempt, it was never going to satisfy everyone. I'm hesitant to be too harsh as we're all learning, including us autistics. 

Ausomely Autistic said:

Firstly, Chris Packham is not immersed in our autistic community enough in order to reliably represent us.

As you are fond of pointing out, autistic people are very diverse. Nobody can represent everyone.

At least Chris is raising awareness and trying to educate the wider population. I like the man.