Published on 12, July, 2020
All her life my daughter has fought the stigma that being Autistic was defined as, first a "learning disabilty" and now a "disability". It has destroyed her life, made her feel inferior and sapped her self confidence. Then to see the BBC describe autism as a "lifelong disability" made me furious. Then to find that the source of this bigotry is the definition on the NAS website makes me incandescent with rage. I too am Autistic. The NAS does not represent me or my daughter. The challenges which Autistic poeple face are not what we are but how we are misunderstood. For the NAS to insist on perpetuating these myths makes you part of the problem. I can only presume your definition of Autism was written and approved by a bunch of, perhaps well-meaning, poeple who suffer from Autism Deficiency Syndrome and who lack the flexibility of thought that Autism gives us and we, in turn, have given the world the technology which I am using to write this.
VLD said:The standard height of a hook is not always correct!
Care to elaborate?
A coat hook at 2m is ideal for a long coat (trench coat style) but will not be suitable for a wheelchair user to access. Do we design if for access or function?
Should it be strong enough and stick out enough to support half a dozen heavy jackets or be more slimeline and safety concious (since it is more or less at head height)?
Can we ever say there is a "correct" height? I think "standard" is probably a compromise of function and accessability rather than trying to do any one job outstandingly.
Maybe that is the problem of overanalysing this issue - there can never be a true solution, only one appropriate for a specific situation that is unlikely to translate well to other dissimilar situations.
The problem is lack of thought and imagination. The height of a coat hook is an excellent example. Perhaps they should employ more autistic poeple using our abilities to inventivly think through problems and not rely on fixed lines of thought. The standard height of a hook is not always correct!
Caelus said:my maths teacher in school, he couldnt do maths... he wasnt a maths teacher he was a languages teacher, who they also used for english, and geography and maths... but he couldnt do those subjects...
Then the solution would be to tell your parents who would then complain to the school - that is how most stuff gets resolved. Once the knowledge is public domain then the school has to cover its back by doing its job and either hiring someone else or training the teacher.
The behaviour of the teacher reflected on his unwillingness to learn the subject (high school maths is far from rocket science, especially as the text books talk you through it step by step) so he probably deserved to be reassigned to another school over this or to lose his job it the contract stated he had to cover any subject.
As I recall it, teacher training college trains you to be a teacher in any discipline. You may have a specialisation but you are trained to cover any subject if required. Can anyone clarify if this has changed?
see it still isnt the learners problem, it isnt a learning difficulty then... its a system problem.my maths teacher in school, he couldnt do maths... he wasnt a maths teacher he was a languages teacher, who they also used for english, and geography and maths... but he couldnt do those subjects... the school didnt care, they like any workplace have a worker and throw them at the problem. so they threw him into a subject he couldnt teach.... it isnt fair on him, it isnt fair on the students... it isnt the students problem. you can be fairer and say its the systems problem... but yet the teacher has a responsibility to teach so part of it lays on them in a teaching problem, the protblem that my maths teacher couldnt do maths, thats his problem, and the systems mostly, but his to some degree too.... he just sat there in lesson, reading his own book and told us if another teacher comes in pretend you are doing work.
Caelus said:and for one i dont believe in learning difficulties... there is no such thing... there is only teaching difficulties of bad teachers that do not know how to teach.
That is a bit harsh.
Who is going to teach the teachers how to deliver the education to every variant of learning technique that we have.
Some need a rigid routine for learning without interruptions
Some can only learn visually
Some have attention issues (ADHD type symptoms)
Some have dyslexia / dysgraphia / dyscalculia / dyspraxia
Some mask or just tell the teacher what they think the teacher wants to hear.
and so on.
Is it really fair to put the load onto the teacher of getting the right variant of teachning style for every students needs. They are poorly paid and heavily worked as it is so to expect what is effectively a specialisation in teaching neurologically different students.
To me it is like expecting every doctor to be a heart specialist, a brain surgeon, an oncologyst, a gynocologyst etc - it just isn't realistic.
The solution is to up the teachers pay in exchange for retraining them to cater for more learning needs, but that needs money the system isn't going to get and effort from a group who are already fed up with the unrealistic demands placed upon them.
Which brings us back to having to take more initiative to supporting people who have difficultiy in learning using conventional teachning techniques - learning difficulties for short.
It perfectly describes the condition but maybe needs a makeover to be called differently educationable to keep from being perceived as insulting.
I agree with you that there should be a lot more focus on the positives. Employers consistently advertise for 'team players' and 'strong communicators' and what they get is employees who spend their days gossiping. All we ask is a quiet place to just get on with our work. The shockingly low numbers of autistic people in work suggests that even that is poorly recognised.
I find the NAS website in general (aside from this forum) quite unwieldy and hard to navigate. Much of it doesn't appear to have been updated in years. The Autistica charity seem to do a lot more in terms of research and active campaigns to improve autistic lives. Much of it by researchers who are autistic themselves.
One other thing which has occurred to me is that I do not know if it was actually NAS who first started using the term 'developmental disability'. It is also used in other countries (such as USA and Canada) and there does need to be some consistency in how autism is viewed across the world .
I would argue that I am disabled.
I am not able to do things that others do.
aye true, autism usually is the lack of social intelligence though.
There are also lots of different types of intelligence and different people can be and are intelligent in different ways.
and for one i dont believe in learning difficulties... there is no such thing... there is only teaching difficulties of bad teachers that do not know how to teach.
the learning difficulty one that they used to call it is very old fashioned and is likely the reason many people never got diagnosed.they see you have problems, then they called it learning difficulty, but when they tested you for learning difficulty they instead found you actually smarter than average so you dont have a learning difficulty, so they they scratch their heads and go away and left you and considered you too confusing to diagnose due to them wrongly calling everything a learning difficulty at the time.
Yes, and no. If nothing else it gives an idea of the scale of the NAS. You could equally argue listing income and expenditure without a list of assets / debts is meaningless.
As far as I’m aware, the NAS has Royal Patronage (Princess Sophie and Prince Edward?) and as part of looking for support, I’d written to Sandringham via the Royal Family’s website outlining my situation after my diagnosis
Listing income without expenditure is meaningless.
Yes of course!
https://aucademy.co.uk/Aucademy YouTube channel:
The Mods are amazing they've done a lot for me and twice now out of their hours once received support
I've found them very kind and supportive always and the fact they volunteer is just incredible :)
Ian said:It depends on what you mean by "not for profit"
I mean a company that operates as a charity, not generating value for shareholders but rather puts all their money into the cause that they are stated to cover.
However much NAS gain in income, it is refreshing to know that it is not going to line the pockets of the people behind it.
From what I have seen of the salaries of the board, they take very modest salaries (less than I used to make as a technician) which means yet more money goes to the needy.
NAS is a big operation certainly but I see no evidence of skimming, corruption or more incompetence than any other company I have ever seen up close.
If you have links to prove othewise then I would be interested in seeing these.
Not that rare.
It depends on what you mean by "not for profit" ... presumably most organisations that provide services aim to cover costs and put a bit into operational reserves. If you mean companies that do not pay their surplus as a dividend to shareholders, there are over 160,000 registered charities in the UK, employing 800,000 workers, which equates to 2.7% of the UK workforce. [
Iain. According to the 2022 accounts (page 26) income was just a tad short of £95.5 million. That's well over a million in my book too. For many years we have seen services that used to be provided by public authorities contracted out. Charities are now major providers virtually indistinguishable from other companies, except that the retained profit is reinvested in the charitable business instead of distributed to shareholders. The contract goes to the cheapest bidder.
Where there have been scandals involving poor care standards, some of the providers have been those very national charities set up to help and support disabled people.
Disability or not, most people simply refuse to understand autism and adopt a “one size fits all” approach and expect people to “just” conform and to be compliant and obedient without question, as we saw during Covid and given the traditional Irish Catholic model of disabilities in general, reminding people constantly about what they are “not able for” and demanding that people with autism simply “stay quiet” - even those who have experience of autism are incredibly impatient with those with autism and think they “know it all” and believe that the only way to manage autism is by means of ultra strict discipline to keep behaviours/symptoms of autism firmly under control, especially with childhood autism