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.
The point of the queer sub-culture is something that I’ve only vaguely heard of
Do you have a link for Aucademy?
Ian said: TfL does not have the money to comply with disability equality legislation - "allegedly" - but can afford to spend £1m per mile on Boris's bikeways or Citizen Khan's ULEZ fiasco. Disability access is not "sexy" politically.
You have it there! "fixing" stuff does not make headlines like a new project does so it is not going to attract the budget it deserves. It isn't just transport this is true in - it is across the board in life.
If TFL could sell the idea as zero step for e-scooter access then they could no doubt drum up a lot more budget for it... Maybe there is something to work with there LoL.
I used a wheelchair for a while after an accident. To get to Birmingham I had to get a train to King's Cross St Pancras and then go half a mile by road to Euston because there is not a lift from the Northern line tube platform to the BR station. TfL does not have the money to comply with disability equality legislation - "allegedly" - but can afford to spend £1m per mile on Boris's bikeways or Citizen Khan's ULEZ fiasco. Disability access is not "sexy" politically.
Noise reduction, subdued lighting etc. can make offices less stressful for neurotypicals too ... many of my NT colleagues hated it when the team I worked for moved to open-plan hot-desking. It was just more extreme for those of us who were neurodivergent. Good ergonomics and pleasant working conditions benefit everyone.
Often it is just lack of imagination ... I was with a group of elected members being shown a new NHS facility by a senior manager colleague. "And here we have the disabled toilet [sic] " "Very impressive, but why are the mirrors over the washbasins and the coat hooks too high up for wheelchair users to reach them? " "Oh dear ... I will have to talk to the architect about that." (No, talk to your disabled staff and patients before you pay the architect.)
I don't think those things are really shared though. We have different interests and few of them are unique to us as a community. We don't all stim and we certainly don't all info dump (my stims are quite subtle and hard to see and I don't info dump at all). And I don't think those things are big enough to count as a culture. (I think British culture is about a lot more than tea or small talk.)
That’s great, everyone needs flexibility.
My surgery has just introduced a system where if you want an appointment you fill out a form online and the form is then triaged and the most urgent cases get seen by the most appropriate person who will not always be a doctor. Patients can have an appointee fill out the form for them if they prefer or if they don’t have or don’t want to have an appointee they can still visit the surgery and the receptionists will help them (I’m not 100% sure whether they can do it over the phone - I’d have to check - but if the overwhelming majority use the form I don’t see why not. The other advantage is there is no 8am rush - you can fill in the form anytime.
Yes definitely it makes us as a group of autistic people recognised just like you might associate afternoon tea or small talk with British culture.
Iain said:I understand there is a need for this for some people - do you have an idea of what sort of numbers of people need it?
According to this very specific video below, autistic doctor Mary Doherty explains that an extremely high number of autistic people avoid doctor appointments because they cannot use the phone. This obviously has very serious consequences.
https://youtu.be/s_8CZKmxxco?si=Ofz7UFcA0Vh3nenjI don’t understand why alternatives like email or a text based web chat would cost so much.
The Mods jump in in when a person is having a crisis.They are always monitering.Not free time ?Well they wont get rich off of us on here will they ?I see your point, but if NAS did not exist then you and me cannot talk to each other, then what ?Solitary isolation.
Are any of them culture? I suppose it depends what you mean by culture.
It’s not only people with autism though. Someone who was blind recently won a Tribunal case forcing DWP to send him correspondence in an electronic format which was compatible with his screen-reader (I can’t remember the format but it was probably something as common as Word) DWP retaliate by sending him stuff in Word but sending it to him so delayed that he has often missed deadlines for replying by the time he receives the material from DWP and he has to renew the complaint process all over again.
Luftmentsch said:unique autistic culture
What I mean by this is the ideas and beliefs we have as a community which includes things like not using eye contact, our dedicated interests, sharing stims and info dumping.
You can also have not for profit businesses although I accept they are rare.
Taltunes said:Unfortunately DWP have to be dragged kicking and screaming one Tribunal verdict at a time to do something they should already be doing under the Equality Act
I guess part of that is that the DWP would have to decide which other area to take the money away from to pay for the autistic claims. Once you start to see it in that context it becomes difficut to keep fighting.
The source of the issue is a lack of funding and that is under the governments control, and following recent discussions on this forum, I doubt any other government is going to be any better.
On that depressing note I think it time for an afternoon coffee and donut!
I was deliberately simplifying to make the point that they are no longer a bunch of well meaning unpaid volunteers.
i don’t disagree that they should probably focus their efforts on children.
Agreed but it doesn’t excuse e.g. DWP given the number of autistic people claiming benefits. Unfortunately DWP have to be dragged kicking and screaming one Tribunal verdict at a time to do something they should already be doing under the Equality Act - that’s why they keep losing Tribunals. Unfortunately it requires a great deal of persistence and support to get these issues to Tribunal.
Taltunes said:It’s not free time - NAS is a big business - they turnover well over £1m a year (I can’t remember the exact figure but you can get accounts from the charity commission website) I agree they don’t discriminate but they have their priorities which can tie in with their business
Correct me if I'm wrong, but NAS is a non-profit organisation which means the directors don't make much from their jobs ( source https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/National-Autistic-Society-Director-Salaries-E116773_D_KO26,34.htm ) so they are not a business in the conventional sense where they are trying to make money from us.
They have been a charity for 58 years and seem to be doing a bang up job to their core focus.
As the landscape of diagnosed people changes they seem to have done a good job in adapting to us adults, but we are much better suited to look out for ourselves than children (their focus) so it is only right that they focus where the help is needed most.
It doesn’t help when most of the efforts of the NAS are, perhaps correctly, targeted at children. You can understand why people then think it’s only / mainly a childhood condition although the GP should have known better. Having said that how long do GPS get in their training on hidden and mental health disabilities? Not long so unless the GP has a particular interest in the area their is a limit to what you can expect. GPS are basically gatekeepers controlling who gets to see consultants, specialists etc and who doesn’t. Sometimes you have to effectively tell the GP what to do.
D..k