• Replies 35 replies
  • Subscribers 36 subscribers
  • Views 805 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

existing in society but not thriving - perspectives of autism - report to the UK Government by The House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Special Inquiry Committee

Phased

Perhaps like other autistic people I consider my experience to be existing in society but not thriving.

I exist somewhat behind a mask from others and most ironically from myself having only relatively recently been diagnosed autistic.

Like other autistic people I notice things that neurotypical people appear not too.  Like other autistic people I also misunderstand things that neurotypical people appear to find necessary to have explained.

It seems to me that as far as much of society works, autism doesn't exist and it does not wish to acknowledge autistic people co-exist within it.

At present I am experiencing this in my own particular way in respect of workplace discrimination which is covered by legislation as I understand it.  I am being hauled over the coals for what as far as I can understand it is pretty much normal autistic behaviour when one is stressed and not treated fairly and reasonably.

I am reasonably well supported and able to engage with this to work on getting things better for myself and others perhaps like me.  If interspersing sessions of curling into fetal position and banging my head against hard surfaces is covered by the definition of "able"... 

The recent report to the UK Government by The House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Special Inquiry Committee New autism strategy must deliver change for autistic people - Committees - UK Parliament is perhaps a step towards overcoming this.

However my first reaction is that on the basis of prior evidence, my moribund floundering and social repression being so deeply seated it will take a considerable amount of activism and self representation in order for significant change to happen.

I wonder if there is a wider thread here about parts of society "cherry picking" what they want to acknowledge to exist, talk about and engage with which is characteristic of neurotypical people more than it is autistic.

Perhaps the "special interest" thread of autism comes about from a weird extension of masking that autistic people engage with almost as a parody of this neurotypical behaviour?

- hehe notwithstanding what I've written if anyone with the same special interests as me wants to join in please do...

Best Wishes

Parents

  • As far as I'm concerned it's good that they are at least acknowledging autism and it's effects on people. 

    Without that official recognition then we would be still stuck in the past with no recognition and no acknowledgement of the issues faced by autistic people. 

    As someone in their late 50's there's a very high probability that i would be losing my job in the next year or two thanks to my autism putting me at a significant disadvantage in playing the office politics game. My employer even made it possible to get myself tested for a  modest sum through the corporate healthcare benefit. So after decades of thinking that i'm different and don't fit in, I now know that i don't. Which makes it easier for me to accept when things don't work out for me and I can now ask for accommodations to even my odds. I might still lose my job, but I have a much better chance of keeping it or getting another one now. 

    As far as the wider issue goes about the government accountability it's evident in the document and in the points raised in the thread. It goes far beyond neurodiversity issues. The issues with privatisation in recent years- water scarcity in the south of England, ridiculously high energy prices despite being on an island with an abundant and varied supply of energy sources. The constant attacks on the social safety net. The constant moving out of retirement age. They can't or won't pay for the NHS.  They can't even afford an effective military to defend the UK. All of this points to an abject abdication of responsibility to the UK population at large. This is the direction of travel since the Thatcher era. It's still pushed in government and the media as the way forward in the message that people should be voting for a low tax,  small state. Which is effectively going to push the people under corporate governance and an unaccountable minimally democratic state. 

    So with all of this in mind yes the inquiry is unlikely to provide any real help for autistic people in general but at least we're acknowledged and let's face it, it's an a subject that's still very much finding it's feet and still has a way to go before academia gets close to a full understanding of ASD. It's come a long way in the last 10 years though.

    It might turn out to be the least of our problems in another 20 years though...

  • in reply to Kevmck

    Yes, things have to start somewhere  .

    There is a joke that springs to mind in context of the appraisal of the wider situation:

    When asked how to get to...

    Comes the answer - "well I wouldn't start here if I were you..."

Reply Children
No Data