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3:34am October 3, 2013

➸ Trying to find the right words: disabledallytips: Disabled ally tip: When you talk with others who are...

madeofpatterns:

youneedacat:

disabledallytips:

Disabled ally tip: When you talk with others who are Disabled in the same way you are, realize that there are other identities that can change how they see their Disability in ways different from you.

Example:Some Deaf folks see themselves as Deaf first and tell others…

youneedacat said:

Also remember to keep political views separate from individual experiences of our bodies.

That means. I don’t want to be cured. Another autistic person just like me in terms of how autism affects them, might want to be cured. It doesn’t mean I am less affected or that they are more affected. It just means we see things differently.

To assume otherwise is to assume that disability type or severity absolutely determines how we view things politically, and that is insulting.

madeofpatterns said:

Yes, that too. And also…

I don’t want to be cured either. But for me… I see autism as a physical fact. A thing that is independent of my identity. I mean, it’s part of who I am, just like other basic physical facts.

But… not the thing. The capitol-letter thing. The thing? Do you know the thing? I can’t figure out how to describe it.

Yeah I know what you mean, I think. It’s a part of us but it’s not the single central part of our identity? That’s how I see it anyway. It’s an important part of me. But who I am, while heavily entangled in the stuff called autism in ways where you can’t just remove the autism and have it be the same… Who I am is not just autism, there’s so much more to me and the central part of me can’t be reduced to words at all.