(This is a continuation of my last post)
Some difficulties autistic people may share:
-Social communication and social interaction challenges
-Repetitive and restrictive behaviour
-Over- or under-sensitivity to light, sound, taste or touch
-Highly focused interests or hobbies
-Extreme anxiety
-Meltdowns and shutdowns
What can I do?
Aside from educating yourself, you can engage with autistic creators online, through social media, for example by following autistic people on Instagram.
Here are some other tips and advice for how you can be an ally:
-Don’t talk about autistic people (particularly non-speaking autistic people) while they’re right in front of you as if they aren’t there, and don’t infantilise them.
-Always use identity first language rather than person first language unless told otherwise (e.g. an autistic person rather than a person with autism), as that is what the majority of autistic people prefer, and never correct them. You have no say in how they identify. For information on identity first language, go to identityfirstautistic.org
-Don’t use the hashtag ActuallyAutistic unless you are autistic
-Show up for autistic people in your life, that means the ‘weird’ kids, the ones who talk loudly, the ones who sit alone at lunch.
-On that note, don’t shun or discourage autistic traits, like being ‘weird’, ‘awkward’, ‘socially unacceptable’ or for special interests or stimming.
-Dont just support speaking autistic people, support non-speaking people too, and never leave out POC, lgbtq+, or people with other disabilities either.
-Never support Autism Speaks, they are a hateful organisation which searches for a ‘cure’ for autism, and portray autism as something which will ‘ruin families’ (a complete lie, obviously)
All of these tips have come from one of the Instagram accounts I follow, @/the.autisticats . This isn’t in any way an exhaustive list, just a few things I picked out from their recent posts.