autism awareness Archives - Autistic Not Weird

Ten vital reasons to never, ever share an autism meltdown video

We see them far too often. Videos of an autistic child (or adult) in extreme distress, shared across the internet in the glorious name of “autism awareness”, perhaps even with a divisive or gatekeeping comment...

Dear perfectionists – it’s ok to do things imperfectly

There’s something falsely positive about the word “perfectionist”, isn’t there? The first time I remember hearing the word, I was being taught how to answer job interview questions. I was told that when the...

Why Autism Awareness Month can be traumatising for autistic people

It doesn’t seem quite right, does it? That a month designated for raising public knowledge of autism would be so widely disliked by the autistic people it claims to support. But just to clarify: the phrase ...

To everyone who tells me not to say “autistic person”

This is going to be one of my shorter articles – largely, I imagine, to be posted in reply to those who “correct” my language when I refer to myself or others as autistic, as opposed to “having autism”. Fir...

Ten years ago today, I learned I was autistic. Here’s how my life changed.

On 29th November 2009, my life started to take the opening few steps towards beginning to make some kind of sense. After a lifetime of knowing I was different somehow to the general population (and too many...

Respectful autism awareness: how to discuss the struggles without increasing the stigma

A few years ago, one of my articles received this comment. “F*** YOU F***YOU F***YOU.You don’t even know anything about autism. It’s a f***ing curse that controls parents’ lives until they finally die!F*** ...

Finding employment as an autistic person

The most depressing period of my life was spent jobsearching, but I picked up a bunch of lessons from it. Here they are.

The Stop Rule: teaching children consent through play

Content Warning: this article discusses the dangers of making children vulnerable to abuse and manipulation, but does not discuss specific instances of abuse. Not long ago there was a debate on a British mo...

50 ways to help autistic people

So it's World Autism Awareness Month again! Those who follow Autistic Not Weird's Facebook page will know that I often use the occasion to upload a ton of picture posts- not just to spread awareness but to enc...

How to Raise ACTUAL Autism Awareness

Remember when we all changed our profile pictures to ribbons, and it cured cancer? No, me neither. The phrase “raising awareness” gets banded around on the internet a lot these days. It’s an extremely well-know...

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