World autism day -- Shifting the Overton window

 World Autism Day -- "Shifting the Overton Window Even Further" edition!

I'm pleased and heartened that the message of autism acceptance has started, ever so slightly, to become mainstream. Great! Now let's push for more. Here is a list, in no particular order, of principles I want to affirm for World Autism Day.

1. Autistic people are people.

2. Autism is not (classified as) a psychiatric disability/mental illness, but almost all autistic people also qualify for at least one psychiatric diagnosis.

3. Therefore, civil rights issues of psychiatrically disabled/ mentally ill/ mad people are also autistic civil rights issues.

4. It's common for autistic people to have exceptional talents in specific areas. It's not okay to call those talents "splinter skills" or "savant skills."

5. Our human value and right not to be exterminated does not come from having exceptional talents. It comes from our personhood.

6. Autistic people whose talents you can't identify, whose talents you don't see as important, or whose talents aren't economically valuable are still people.

7. All people have the right to be presumed competent to make their own decisions in life.

8. That includes autistic people.

9. That includes people who can't talk well and who type to communicate.

10. That includes people who can't talk well and who need assistance typing to communicate.

11. That includes people who don't have a job or a traditional source of income.

12 That includes people who need help with daily self-care tasks.

13. Yes, even people who need help using the bathroom.

14. That includes people who get low scores on IQ tests.

15. That includes people who have never been given an IQ test because it's just assumed that they'd get very low scores.

16. That includes people with psychiatric disabilities.

17. That includes people with the really "bad" "scary" "serious" psychiatric disabilities.

18. "Functioning" isn't a thing. It isn't a meaningful concept. Humans aren't machines. We don't have a "function" beyond existing.

19. What people generally mean by "functioning" is "meeting certain arbitrarily-selected culturally normalized goals in socially acceptable ways."

20. Because the concept of which skills and goals constitute "functioning" is socially constructed and fairly arbitrary, the concept of "functioning" is inseparable from institutional discrimination.

21. There is no such thing as an intrinsic ability, separate from external social constructs, to do things like "hold a job" or "graduate school" or "live independently," since the definitions and requirements of institutions like "job" and "school" and "independent living" are all socially constructed.

22. Saying "Some of the challenges of autistic people are from functioning impairments, and others are from institutional discrimination and ableism," while well-meaning, is Not Even Wrong, since the definition of "functioning" is also a product of institutional ableism.

23. Attempting to redefine "functioning" to encompass intangible qualities like "happiness" or "fulfillment" is similarly well-meaning but Not Even Wrong.

24. "General intelligence" is also not a thing. People have different degrees of natural aptitude for learning many different kinds of concepts and skills.

25. Most people with a low natural aptitude for learning certain skills can still improve those skills with time and practice.

26. Making decisions about one's own life does not require any particular aptitude for analogies or shapes or math.

27. A person's age is the amount of time that has transpired since that person's birth. That's it. There is no such thing as "mental age," "emotional age," "developmental age," or "developmental level."

28. There is no such thing as "developmentally appropriate."

29. There is no such thing as a "fully mature" human brain.

30. It's okay for adults to like media aimed at younger audiences.

31. Allistic (non-autistic) adults sometimes get judged for enjoying "children's" media, too, but allistic adults who like children's media get concern-trolled in clickbait articles, while autistic adults who like children's media get stripped of their civil rights.

32. Believing that one type of genetic trait is better or more desirable than another is bigotry.

33. Trying to prevent a genetic condition is eugenics. The belief that certain genetic conditions should be prevented is eugenics.

34. Eugenics is morally wrong.

35. Yes, always.

36. Eugenic goals are sometimes achieved through reproductive practices like sterilization or abortion, but that isn't what makes eugenics wrong. What makes eugenics wrong is the belief that some genes are better than others.

37. It is okay for informed, consenting adults to try to change their own cognition (through drugs or other methods).

38. It is also okay to refuse interventions designed to change cognition.

39. Both choices are equally valid. Neither choice should be framed as "doing the right thing" or "being responsible" or "setting a good example."

40. It is not okay to force drugs, therapies, or health practices on other people against their will.

41. Not even if they're psychiatrically or intellectually disabled.

42. Whatever hypothetical scenario you're about to ask "But what about...?" -- no, not even then.

43. Most autistic stereotypes made up by allistic people are dehumanizing, offensive, and inaccurate.

44. Except the ones about autistic people liking trains. Those are pretty much true.

45. Autistic (and otherwise neurodivergent) people have always existed, so historical figures and other dead people should not be presumed allistic by default. Neuroqueer your history.

46. Autistic people are between 1% and 2% of the general population, so you probably know at least one. If you don't think you know any, they're probably closeted.

47. The correct terms for autistic people are "autistic people" or "people with autism" (some people prefer one over the other, but neither is inherently offensive) or, if you want to be a bit more florid, "people on the autistic spectrum." The correct terms for people who are not autistic are "allistic people" or "non-autistic people." The correct term for people whose cognitive patterns are considered "normal" and privileged by the society they live in is "neurotypical people."

48. Universal design should be default design.

49. Autism Speaks is a hate group, ABA is dehumanizing in theory and often abusive in practice, institutions shouldn't exist, guardianship is a civil rights violation, 95% of violent crime is committed by neurotypical people, regulating brains is not equivalent to regulating guns.

50. Trains actually are awesome.