#community ableism
It never hit me just how much physically disabled autistics are erased from all discourse and even advocacy for the autistic community until I saw someone mention us in a very brief shoutout to autistics who’re not your low needs more stealth and able-bodied ideal. But that thought has been living in my head loudly banging pots around me 24/7 since I saw that post.
Don’t you just love it when even disability advocacy caters to the stealth, able-bodied and without intellectual disabilities ideal? Haha. Well, that sort of explains why ever since I came full into being vocal about my physical disabilities I’ve felt like, “forbidden” from commenting on anything related to autism or taking any space within autistic communities.
I didn’t suddenly become less autistic. Same impairments and differences that I’ve always recognized in myself in relation to autism are still there, unchanged. The trauma of having grown up autistic around abusive allistics as well is very much still there.
I’m the same autistic person I’ve always been, I just no longer feel like the larger autistic community (at least the loudest parts of it) wants me around anymore, simply because now I recognize myself as physically disabled too and that is a little too much for them to want to deal with, let alone give a voice to. I’m not the embodiment of “normalcy” with just a bit of a quirk on the side that low support able-bodied autistics want to present to allistic society in order to save their own asses only.
I want more community with high support needs autistics, autistics who’re intellectually disabled, and autistics who’re physically disabled. I’m tired of autistic self-advocacy being dominated by the most socially acceptable members of our communities only and of them trying very hard to hide us.We matter too.
