Thread by @GameAssistYT

Dear @NevilleSouthall,

Hi! You're a great human. I respect all you do. But you're letting a non-autistic person speak for #autistic people, and I - we - need to talk to you about why that isn't okay.

(A thread - that I am happy for others to post on.) #ActuallyAutistic

#ActuallyAutistic people, like myself and many others, are spoken for - a lot. We often find ourselves without the ability to speak freely.

Not because of our own difficulties, but because we are spoken over. And ignored.

This can be small-scale, like at home...

...or large scale. Like providing a platform for people who aren't autistic to talk about autism.

I'm also bisexual. You wouldn't invite a straight person to talk about LGBT+ stuff, would you?

Being autistic, your ability to communicate with the outside world is horribly overlooked. You're seen as "needing spoken for"

This means that most organisations and individuals leading the autism discussion... aren't autistic.

This leads to a lot of issues.

Like, #ActuallyAutistic people don't like the puzzle piece logo.

We don't like Autism$peaks.

We don't like behavioural interventions.

We most certainly don't like being spoken over, when it happens every day to us.

It promotes a dangerous environment. Letting others speak for us oftentimes leads to people talking about 'fixing' us, 'curing' us, or otherwise silencing our existence.

Not promoting autistic environments silences us.

And I know many might think that "just talking about autism is better than being quiet" - but a voice from outside of the autistic community claiming to know best, or have that kind of experience, is incredibly damaging towards us.

Outside voices have led to stigmatisation and cruelty towards us. We are always wary of the outcome.

Please, when you talk about #autism, you need to promote the voices of #autistic people.

So. I recommend you reach out to #ActuallyAutistic people (like myself and many others who I want to pop up and say hi) or autistic-led groups (such as @AutisticUK) to come have a chat about autism and how to best represent our community without harming us.

(@HumanBeanHeals - I apologise, I wrote a thread anyway. So much for sleeping my pain off...

Feel free to throw things at this thread or RT it.)

@NevilleSouthall - should you wish, feel free to drop me an email or message about stuff. My inbox is always open.

@threadreaderapp I kinda need an unroll so I can save my thread ☺

Unfortunately, I'm being called a "troll" for speaking about this.

That's funny. I'm autistic and want to promote our voices. Shame, that.

Imagine trying to fight your corner and being indirectly, yet publicly, shamed for it.

Oh well.

@NevilleSouthall is this okay? I'm rying to provide a voice for autistic people and am called a troll for it by the individual hosting your page.

That's going to scare off a lot of #ActuallyAutistic people.

I know you're on holiday and don't want to bother you too much, but...

just gonna tag @AgonyAutie , @KieranRose7 and @NeuroRebel in here. just so you know it's a thing, is all.