{"id":2741,"date":"2022-04-04T12:06:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T17:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/autisticme\/?p=2741"},"modified":"2023-11-26T16:26:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T22:26:44","slug":"podcast-episode-086-my-2022-autism-awareness-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2022\/04\/04\/podcast-episode-086-my-2022-autism-awareness-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast Episode 086 &#8211; My 2022 Autism Awareness Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Podcast Episode 0086, Season 5, Episode 17; 04 April 2022<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Autism Awareness 2022<\/h3>\n\n<!-- iframe plugin v.6.0 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embed Player\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/22833695\/height\/192\/theme\/modern\/size\/large\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/0c4067\/time-start\/00:00:00\/playlist-height\/200\/direction\/backward\/download\/yes\" height=\"192\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" oallowfullscreen=\"true\" msallowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n<h3>Transcript<\/h3>\n<p>Welcome to <em><strong>The Autistic Me Podcast<\/strong><\/em>. I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as The Autistic Me.<\/p>\n<p>I am preparing this episode on April 2, 2022. It is World Autism Awareness Day, the second day of Autism Awareness Month\u2026 or Acceptance Month\u2026 or whatever label this annoying month has.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the autistic adults I know take a month-long break from social media during April. April is a month of inspiration porn and martyr mothers, autism cures and absurd ABA success anecdotes.<\/p>\n<p>Others take the opposite approach, making it their mission to respond to every article, blog post, tweet, or discussion about autism they can find. They set Google alerts and track autism hashtags.<\/p>\n<p>Those avoiding April and those attacking it are all responding to the trauma of how the world around us responds to autistics.<\/p>\n<p>We aren\u2019t allowed to just be ourselves\u2026 and autism awareness campaigns bring attention to how stigmatized our differences are.<\/p>\n<p>In past years, I have argued for \u201cAutistic Pride Month\u201d and some sort of \u201cNeurodiversity History Month\u201d that would focus on the contributions of Neurodiverse people, past and present. It seemed like a positive idea, until some autistic friends and I talked through the pitfalls.<\/p>\n<p>Inviting people to diagnose historical figures is fraught with complications. Labeling is problematic enough, but it&#8217;s more problematic when the label is considered a cognitive disability.<\/p>\n<p>Finding possible role models also leads to spotlighting idealized versions of Neurodiversity. Historical figures are remembered because they were outliers, not because they were average individuals with routine lives. Autistic advocates who keep trying to explain we aren\u2019t all savants or individuals with magic-like splinter skills don\u2019t want an Autistic Pride Month that celebrates the savants, the geniuses, the scientists, and the artists who reinforce stereotypes of autistics with special gifts.<\/p>\n<p>I know why schools and organizations invite me to speak. My academic success, my marriage, and my role as a father all neatly fit within the inspirational role model niche I\u2019m expected to fill.<\/p>\n<p>For audiences, I\u2019m the checklist speaker: an awkward tech geek with multiple graduate degrees. The concerned parents cannot wait to ask how my wife and I connected. The educators ask leading questions about how great college must have been.<\/p>\n<p>The autistic parent of Neurodiverse daughters? Who better to have on stage? Some audiences expect me to list all the wonderful aspects of autism, while others anticipate a list of heartbreaking challenges.<\/p>\n<p>I surely disappoint many people in those audiences with my blunt honesty. Life just is what it is, and often it is a struggle. Yet, I also don\u2019t want to feed into the myth of the helpless, unemployed, isolated autistic.<\/p>\n<p>The big name autism organizations try to raise money during April, often reinforcing the worst stereotypes of autistic life. The self-advocacy groups and individual advocates spend the month in conflict with some parents and many service providers. It is all exhausting.<\/p>\n<p>An autistic colleague told me recently that I need to be all over social media this year, so I can build a brand. April isn\u2019t a business opportunity for me, and that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n<p>My activism is low-key, even during April. I write and speak about my lived experiences. I\u2019m not an outgoing, media-savvy activist with book deals and speaking tours. I don\u2019t have a handler, someone to help me build the podcast and blog into a business.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Autism Acceptance or Neurodiversity Pride in whatever way you believe this month can be made useful.<\/p>\n<p>In an ideal world, we wouldn\u2019t need special months or days for marginalized communities. It would be wonderful to just be me, whoever and whatever I am, without any expectations.<\/p>\n<p>I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as <strong>The Autistic Me<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>The Autistic Me on Social Media<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Blog: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/\">https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/autisticme.libsyn.com\/\">https:\/\/autisticme.libsyn.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Facebook: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/autisticme\/\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/autisticme\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/autisticme\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/autisticme<\/a><\/li>\n<li>YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/CSWyatt\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/CSWyatt<\/a><\/li>\n<li>LinkedIn: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/autisticme\">https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/autisticme<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Podcast Episode 0086, Season 5, Episode 17; 04 April 2022 Autism Awareness 2022 Transcript Welcome to The Autistic Me Podcast. I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as The Autistic Me. I am preparing this episode on April 2, 2022. It is World Autism Awareness Day, the second day of Autism&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2022\/04\/04\/podcast-episode-086-my-2022-autism-awareness-episode\/\">Continue Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Podcast Episode 086 &#8211; My 2022 Autism Awareness Episode<\/span> <i class=\"fas fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8,10],"tags":[27,39,58,77,82,490,520,554],"class_list":["post-2741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy","category-media","category-podcast","tag-acceptance","tag-advocacy","tag-april","tag-autism-awareness","tag-autistic-pride","tag-neurodiversity","tag-parenthood","tag-podcast","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/11\/Podcast_Banner_800x400.png?fit=711%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfivLC-Id","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3500,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions\/3500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}