Lived experience with Ableism
Lived experience with Ableism
Non speakers are such a major target group for everything related to ableism that it is hard to know where to even begin. Right at the top of the list there is speech itself. For all the breadth and depth of the words we type, sometimes with excruciating effort, we will always be judged by those simple words we are not able to speak. The spectrum of ableists is vast – in this case it goes from those that outright reject our way of communication to those with good intentions that still cannot be patient to wait for us to finish a typed response to a question they asked to loved ones that otherwise accepting but secretly wish you can talk.
The next thing that springs to mind is listening. I love my stims but my feeling is that to those that are talking to me it can look like i am not paying attention. What is essential to keep us in the conversation is often held onto as proof that we are not listening. That is ableism at its core, the expectation that listening has to be a certain way. And that any form of listening that is not looking in the eye and nodding your head, leave alone not even being in the room, is not listening at all.
Finally, the world of medicine deserves multiple pages here but i will summarize briefly here. Far too many of our medical and mental health needs are buried under the name of autism. In that sense autism is the biggest umbrella of ableism – so much of what we can or cannot do is merely interpreted through this label next to our name and not by our individual abilities. It is the fight of our lifetimes.
