University of Brighton fine Art (Painting) submission

For World Autism Day, it’s about time we talked about autism differently

In observance of International Autism Day (2 April), I have some musings about how society conceptualises and talks about autism.

Autism is described in the DSM 5, the US Mental Health handbook for medical and care professionals, using deficit language that prioritises the discomfort of the neurotypical observer. I found it a hard read, as it was dehumanising and insulting, portraying autism as a gross abnormality. I am not ok with this.

Autistic people deserve better. We need to start reconceptualising autism from the perspective of the autistic experience, as in what’s going on for us in a world that harms us, not how our outward behaviour inconveniences others.

Below are some excerpts from the DSM 5, and alongside I’ve suggested more positive, autism-affirming ways of describing the same observed traits.

• “Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction…failure of normal back-and-forth conversation…abnormalities in eye contact and body language.” We have our own rich and diverse communication norms. We respond to another’s stories with our own as a show of solidarity. We share and express our joy through talking about passions – and enjoy others talking about their own. If we are non-verbal, we can communicate via digital technologies accessible to anyone. We do not judge others by arbitrary measures, such as eye contact. However, we do judge others by their actions and how they treat us.

• “Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships…sharing imaginative play or in making friends.” We follow different rules to relationship management. We prioritise truth and clarity over harmony and feelings, and mutual respect over blind acquiescence to authority. Our ‘imaginative play’ is our wild inner universe of complex pattern-creating mechanisms that are out of reach for most others. Our special interests unlock a level of joy that other people – who are often confusing, unpredictable and dangerous – just don’t.

• “Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities…inflexible adherence to routines…” In a neoliberal capitalist economy that pushes for continuous change and sacrifices people’s wellbeing the pursuit of infinite growth, we accept our very human need for consistency. We appreciate our world just as it is. It allows us to focus, and maintains our physical and emotional wellbeing. In fact, we have stims, which are powerful tools for summoning consistency in our anxiety-ridden world, calming us and enabling us to live.

• “Unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment…, e.g. adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects.” We’re designed for the natural world. Artificially-created spaces, lighting, sounds, smells and textures are an anathema to autistic people, especially as we take in much more information than those around us, including via our senses. We strive to feel deeply connected to the world and are more aware of what connects and disconnects us from a sensory perspective.

Fellow autistics, we are not abnormal, but normal. We are not a failure, but a success given the right support. We are not defective, but effective in a way that others aren’t.

Yes, we have challenges, but it is the deficits in the way autism is described, the abnormality in how we are pathologised, and the failure of institutions to help us, that add to, or even create, our disability.

I’m not saying it’s ‘us vs them’ with neurotypical-dominant institutions, but that we as a society need to start talking about autism more positively and from the perspective of the autistic experience, as only then can we move forward to create a more autism-inclusive world.