I
was profoundly offended today, by a professional Vocational Rehabilitation
Counselor AND her secretary, both failing to enlighten or encourage me by informing
me in a phone call that my 22-year-old autistic son who is now dealing with a
roller-coaster-rocking, G-force imitating, grand mal seizure disorder was, and
I quote now, “an irresponsible young adult” for not keeping in contact with them
during his multiple hospitalizations, accidents, medical appointments and
life-harrowing seizure events.
Thus we have the following rant, now included for all posterity in this my humble tome.
Thus we have the following rant, now included for all posterity in this my humble tome.
Mea culpa.
I
am autistic. While I am not a trained and credentialed expert in the field of
autism, I am certainly an expert with regard to my autism, my husband’s autism
and our sons’ autism issues.
To
mediate this lack of training and credentials I offer the following: those of
us in the autism world have sometimes noted that, “if you’ve met one autistic,
you’ve met one
autistic.”
We are all so individual, so uniquely gifted and profoundly affected by our special natures and personalities. I cannot speak for all of us, but many of us are deeply offended by the imagery of a puzzle referring to our developmental differences.
We are all so individual, so uniquely gifted and profoundly affected by our special natures and personalities. I cannot speak for all of us, but many of us are deeply offended by the imagery of a puzzle referring to our developmental differences.
We
are not the puzzle. YOU, neurotypical-world dwellers, YOU are the puzzle that
we are decoding.
I am honestly puzzled. I am riddled with hurt and rancor over the ridiculous display of ignorance I was exposed to today by some individuals who could certainly claim they are higher-functioning than my autistic son.
I have this to say to those ladies and to a number of neuro-typical, able-brained citizens who just don't get how small-minded and base their functional little personalities might be:
I am honestly puzzled. I am riddled with hurt and rancor over the ridiculous display of ignorance I was exposed to today by some individuals who could certainly claim they are higher-functioning than my autistic son.
I have this to say to those ladies and to a number of neuro-typical, able-brained citizens who just don't get how small-minded and base their functional little personalities might be:
Sometimes you are RUDE, OFFENSIVE, IGNORANT, BIGOTED AND
FRANKLY PROFOUNDLY IDIOTIC IN YOUR LACK OF SELF-AWARENESS IN THE WAY YOU TREAT
AUTISTICS AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS.
Yet you suggest that we autists of the world are
the ones who don’t follow the social graces!
The plain truth is that many of you who are not differently-abled, have no clue how to assist or even appreciate the power and capacity for greatness in the autistics around you and many of us pity your rigid adherence to your self-limiting affinity for normative means and lack of expansive creativity as you “approach” helping us.
Many autistic persons around the world will laugh and cheer raucously as they read this and agree with me– We are not the puzzle. We are the A-N-S-W-E-R to the puzzle.
Here is a perfectly apt example demonstrated by a heroine from a differently-abled camp.
The plain truth is that many of you who are not differently-abled, have no clue how to assist or even appreciate the power and capacity for greatness in the autistics around you and many of us pity your rigid adherence to your self-limiting affinity for normative means and lack of expansive creativity as you “approach” helping us.
Many autistic persons around the world will laugh and cheer raucously as they read this and agree with me– We are not the puzzle. We are the A-N-S-W-E-R to the puzzle.
Here is a perfectly apt example demonstrated by a heroine from a differently-abled camp.
Our family lived for thirteen years in the northwestern
part of Alabama near the world-famous birthplace of Helen Keller in Tuscumbia,
Alabama, so we are keenly aware of her story and her impact.
Tens of thousands
of people come to that area annually to celebrate a world-renowned festival
dedicated to her name and her fame.
Helen
Keller wasn’t puzzling before she learned to communicate, indeed the world around
her was far more puzzling to Helen than she was to her world as she was
momentarily unable to express her needs and desires to its members. Helen sometimes
impatiently waited, to the best ability of a young child, for the brilliantly expansive
mind and tenacity of an Annie Sullivan to finally listen to her, to find the way to receive her
brilliance.
Helen Keller ultimately “saw” and “spoke” of ideas and concepts
that were considered to be unmitigated genius and substantive inspiration for
millions of her contemporaries and generations to come after her. Consider the lesson of such an
irony: the child who could not ask for anything during her momentary silence,
became the great stateswoman and spokeswoman to the people of this world who lined
up and paid for her to speak to them!
Where are the Annie Sullivans who will just sit down at our tables, confront the challenges between us and work to break through the communication differences we have with the norms this world keeps demanding we accommodate ourselves to? I pray I am one who bridges that gap. Why don’t you listen to what I have to say for awhile and see if we can’t agree on some things?
Where are the Annie Sullivans who will just sit down at our tables, confront the challenges between us and work to break through the communication differences we have with the norms this world keeps demanding we accommodate ourselves to? I pray I am one who bridges that gap. Why don’t you listen to what I have to say for awhile and see if we can’t agree on some things?
With
that stated, I have one response to those rehabilitation professionals who so ignorantly
and callously maligned my autistic son:
Irresponsible,
my eye!
