There needs to be a “misdiagnosed, undiagnosed and suppressed diagnosis” caucus of sorts. This is important at face value, but also because it dovetails into:

– Under-representation of women and trans people

– Under-representation of people of color

– Under-representation of working class and working poor people (because of cost + misdiagnosis)

– Under-representation (and contested representation) of adult autistics in general

This also impacts on the quality of (beneficial) research, as well as the tendency for research to focus on “cures” rather than social accommodation and support across the spectrum.

The lack of beneficial research + scare tactics = the dominant paradigm around autism, especially in the U.S. and parts of Europe (but not the UK, it seems). (Don’t @ me about Brexit, I know.)

This also requires having an org(s) or movement(s) to have a caucus in to begin with, though. There’s community-based orgs — https://www.aane.org/ comes to mind — but they’re few in number.

ASAN is focused on policy and lobbying, AWNBN is focused on support and resources. All of which are incredibly important, but there needs to be more.

As per usual, the “autism advocacy” groups are actively hostile to self-advocates in a lot of cases. There’s people working to rectify that – but they’re few (if not singular) in number.

Meanwhile, “zomg the vaccines!!!” seems to have gotten supplanted with “zomg, school shooters!!!!” and “zomg, neurodiversity is a cult!!!” <- actual things that actual people say, loudly and repeatedly

Our neurodivergent selves are right here. Feel free to talk with us anytime. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of work to do, and this should be part of it, I think. 💪🏽 ✊🏽 ❤️ Onward.

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