Want to Really Support Autistic People? Here Are 7 Simple Ways.

Since supporting autistic people is in the news lately, I felt this post should get a spring cleaning, update and new images.

Every April, the entire world suddenly remembers that autistic people exist. Autistic people exist outside of April, too. Their needs and disability aren’t confined to one month.

Here’s how to support autistic people year-round.

Follow & Engage with Content by Autistic Creators

Many autistic people create content across social media platforms; some autistic people have their own blog and/or contribute to other people’s sites. On occasion, independent autistic creators creators might work with brands to earn income or collaborate with fellow autistic content creators.

You can engage with their content by liking, commenting, sending to someone you think might be interested, watching their stories, sharing their content on your stories or with your own audience, and buying things you already intend to buy through their specific affiliate links. If they have a newsletter, subscribe if it’s something you might actually read.

Encourage Inclusivity

Inclusivity is a culture, not a collection of policies. Forced inclusion lacks the education required for people to venture outside their bubble, learn how to empathize with those different from them, and the epitome of what inclusivity even is.

Environments wherein inclusion policies seek to mimic inclusivity culture often aren’t inclusive at all. Inclusivity culture is leading with, “How can I accommodate people before they even ask?” rather than, “Let’s set everything up and then see what accommodations people need.” While you can’t always include every single person’s needs right off the bat, you can prepare and lead with differences in mind instead of making them an afterthought.

Be Open to Learning About Autism

Many autism parents consider themselves to be allies because they have autistic children, when that’s not how autism allyship works. You’re not an ally because you decide you are. It’s a label given to you by autistic people.

“Ally” is not an identity pin you can attach to your shirt — it’s an attitude. It’s constant work and constant learning. Learning about autism doesn’t stop once you become an ally; if anything, you begin learning even more about autism and autistic people.

Listen to Autistic People When They Talk About Their Experiences

What you see about a person, even when it seems like they’ve shared their entire life on the internet, is only a little. People have lives outside of the internet, even if they’re the kind of people who share a lot. You don’t see the meltdowns or shutdowns unless we film and post it — and even that is a risk, because people accuse us of “faking it”.

Often, I will comment posts on Facebook and be hit with a swarm of responses about how my autism is “not that bad” or some other thing they’ve decided about me based on the information they gathered from my comment(s). They argue with me about how wrong my word choice was, then block me when I explain it wasn’t wrong and continue talking to others in the comments about me (who haven’t blocked me).

I’ve not yet been able to determine whether this experience is worse than the death threats I receive from blogging about my experience with autism, and I think that’s why I don’t care to do it much anymore.

Support Autistic People When They’re Advocating for Themselves

If you see an autistic person in the comments getting slammed for their expressing themselves and sharing their experiences as an autistic person, stand up for them. You might have the ability to articulate what they’re saying in a way that other non-autistic people are capable of explaining!

The same goes for in-person experiences, too.

The more an autistic person feels the need to explain themselves, the more anxiety they tend to feel. This experience is extremely taxing and builds up meltdowns, though it can also lead to long shutdowns. You’d be surprised how many allistics are willing to back down once other allistics tell them they’re out of line.

Somehow, society feels okay to bully autistic people based on their own prejudice and biases, yet they recognize their actions are wrong when fellow non-autistic people call them out. Autistic people will be trying to maintain their boundaries, but the non-autistic bullies won’t listen because they dismiss autistic voices (infantilization).

This happens at school, in the workplace, online, and even in stranger interactions at the bank or grocery store. The only way that this will STOP being the norm is if more non-autistic people stop worrying about how standing up for autistic people will look to other people and START standing up for autistic people as if bully behavior is the strangest, most abnormal thing ever.

Support Accessible Communication

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is not the only way non-speaking autistic people communicate! They also write, text, utilize visual supports, and even sign language.

Social stories are NOT reliable ways of communicating with autistic people. They often cause more damage than expected, because autistic people see what non-autistic people don’t.

Celebrate Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is not bad. Autism isn’t bad, either. While there are cons and struggles to having certain neurotypes, and autism is no different, non-autistic people wind up controlling the narrative and speaking over autistic people when they share about these struggles. It doesn’t promote neurodiversity or help autistic people; it harms us in the long run and adds more to our advocacy workload than we needed. Sometimes, it also undoes a lot of work the autistic community has worked so hard towards.

Embrace differences in neurotype. Figure out how your brain is different and consider how your childhood affects your brain now. You’ll learn a lot about yourself in the process, even if you’re “just neurotypical”.