Tag Archives: Autism Acceptance Month

5 Awful Autism Awareness Month Products

April 13, 2017 Sara Luterman 20 Comments

TS Eliot was right -- April is the cruelest month. Autism Awareness Month can be an anxious, or at least facepalm-inducing time for many autistic folks, myself included. Whether it's harebrained celebrities endorsing Autism Speaks or President Trump lighting it up blue at the White House, non-autistic people are ready to shout how very aware they are. With that in mind, here are 5 cringe-worthy autism awareness products for sale this April. These are all real things for sale on the internet. Really. 5. This shirt isn't even blue.

This is a red t-shirt with a puzzle piece on it. It reads "I wear blue for autism awareness." There is no blue on the t-shirt anywhere.

4. Nothing says "love" like what could easily be interpreted as a violent threat by someone very literal. Like say, an autistic person.

Link Roundup

This Week in Neurodiversity

April 7, 2017 NOSmag.tech Leave a comment

Each Friday at NOSmag, I post some links relevant to neurodiversity news and culture criticism around the web. This is what I’ve been reading and that I think you should be reading too. Feel free to add links of your own in the comments and email suggestions for future link roundups to nos.editorial@gmail.com or Tweet us @NOSeditorial.

Closed captioning improves literacy skills (and makes TV way more comprehensible for those of us with sensory processing issues).
A newly public recording shows that the police knew behavior tech Charles Kinsey and his autistic client, Arnaldo Rios, were unarmed when they shot Kinsey this summer.
Despite what the Washington Post says, there aren't hoards of non-disabled people on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE) is offering paid policy fellowships for self advocates with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Autistic owned and operated business Stimtastic … Continue Reading ››

Future of Neurodiversity

What April Should Be

April 6, 2017 Larkin Taylor-Parker 1 Comment

April has become a month of memory even if we don't often talk about it that way. In April, we remember the Autistic community's conflict with Autism Speaks. Four years ago, that struggle was all-consuming. It was impossible not to take a side. For people on the side I chose, neurodiversity, hope for Autistic people as we are, hope for a vibrant, diverse humanity, it was hard to go a day without thinking about what felt like an existential threat. Every day that went by was another day of cure research, another day when resources devoted to cure research weren't used to show the world what we knew: that an Autistic life could be a worthwhile one. Living under that oppressive sense that we were running out of time, that someone was always trying to wipe us out, wore people down. What we did about it wore people down. Exhaustion … Continue Reading ››