How we define disability
How we define disability is an interesting topic to me. I’ve discussed this from various angles in conversation and it seems that the majority of non-disabled people have a very narrow view of what disability is.
The commodification of neurodiversity
It’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025 and I’m enjoying the webinars I’ve attended so far. One theme which is creating a running thread in my mind is the commodification of neurodiversity.
What does AI think of autistic people?
I recently did an e-learning course where I added a disclaimer to all my answers that they were indeed my own words, because I first came up against accusations of plagiarism age 7…
Wheel of Power and Privilege
The Wheel of Power and Privilege was developed by Sylvia Duckworth and has been adapted for different uses…
Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2024
I only realised I was dyspraxic 6 years ago when I was already pretty far into my journey learning about neurodivergence. Before I knew the right label I had always described myself as having “a physical learning disability”…
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Autistic Revolution magazine
Autistic Revolution is a digital magazine for and by autistic people. It coves a wide range of very relevant topics…
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What does a Labour government mean for neurodiversity?
It’ll be no surprise to anyone that I was delighted with the outcome of the General Election, not least because for the first time in 100 years, a party other than Conservative holds the seat for Horsham; a constituency that has been consistently blue for a century has gone yellow, and not before time…
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Alexithymia: What is it?
Last week I wanted to explain Alexithymia to someone without using too many spoons, so I thought to myself “aha! I will give them the link to the article I have obviously written on the subject”. Well, that article only existed in my head so it’s time to get it out of there, on to here…
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Review: A Kind of Spark (BBC drama)
It may be children’s programme, but it stirred emotions in me, as an adult, because of the relatability of the main characters and their experiences. I thought it would be a good, light pre-bed watch…
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I think I got away with it…
The other day I came across a post from Chris Bonnello (Autistic not Weird) about his experiences in education, with some prompts that inspired me to write this blog…
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What do I need to know about neurodiversity?
That’s a big question and the answer depends on why you want to know, and what relationship you have with the subject. Before you get there, though, understand that neurodiversity is first and foremost a concept. It is the idea that everyone has a different brain, a different neurology or neurotype…
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Review: Dinosaur (BBC sitcom)
I’m four episodes in, and it’s great. Nina, the lead autistic character does a great job of representing sensory and social overwhelm, confusion at change and social rules…
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My 6 year autiversary
I got my formal diagnosis on the 19th of April 2018, which is fitting because that’s Autism Acceptance (or Awareness, as it was back then) Month. My friends and family became more aware…
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My new favourite podcast
The podcast I look forward to most is a new one (we are 6 episodes in) from Danny Whitty, an autistic author, poet, publisher, podcaster, social media guru and advocate…
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Neurodiversity Celebration Week podcasts
The early part of the year sees Neurodiversity Celebration Week in March and then Autism Acceptance Month in April, so there’s a whole flurry of activity tied to these events…
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What’s it like being autistic?
It’s a question I get asked a lot. It’s also one that I have found hard to answer in the past, but the more I’ve been asked it, the better I’ve got an expressing it. I can’t really know how being autistic “feels” compared to being allistic*, which is how I’d have to frame an answer for it to make any sense…
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SpellX 2024
Saturday 24th February was SpellX, an I-ASC event for nonspeakers to showcase their talents and insights in a virtual salon style event. Online events are often much more accessible for autistic people anyway…
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The Buckland Review of Autism Employment
This review looks at the picture of autistic employment in the UK. It’s a fairly in-depth and comprehensive review that takes a few different angles on the matter of sustainable, meaningful employment for autistic adults…
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On Our Own Terms: Emerging Autistic Culture by Martijn Dekker
I’m sure my fellow neurodivergent readers will appreciate the feat I accomplished by finally reading one of the PDFs I’ve had open for over a year…
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How overwhelm impacts employment prospects
If there’s one major thing I have learned about my neurodivergence over the last year, it’s that I need to listen to what my brain tells me. It’s the same as my gut, in terms of intuition…
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Self-employment for neurodivergent people
One aspect of the work I do is designing and delivering neurodiversity training for employers, businesses or any establishment that wants to do the right thing by neurodivergent employees, services users and clients…
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My Quora top 8
I’ve been writing on Quora for a few years now and it tends to run in phases – sometimes I have had the time and inclination to sit and dedicate a couple of hours to answering questions on an A2A (ask to answer) basis. There are other times…
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Meeting the needs of autistic adults in mental health services
This is the title of some newly published guidance…
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The only time the puzzle piece is appropriate
The puzzle piece as a symbol to represent autism has a fair few problems and I’ve written about those already. However, I do find puzzle pieces to be relaxing in a really neurodivergent way when I am actually doing a jigsaw puzzle…
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Autism and the Beaufort scale
The Beaufort Scale, for those of you who don’t remember from school, is a 12-point scale for measuring wind intensity that we use to communicate whether you need a hat on outside, or if you need to strap down the wheelie bins…
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ABA: From argument to agreement? Part 4
This is the final part (for now) in my look at ABA, in which we look at the potential for meaningful change and how autistic people can benefit from so-called “behavioural” approaches. I have heard conversations with Andy Swartfigure who works as a Positive Behavioural Support consultant. He is someone who has had a long career in behaviourism…
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ABA: From argument to agreement? Part 3
Proponents of ABA seem to steer the narrative with a heavy hand, insisting that it is “the only evidence based practice” and that without it there is no hope for autistic children. Leaving aside the ableism inherent in that statement, I will say that there ARE alternatives, evidence based alternatives…
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ABA: From argument to agreement? Part 2
Following on from the first part of this dive into the world of ABA we’re looking at the topic of social validity, something which ABA researchers and practitioners have been aware of for some time, but which does not appear to have been addressed in any meaningful way…
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ABA: From argument to agreement? Part 1
The most widely known quote from Ivar Lovaas is that the goal of ABA is to make autistic people “indistinguishable from their peers”. The person who is considered to be the founder of behavioural therapy sought to eradicate the outward signs, the receptive and expressive behaviours of autistic people to make us blend in…
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I-ASC Spellers & Allies meeting November 2023
Last night I attended my first Spellers and Allies (S&A) meeting with the International Association for Spelling as Communication…
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Autism and visual perception
Autistic people are often very good at visual perception – basically we are great at Where’s Wally, Spot The Difference and other tasks that require pattern spotting abilities. Sometimes it’s less a case of noticing the pattern, but of noticing something…
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Self-management week 2023
If you have a long-term condition, whether it’s physical, mental, or you’ve got a long list encompassing both, self-management is the one lifestyle change that will make the most difference to you now and in the future…
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Back from the brink of burnout
Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed the signs of burnout creeping up. I’ve been more sensitive to sensory input, my sleep has been affected, I feel tight and buzzy in a bad way…
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Objectivity vs. Subjectivity
One of the main things that sets the autistic neurotype apart from the allistic and/or predominant neurotype is the way we think about the world around us…
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Comparisons
Drawing comparisons between yourself and someone else is something I’ve long seen as misguided, ever since I realised it as a young adult. It is also something we are all prone to do…
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That’s my bag: Autistic identity
We fill our identity bags in the same way we would when we are shopping. We are presented with choice…
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Masking at home
Masking is a bit like performing. It’s a role, a character, a persona that we inhabit that helps us navigate the outside world. It can help keep us safe from discrimination but it is often done for the benefit of those around us, to make them feel comfortable despite us being deeply uncomfortable…
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2023: A year in reflection
Around 10 months ago I wrote a piece reflecting on the period between 2020 and 2022, and what had happened in that time. I have just read it again and it’s been a sobering reminder…
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Let’s talk about Pride
Autistic Pride Day falls on the 18th of June. I, like most autistic people who have heard of the event, did not know about the origins of the day, about who is credited with setting it up…
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Artistic autistics
I’m expanding my thoughts on art and autism into a blog post. Via a really smooth segue about this blog being art. See, I don’t consider it to be art. It’s not a creative writing kinda thing, although I do put effort into crafting sentences with things like alliteration or rhetorical callbacks…
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Addressing the double empathy problem, and social credit theory
My recent work designing and delivering neurodiversity training for employers and service providers has shown me something very interesting…
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Nonspeaking in autism deep dive – Part 3
This is the last (for now) part of my deep dive into the experiences and realities of being a non-speaking autistic person…
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Nonspeaking in autism deep dive – Part 2
I’m just coming up, metaphorically speaking, for air and to do a little brain dump of what I’ve learned so far…
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Nonspeaking in autism deep dive – Part 1
I went on a deep dive to learn about the experiences of non-speaking autistic people, and why speech is out of reach…
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PDA + RSD = Argh!
One of my current deep-dives is PDA. It’s part of the broader passion I have for neurodiversity and neurodivergency…
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A tablespoon of PDA
I like the term “neurospicy”. What I like about it is the allusion to flavour, because people’s individual neurodivergence is a bit like a recipe…
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Mask deconstructing and rebuilding
I’ve written about unmasking in the past, a piece which included my progress on unmasking and attempting to rebuild a mask that works for me that actually represents me. Part of masking, for me, is the ability to interact and communicate with others seamlessly. Part of this mask is the ability to use tone, inflection, and other rhetorical devices when speaking…
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Autism and loneliness
Dealing with loneliness doesn’t just mean being around people, that’s not right for everyone. Finding connections with a handful of people…
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Autism Acceptance Week 2023: Accepting the rest of my neurodivergence
I had intended to make an acceptance based post for each day of AAW but it coincides with me having a few days away in Wales (yes, it’s raining) so I haven’t had the time to write and edit properly and post on that schedule…
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Autism Acceptance Week 2023: Accepting my limitations
It may seem strange to say I have to accept limitations on what I can do post-diagnosis, because it implies that I did not have these limitations before diagnosis…
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Autism Acceptance Week 2023: Accepting my own autism
I write from a perspective of experience with a frame of acceptance. I try to provide insight into the autistic mind, and I try to be positive about it, or at least frame the results of negative experiences in a positive light…
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The difference between belonging and fitting in
This is a really important distinction for neurodivergent people, because for us (especially the late diagnosed among us) we will spend our lifetime attempting to fit in, and having to fit in for survival, but we may not feel like we belong anywhere…
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Regulation issue activities
I like the phrase “regulation-issue” for the implication of a standard. I know where I am with standardised things, which is why I’ve built up a standard list of things that regulate me – my regulation-issue regulating activities…
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The disclosure dilemma
Whether to disclose your neurdivergence at work, or indeed any other setting (such as in interest-related clubs and groups, social settings and in healthcare or financial settings) is a decision that is not taken lightly by autistic and/or neurodivergent people…
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Othering: negative or positive?
This piece is inspired by something I saw on the BBC documentary Inside Our Autistic Minds. I’m not going to do a full brain-dump of my thoughts on it, save for to say that it’s the first time…
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Have you tried yoga? Part 2
In which I explain how yoga has been beneficial for me in terms of managing some of the challenges of being ND, and draw parallels with my life over the last year or so…
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Have you tried yoga? Part 1
In which I accidentally end up in the most wholesome yoga “cult” going, and outline all the reasons why yoga and I weren’t friends already…
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How I remember stuff, and get it done
Planning, memory and doing life admin are all things that neurodivergent people find difficult for many reasons – it’s something that features in so many brain-based conditions (and in life events like menopause, generally stressful times and in other medical conditions)…
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Why my birthday is redacted
Transitions are hard for autistic people, and birthdays can represent significant transitions, especially when they fall on age-numbers that society deems special. I’ve got one coming up myself…
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Are we getting in our own way?
I’ve gone back and forth in my head about whether I should write and publish this article and I’m just going to start writing it, then see whether I feel brave and resilient enough to deal with any backlash when it’s finished…
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Accommodating society
When we talk about making reasonable adjustments it’s within the context of proving an “out” or a “free pass” on certain things that the majority of people are required and expected to do…
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Thriving, not just surviving
Lately I’ve seen a few of the neurodivergent people I follow on social media talk about autistic people thriving, and how it looks like the opposite to the diagnostic criteria. There’s been some interesting points made…
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Are autistic people supposed to struggle?
When I was diagnosed I was told that I will feel exhausted at the end of every day, that I’m “meant” to feel drained by masking and dealing with people, and that people won’t understand…
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Sustainability: management fuzzword or lifestyle?
When I started the journey of finding work in the area of delivering autism training/doing advocacy I used the word sustainable quite a lot. Turns out I have a different personal definition to others (what a surprise!)…
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How was Christmas?
“Did you have a nice Christmas?”, they ask. “It happened”, I reply, in a blend of cheery and weary honed over four decades.
“It happened” has been my stock response to that question for years.
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On unmasking
Masking is the process by which autistic (and otherwise neurodivergent) people suppress or hide their ND traits in order to “pass” or blend in with wider society. Many of us prefer the term “camouflaging”…
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Why CBT gaslights autistic people
CBT is short for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and it’s often used to treat anxiety and depression, especially when negative and harmful thoughts are part of how these conditions present..
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Overcoming having fun
Sounds like a weird concept, right? How is fun something to overcome? Surely having fun is the opposite of an obstacle? Well, yes. And no…
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Four (and a bit) terrifying words
“We’re having a Christmas do” This phrase, and related ones like “we’re having a few people over for nibbles and drinks”…
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Rewriting history: A new take on autism pioneers
Autism, as a clinical diagnosis, is generally attributed to three people…
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The inclusion illusion
One of the current issues the communities face is the use of language, some of which pathologises autism and how it presents…
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Two years in reflection
Last week I caught up with an old friend with whom I’d lost touch over the pandemic…
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What is neurodiversity?
What is neurodiversity? You may have heard the word a few times but not know what it really means and it’s understandable that many people are unfamiliar with the term. A lot of the terms I use in my blogging and in neurodiversity awareness…
On shared emotional experiences
I remember where I was when I heard that Diana, the former Princess of Wales had died. I was sitting in the same room when I heard that the late HM Queen Elizabeth II had died…
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Comfort zone or coping zone?
A “comfort zone” is a state in which someone feels in control and at ease with their surroundings. It is a behavioural state of low anxiety and low stress…
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Being autistic in the heat
My nervous system seems ill-equipped to regulate my temperature and my preference is to feel too cold rather than too hot (if I can’t feel “just right” like Goldilocks)…
Are labels harmful?
Humans use labels all the time to convey meaning about a set of things or people (or a single item or an individual) without needing to explain every facet of that person or object…
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Understanding autistic behaviour: A translation
Autistic behaviour is difficult for non-autistic people to read, in exactly the same way that non-autistic behaviour is difficult for us to read…
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The Open University Understanding Autism course – my take
Part of the background research for my career change was to do a few courses on the subject…
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Special interest post: foraging
Foraging is one of my special interests. I have several and they come and go…
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Shutdowns: A catatonic coda
I wrote recently about shutdowns, making reference to the Loos Miller study subject who experienced what I called an unusual presentation of a shutdown…
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Shutdowns: The causes and impacts
Shutdowns can be hard for non-autistic people to understand, and weirdly even more hard to understand when they’ve seen one as opposed to only reading or hearing about these episodes…
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Autistic employment
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data from 2021 shows that just 22% of autistic adults are in any kind of employment. This doesn’t include autistic people who volunteer…
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What’s wrong with the puzzle piece?
The puzzle piece symbol is associated with autism largely thanks to the use of the symbol by Autism Sp*aks…
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Happy Autiversary to me!
Today marks 4 years since I was diagnosed. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not really a birthday person. I sort of get why people celebrate them…
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But you’re high-functioning, right?
There’s considerable discussion (and pretty much a consensus) within the autistic community that “functioning” labels are unhelpful and something we need to get away from…
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When is a routine not a routine?
The conventional wisdom is that autistic people need routine, and that we can become very distressed when a routine isn’t followed, or is changed without it being our decision…
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My sensory support animal
Lots of people have support/service animals who fulfil a particular role. Some autistic people have a support animal who helps them deal with overwhelm…
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You can’t be autistic because…
This is something many of us hear on a regular basis when we disclose our diagnosis…
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When correction is incorrect
There are therapeutic interventions for autistic people that focus on “fixing” our social difficulties, and at stopping what is seen as challenging behaviour…
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Sensory: What is proprioception?
Proprioception is one of our eight senses, and it is tied quite strongly to our vestibular sense. Our vestibular sense is our sense of balance…
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The double empathy problem
One of the most commonly held myths about autistic people is that we have no empathy…
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Sensory: What is interoception?
You can be forgiven for not knowing what interoception is. As I type this, the word is underlined in squiggly red, so not even the Open Office dictionary knows what it is…
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Terminology of the neurodiversity movement
The autistic community, like any other minority community, is often ignored and spoken over. There seems to be a myth that autistic people are unable to speak for themselves…
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Days I’m not allowed
You might be thinking that the title is going to have a twist, because that seems like an incomplete sentence. It is, but it’s also a complete sentence.
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Why I disagree with an autistic lack of empathy
There are two main types of empathy. Affective empathy is when you feel the emotions of the person in distress and instinctively know what they are feeling…
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I’m not scared of the same things as other people
One of the thing’s I’ve always wondered about myself is why I can quite happily stand up in front of a group of people, even strangers, and…
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Suicidal ideation and the autistic mind Part 2
2021 was a thoroughly rubbish year. My Dad got ill in April and died in May, I was refused accommodations at work (and was challenged about another), and life got too much…
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Suicidal ideation and the autistic mind Part 1
A 2014 study of autistic adults in the UK found a staggeringly high correlation between autism and suicidal ideation…
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Mask wearing and healthcare access Part 2
I got my first Covid vaccination in March last year. At the time I was working for the NHS and therefore was able to get the vaccination as early as January. The issue I had was being able to have the jab without having to wear a mask…
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Mask wearing and healthcare access Part 1
The coronavirus pandemic needs no introduction, nor does the mandatory wearing of masks or cloth face coverings in all public spaces, including public transport and healthcare settings. There are exemptions to these rules regarding the wearing of face coverings…
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What do you care what other people think?
It’s a good question, posed by Arline Feynman to Richard in relation to his concerns about their joint Christmas card…
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A note on functioning
There’s considerable momentum in the autistic community to move away from functioning labels towards support level labels as an alternative…
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