Library / Watch / Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
Practice, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
Autistic panellists described allyship as work done with the real person
In short
Asked at the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium what an ally looks like, panellists answered with practice, from unmasking in public to a written user guide handed to a manager.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
The question came from a panellist who told the closing Q&A of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Melbourne that much of their life had been spent on allyship and anti racism, particularly in relation to their obligation to First Nations communities as a migrant to this country. The panellist then asked “what would an ally look like in this context”. Nobody answered with a slogan. Each speaker described something that had to be done, most of it involving autistic people making themselves known on their own terms and allies being prepared to receive them.
The first answer placed allyship inside a larger frame. One panellist, listening to the day’s discussion of masking and of people not understanding what autism is, said the starting point was to treat autistic or neurodivergent liberation as a social movement, and autistic people as a minority group that experiences degrees of minority stress.
Sign in to keep reading, listening and watching.
Sign in with your email and everything in the Library is open to you: every story, every talk and every episode. It is free and it always will be. If you can, a donation helps keep it free for everyone.
Sources the story draws on
- Extending the Minority Stress Model to Understand Mental Health Problems Experienced by the Autistic Population (opens in a new tab), Society and Mental Health (record at UCL Discovery, University College London)
- Inquiry into services for people with autism spectrum disorder: transcript of evidence, Aspergers Victoria (opens in a new tab), Parliament of Victoria, Family and Community Development Committee
More from Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
All 29-
2 minutes 38 seconds, captioned Neurotype, culture or disorder, the first symposium’s closing dialogue began with language Kyriakos Gold Asked what autism is, speakers at the close of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Melbourne described a brain style and a culture, and split on whether the word disorder should stay. - 2 minutes 20 seconds, captioned A panellist argued autism research had been built through a white, male, cisgender lens Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023 Asked to explain intersectionality at the closing dialogue of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, a panellist asked who had shaped the field’s understanding of autism, and whose lives it left out.
- 3 minutes 50 seconds, captioned A panellist warned that anti trans politics was weaponising autism and gender identity Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023 At the close of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, a panellist said autistic people are more likely to be queer and trans, and explained why research into it was met with suspicion.
- 5 minutes 23 seconds, captioned Some parents froze at the word autism, and others felt relief Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023 Asked at the close of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium whether autism still carried stigma, speakers described culturally diverse families, schoolyard taunts and the moment a diagnosis finally makes sense.
- 3 minutes 25 seconds, captioned A two hour talk can look functional and cost the speaker the day Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023 At the close of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, a non autistic teacher in a mostly autistic team described what audiences do not see when autistic advocates tell their stories on stage.
- 8 minutes 22 seconds, captioned A panellist warned of a lost generation of undiagnosed autistic seniors Kyriakos Gold At the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, a panellist described a lost generation of older autistic Australians and argued that aged care has to be planned for people who may never get a diagnosis.