I spent two days exhibiting at the Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability & Diversity surrounded by people with talents beyond my dreams. These are great minds that work harder than most just to be heard. They have greater capabilities and bigger hearts than those who try to keep them down by failing to accommodate them and by failing to see the beauty of their souls.
Ever feel like you are different, but you lack the sensory sensitivities and musical or artistic gifts of your child on the spectrum? Ever have a bad case of “foot in mouth” syndrome? Do you sometimes feel like you do not belong in either the neurotypical world or the autism world? Maybe someone called you a half-aspie and you decided that is not a bad thing! That’s a new term coined by Laura Nagle, self-described as professionally autistic and an autism advocate, and I’m the one she called half-aspie.
Truth be told that term probably applies to most parents of children on the autism spectrum. Those of us following the dialogue within the autism community know that we are not a cohesive community yet, although many on working towards this goal. We need adults like Laura to help educate the community at large so the world will hopefully be a better place for our children as they become adults.
Laura states on her home page, “True awareness requires some understanding of what autism is…I wish society to go beyond acceptance and on to appreciation.”
Laura found me recently on Twitter through the #youmightbeanautismparentif and #youmightbeanaspieif links. You can follow her @HardAspie, where she shares her hard-earned aspie insights. However, Laura’s story is also being made into a documentary that will add to the autism dialogue and hopefully help the younger generation like my teenage daughter. The short video explains this better than I can, so I hope you will watch it and decide to help fund this.
