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sunshinegremlin · 2 years

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Just thought I'd share a company that sent me such a lovely response to an email I sent to them about an autism product. I was so worried they'd ignore me or tell me that they have autistic family so they don't care or whatever, but instead I got this 🥺

I am so happy that they are going to look back at my revisions of their products in the future and that my voice was truly heard.

I'm hoping to see a change in a year or so! They do tassels and cords for graduation and weddings and whatnot, and they do have an option to make custom ones!!! I highly suggest if you're interested :) they seem like such a loving company that truly wants to listen. I think I'm gonna buy from them after all for my graduation :D

Here's what I sent them under the cut if that helps with anyone scripting to companies in the future! (TW: autism cure narrative discussed)

Good evening!

I may be a future customer soon, which brought me to your website. I love the amount of options you have for graduates! I am autistic, and so it was surprising when I came across a tassel for curing autism.

Unfortunately some organizations have called for a cure over the years for people who are like me. The unfortunate part of that is that the vast majority of those who want a cure are not autistic and are not understanding what they are asking for. Autism does come with a lot of challenges. I myself face daily challenges, but I also love how autism allows me to see the world like no one else. I am proud of my autism, and it breaks my heart to hear so many people saying I need to be cured instead of just supported and accepted and accommodated.

So it was hard to see that your autistic tassel was under the label of "TASSELS 4 A CURE". I understand the sentiment, and I also understand where that may be coming from! But I also believe that the viewpoint of trying to cure autism is much more harmful than helpful to us as a community. I’ve added some resources below that share this idea more accurately than I can in a customer service page, and I hope they are beneficial!

Here are some articles about a specific autism organization that should not be supported:

https://dailycampus.com/2020/10/07/big-brain-energy-the-problem-with-autism-speaks/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/14/biggest-autism-advocacy-group-is-still-failing-too-many-autistic-people/

https://autisticmama.com/do-not-support-autism-speaks/

Here are some articles against the idea of cures for autism:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/cure-autism-not-so-fast-n1055921

https://time.com/6092407/autism-making-life-easier/

I also really suggest looking at this autism organization, as I think it is one of the best:

https://awnnetwork.org/

I would absolutely love to see a new line out by your company possibly labeled "TASSELS 4 ACCEPTANCE" Which could not only include your current pride tassels but also neurodivergent disorder tassels in general, such as for autism. I think that would be an amazing route to take, and would show support for not only autistic people, but also the larger community of neurodivergent people as a whole (including those with learning disabilities, lifelong developmental disorder, etc). The campaign could also be for people with other disabilities that are lifelong and not wanting a cure as well (I am not as studied in that regard but I am sure there is information online from those disabled voices as well!).

The symbol that autistic people are also currently adopting is moving away from puzzle piece motifs as it has been used in harmful rhetoric, and is instead becoming a rainbow infinity symbol. I would absolutely LOVE to see that for graduation tassels, and that symbol would be all inclusive to ALL neurodivergent people, including autistic people. To also combat autism organizations that have ignored actually autistic voices, a campaign has also been running called #RedInstead to combat the color blue motif also used for autism, and I would love to see a change from blue to red in solidarity.

Ultimately, I am so happy to see LGBTQ+ tassels sold on this website. I am hopeful that those products are a show of your company's progressive efforts to give everyone the opportunity to love themselves at graduation. I think this matter is important so as to fully fulfill both your company’s mission statement of commemorating “milestones, and adorn your essentials” as well as your vision statement of connecting “humankind by crafting beautiful and meaningful products while demonstrating a clear responsibility to customers, community, and each other”. By creating a line of TASSELS 4 ACCEPTANCE, you would be giving us a way to have pride in the essential parts of who we are (for many in my community our autism and neurodiversity is seen as essential to our beings) as well as a way to celebrate the milestones we have achieved despite our differences. This change would also show that disabled people are valued by your company as showing a responsibility towards us of love and acceptance.

I understand that the change of removing the autism tassel from TASSELS 4 A CURE and creating a whole new tassel line for (what could be possibly named) TASSELS 4 ACCEPTANCE takes a lot of time, but the joy you would be creating for specific customers from my community would be more than you would ever truly understand. To be accepted fully for who I am, not only as an autistic person but also as a generally neurodivergent person, would make me feel free to truly be myself in the face of adversity. I am proud of who I am, and I hope in the future that others in my community can show their pride through your tassels at graduation.

I understand this email might go to just a customer service employee. I ask that this email is shared with higher ups, as I believe this is an important subject. I do not need to hear from higher ups at all (in fact that sounds stressful haha), though if anyone has questions they can definitely have a conversation with me in regards to my thoughts on accurate autism representation. I would appreciate hearing if this email has been forwarded is all, in hopes that my efforts towards providing my own view of my disorder and how a change in your merchandise would support people like me was effectively shared. I understand that this topic can be controversial, and so I thank you for taking the time to hear my voice today, and to think over what I have shared. It might also be beneficial for your company to speak with the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN), as they may be able to connect more with your company as they are a company as well.

Thank you very much!

#im actually so pleased and surprised #i was so nervous emailing them last night and it was kinda a random decision to email #i didnt know if it would be meaningful at all #but now i feel so heard #and i feel like my message will help a company move towards better rhetoric #i feel good today #:)#adult autistic #actuallyautistic #neurodivergent #neurodiversity #actually autistic #autism #autistic #mental health #actually neurodivergent

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meganmaherstoryart · 4 years

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Happy Autism Acceptance Month! :D This is a very quick doodle of my autistic character Chiaki with the autism symbol of rainbow infinity! I’m currently working on her story because I feel it’s important for there to be more books about autism written by autistic people, such as myself, to show that autism has a ton of wonderful things about it! My favorite aspects are how it gives me special interests which are so much fun to squee about with others and learn more about and immerse myself in, and how it gives me a superpower of sorts when it comes to being able to observe little details and notice things that most people just ignore (such as the way the light makes the wings of bees shimmer as they sit on the flowers)! :D

This got long, but below is a bunch of info about autism and Autism Acceptance Month, so please read it if you have the chance! ^_^

You are probably going to see a lot of posts this month about “Autism Awareness” and “Light it up blue” and see symbols like puzzle pieces. All of these come from the hate group Autism Speaks, who is trying to drive the narrative that autism is a disease that needs to be eradicated. They spend their research money hoping they can find a way to test for it in the womb so the parents can abort the child or find a cure for it. They promote a type of therapy that tries to get autistic people to learn how to pass as “normal” by forcing them to act in a way that goes against everything that comes naturally to them. Ironically, they don’t have autistic people speaking in their organization. Everything is from the perspective of parents and siblings of autistic people, and it’s all with the narrative that dealing with an autistic person is a huge burden and that being autistic is a fate worse than death.

We in the autistic community do not like the idea of “awareness” as it has that connotation of something bad you’re trying to prevent from happening, such as “breast cancer awareness” and “sexual assault awareness.” Their color is blue because of the false notion autism is more prevalent in boys (it’s not, it’s simply that the autism stereotype is how it presents in young boys so thus they get tested as kids while girls like me often don’t get tested and diagnosed until we’re adults). Their symbol is a puzzle piece, which has a connotation that we don’t fit in. Please don’t support these things or anything from Autism Speaks. Instead, please support groups like ASAN (the Autistic Self Advocacy Network) and our April event of AutismAcceptance and RedInstead. If you see any autism awareness or light it up blue things in your workplace or schools, please be an ally and ask them to change it to Autism Acceptance.

We prefer Autism Acceptance because we just want to be accepted for who we are! Autism isn’t something separate from us, it IS who we are. We have RedInstead because red is the opposite of blue. But I like that choice because it’s also a color associated with being passionate, something most autistics are if you get them talking about their special interest. And our symbol is the rainbow infinity to represent neurodiversity in general and the diversity of autistic people. Autism presents itself differently in girls and boys, in different age groups, and in different individuals. It’s like how all ice cream has that base of being ice cream, but it comes in lots of different flavors. We all have the base of autistic traits, but how those traits present themselves can vary from autistic person to autistic person.

Which brings me to how the majority of autistic people prefer identity-first language (autistic people) instead of person-first language (people with autism). Person-first language separates the person from whatever the bad thing is in the sentence, such as, “person experiencing homelessness” or “person with cancer.” This means that whatever you’re separating IS bad and you’re trying to show that it’s something “other” than who they are and they’re dealing with or have. It is very important to use that in those cases. But with autism, we don’t see it as a bad thing in of itself. We don’t see it as separate from who we are. It IS who we are. It’s like how you don’t say “person whose job is making art” you say “artist” or you don’t say “person who experiences gay attraction” you say “gay person” or you don’t say “person who has children” you say “parent” Those are all aspects of who you are, and for us autistics, being autistic is as much being a part of who we are as those things.

Now, I’m not trying to invalidate the struggles that autistic people face. We do have a ton of those, but they are all very much society-based for whether or not they’re a problem. For instance, eye contact is painful and extremely difficult for most autistic people. In a society like America where if you’re not making eye contact constantly while in a conversation, it’s considered rude and makes people think you’re not paying attention to them or their expressions. It makes in-person conversations difficult for me if I have to actively think about making eye contact, because that takes so much effort that I end up not being able to pay attention to what the people are saying. But in a society like Japan, making constant eye contact is what is considered rude, so it’s not an issue. It’s also not an issue when I’m with friends who know that I am reading their hand expressions instead of their facial expressions and allow me to not make eye contact, or in situations where it’s normal to not be making eye contact, like talking with someone who is driving a car and I’m in the passenger seat, or taking a walk side-by-side so we’re not facing each other.

And that is why we want Autism Acceptance. Please accept us as we are. We do things differently, we think differently. It’s very much like being left or right-handed. In the past, left-handed people were forced to write with their right hands (myself included in kindergarten until my mom found out my teacher was making me do that and she demanded the teacher allow me to use my left-hand as I’d been very obviously left-handed since I was a baby). But now it’s perfectly acceptable for people to write with the hand their brain is wired to do. Autistic brains are wired differently, and we just want to be able to live our lives in the way that our brains are wired to do.

Thank you to all of my friends out there who do love and accept me just as I am! ^_^ I’ve very grateful for you! ^_^ <3

#autism acceptence month #autism acceptance #actually autistic #autism information #autism #megansthoughts #megansdrawings&illustrations #megansoriginalart #meganstraditionalart

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