“Much-needed reform”

I’ve consciously picked a title that probably causes a pang of stress in my fellow civil servants. Politicians talk frequently about the need for reform; the result of the desire to change and improve things in government is generally more work for civil servants to do the changing and improving. Contrary to the stereotype of Sir Humphrey Appleby, civil servants do frequently embrace the need for change, even if they feel a bit tired. And that’s lucky because I actually want to talk here about the need for reform and change and improvement and ideally what I’d like to see happen in 2023. Yesterday I talked about the need for reform (the vision) and today I’d like to say a bit more about the actions.

A quick recap: “autism” is not and must not be a dirty word. It is not a shameful thing to be autistic or to have an autistic family member. It is becoming a normal thing to have autistic employees, managers and leaders. Autistic people can be clever and strong and brilliant or complete and total prats. We don’t have superpowers – we are people who have strengths and weaknesses just like all other people. Some of us need round the clock care, and some of us don’t need anything much. If around one to two people in a hundred is autistic, then you know a lot of autistic people. We need to be boring, unremarkable and “meh” if we’re to have true equality. But how to achieve that?

As context: in the days before Christmas, I wrote posts based on the seven O Antiphons and as the days after Christmas are mostly Christian festivals of various kinds I’m bouncing off them as well until Epiphany or they run out, whichever comes soonest. 2 January is (slightly – it’s not a biggy in the Christian calendar in the UK) celebrated as a day for remembering St Basil the Great. St Basil lived in the fourth century in what is now Turkey and is patron saint of a whole bunch of stuff including Russia (further comment avoided for geo-political reasons) and reformers. He’s also the patron saint of hospital administrators – who’d-a-thunk? – but I think I’ll go with the reformer aspect of St Basil as it fits what I want to talk about.

So – what reform might make autism boring? (Possibly the very great many words I’ve written on this blog has already achieved that outcome for you, although I do try to keep it chirpy. Feedback always welcome.) The things that need to be got rid of are the shame, fear, and stigma associated with autism. Also the idea that autistics are rare and strange or special. I gather back in the 1990s a medic would have expected to see one or two autistic patients in an entire county. Nowadays its more likely to be one or two per school year group. That’s not because autism’s got more common – it’s because we’re getting better at recognising it. And seeing how common it actually is in human populations makes it a bit less remarkable – it’s a big step on the way to boring.

So Step 1 on my Plan for Reform is:

Get everyone to realise how common autism is.

Unless you live in a tiny closed community you are almost guaranteed to know multiple autistic people. If you work, some of your wider network of colleagues will be autistic. Some of your friends and family may be autistic. Some of their friends and family are bound to be. You may be an undiagnosed autistic yourself, or married to one, or you may already be out-and-proud and raising awareness of what autism actually is. In 2022 when I mentioned my autism, people found it interesting or worthy of comment. During 2023 I’d like that to change, please. Let’s have a much needed reform of normalising autistic people. That doesn’t mean treating us identically to everyone else – but it does mean accepting that we are part of the mass of humanity.

This post was brought to you by the Collect for St Basil (a Collect being a prayer for the day):

Lord God,

whose servants Basil and Gregory

proclaimed the mystery of your Word made flesh,

to build up your Church in wisdom and strength:

grant that we may rejoice in his presence among us,

and so be brought with them to know the power of your unending love;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.