How to change the world

It’s all too common for autistic people to be victimised, which is an extremely bad thing, but how to change it? Autistic people can be total prats ourselves, and we’re capable of bigotry and just as many bad things as any other human. So it’s not that we’re poor little people who need the world to look after us like helpless children. It’s easy to get very angry about the ways in which the world is cruel to people who are different and that anger can be absolutely right. But anger may not be the best way to change things right now.

I get very angry about a lot of things – including how my fellow autistics get treated all too often. But in order to change that I (we) need to persuade the world to see us as fully human. Boring, normal and ordinary. And shouting angrily at people may not be the most persuasive way to do that. We’re now in the season of the Christian year when people thing about how their lives could and should be better: the season of Lent. It’s a big trait in Christian thinking that rather than telling other people off, you should sort yourself out first. Being an example of how the world ought to be is more effective than wagging a finger. And I’m fully aware that Christians are not always particularly good at doing that and self-righteously wagging a finger at other people is sooo much more fun than being a better person yourself. So much, so human.

But how to make the world better in as positive a way as possible? How to change attitudes without telling people off, since telling people off is more likely to make them angry than make them change? I’ve been talking openly about my autistic experiences for a few years now (my first ever article was this one from 2021) and I try to talk about my experiences, keeping it personal. I hope that if I explain why my autistic brain leads me to do certain things, people will come to be more understanding. I also hope by talking openly to encourage other autistic people not to feel so alone, and maybe to speak out in turn. I also imagine that by sticking to my lived experiences as far as possible I don’t sound too much like I’m generalising or judging other people’s experiences.

My idea is that autism needs to be normalised in our culture so that it’s no longer noticeable, scary, or odd to neurotypical people. Reducing that weirdness factor should make it easier to treat us equally. Fundamentally, society does need to get used to the idea that some people are autistic and that’s just how it is. It’s not OK to use autism as an insult, but it’s understandable that people might do so until they come to understand the effects of their actions. I could write something very angry and probably get a fair few likes on social media from other autistics, but those aren’t the people I’m trying to reach. I’d much rather help someone who maybe knows one autistic child to understand that autism is actually pretty common and not every autistic is like the child they know, as that might make them more accepting of the new autistic they meet.

It’s tricky that in the professional sphere, autistic employees may well need what other employees want in terms of reasonable adjustments. The law is very clear about reasonable adjustments for disability, but getting angry that people don’t understand the law won’t change minds. I’d much rather improve things for everyone but getting the management basics right while also increasing the visibility of autistic role models in professional jobs. That way everyone benefits and autistic people gradually become normalised and accepted more.

So while I’d like nothing better than for autistics to feel absolutely confident that they will be treated fairly and with equity throughout society I’m hoping that will be achieved by persuasion and education. I might be kidding myself that it’s possible, and a bit more shouting and finger wagging may be needed to get things sorted, but for now – in Lent – I’m attempting what I hope is the Christian approach.