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Practice, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
A two hour talk can look functional and cost the speaker the day
In short
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.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Autistic advocates who speak at diversity days keep paying for it after they leave the stage. That was the argument put to the closing dialogue of Australia’s first Autistic Pride Day Symposium, in Melbourne on 18 June 2023, by a speaker who described themselves as a teacher and a non autistic person, working closely with a colleague called Jess in a team that is mostly autistic.
The speaker introduced the point as the flip side of masking. Earlier in the session a panellist had warned about functioning labels, saying that “even if you’re perceived as high functioning there are days when your needs are higher”. The teacher took that warning and applied it to the stage.
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Sources the story draws on
- "Putting on My Best Normal": Social Camouflaging in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions (opens in a new tab), Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (via PubMed Central)
- "Having All of Your Internal Resources Exhausted Beyond Measure and Being Left with No Clean-Up Crew": Defining Autistic Burnout (opens in a new tab), Autism in Adulthood (record at PDXScholar, Portland State University)
More from Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
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