Tea, Biscuits, and Autism

Today, today as I write this, probably not today when I publish this, right now, I am having emotions . This is a fairly normal thing, right? We're living breathing animals, we have emotions. However, I find it confusing. Some emotions I've managed to more or less pin down: dreading, pleased, frustrated, comfortable, neglected, some others. But many others, I don't truly understand, they are vague and nebulous, just a... feeling, that's affecting me in some way. As I write this, I'm trying to focus on the emotion I'm going through. It feels tense. It has elements of frustration. I'm also a bit tearful. More than anything, though, I feel disconnected, that I've broken free of my moorings, that my brain isn't tied particularly closely to reality. It's unsettling. It's not a feeling of physical disconnection, or disembodiment - I'm fortunate enough not to suffer with that - but more that sensory perception is almost overwhelmingly magnifi...

Nothing that I specifically need to add, just wanted to link to this, because it is such a model for how companies can act when it comes to hiring autistic people. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/why-microsoft-hiring-autistic-talent-drive-creativity/1458408   Speaking at the #DiverseMinds conference in London today (1 March), Michael Vermeersch, digital inclusion lead at Microsoft, said that the company’s drive to hire autistic talent has an 80% success rate.  Sharing what he described as "the greatest feedback he had ever received," he explained how one such employee had stated: "For the first time in many years I feel like it is not a weakness to have a disability." An open policy Microsoft launched a pilot project to hire autistic people in April 2015. According to Vermeersch, when Mary Ellen Smith, the corporate vice-president for operations, spoke at the United Nations about a pilot scheme the company had launched to employ people w...

The language of autism, or rather, of describing autism and autistic people can be vague and shifting. After all, both the science and the community are developing. And I don't claim this to be anything other than my view; nevertheless, sometimes words are used which bother me a bit, and I'd like to address that. Asperger's Syndrome : was a diagnosis first introduced in 1944, and removed from widespread medical usage in 2013. As with many obsolete medical terms, increased understanding meant that its definition was no longer felt to be accurate. However, many people diagnosed with Asperger's during those seven decades are still very happy to identify with it (or the colloquial Aspie), and I'd not criticise that. That said, if you don't personally identify as having Asperger's, or you're not talking to/about someone who you know does identify that way, then it's best to avoid the term. Autistic Spectrum Disorder : is the medically accepted term. I...