Being an ally to the intellectually disabled community

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Tumblr recently, reading what some intellectually disabled (ID) folks have to say about disability advocacy. My main takeaway is that ID folks do not feel supported by prominent autism advocacy groups like ASAN and feel left out of conversations about autism issues led by non ID autistics. I’m going to summarize some of the things I learned from ID autistics and talk about some ways to make our advocacy more inclusive. If you want to read the work of the people I am learning from, message me on Tumblr. I want to cite my sources, but I don’t want anyone to bully the people I am learning from, which is a big problem for ID people using social media.

First off, my advocacy is not accessible. I have been indoctrinated by academia and I am rewarded for writing in the most pretentious way possible. Big words and complex sentences are not accessible to intellectually disabled people. I have a really hard time writing simply, and I’m afraid if I don’t use specific words I will be misunderstood. This is an example of conflicting access needs. To solve this problem, I’m going to start adding a TL;DR in the captions of my posts.

One of the issues ID autistics have with non ID autistic advocates is the discussion around functioning labels. Many ID autistics find the label “low functioning” useful. Part of intellectual disability is struggling with words and language. When the language around degrees of autism is constantly changing, it can be hard for ID autistics to explain their identity. I personally don’t like functioning labels because it implies that my existence is defined by the way I perform under capitalism. I do not want functioning labels applied to me, but I acknowledge that it is easier for me to survive in this world than it for someone with an ID. I wholeheartedly support people using whatever label feels best for them.

Lastly, we need to do more to include ID autistics everywhere. I want to see more positivity for intellectually disabled people. So frequently, autistic self-advocates are focused on separating ourselves from autism stereotypes, that we throw people who do meet those stereotypes under the bus. It is okay if someone struggles with writing, understanding complex concepts, or needs assistance with everyday tasks. I understand that it sucks to have assumptions made about your abilities, but that is no excuse to demean people whose abilities are more limited than yours.