Anna NicholsonEven though the second LVAC is now coming to a formal close, it’s not too late to sign up!
If you do, you’ll have access to recordings of all the talks from Wednesday and Friday
These will be online until 31 May
A very powerful talk by Warda, coming back to institutional racism, anti-Blackness and intersections with ableism
‘You need to apply yourself more’
Translation:
‘You need to do things a certain way’
Processes for diagnosis are biopolitical, colonial and racist, says Warda – but there is hope for change
#intersectionality #diagnosis #ActuallyAutistic #LondonVirtualAutisticConference2
Anna NicholsonWarda Farah is up next at LVAC
She is a speech and language therapist who works specifically with Black and minoritised people through her company Language Waves, in an affirming and non-medicalised way
Melissa is talking about the intersections of being Black and Autistic in white, neurotypical spaces
She has to mask in (NT) Black spaces because she’s Autistic
And she has to mask in (white) Autistic spaces because she’s Black
#intersectionality #InstitutionalRacism #masking #LondonVirtualAutisticConference2
Next up at LVAC is Melissa Simmonds, who coordinates the Sheffield Autism Partnership Network, which works to foster partnerships between different organisations that support Autistic people
She was born in Yorkshire to Jamaican parents (both first-generation immigrants)
She is continuing to address the theme of transition to adulthood, and like other speakers, she is interested in questioning normative markers of adulthood
Just realised that Ben (Usher-Barrass) is the same Ben (usually disguised as a potato) who I’ve seen in Aucademy videos along with Chloe Farahar and others
They have some great material:
Aucademy
Welcome to Aucademy© At Aucademy© we are a new home for Autistic learning and the education of non-autistic people about Autistic experience Learn more Thank you to all the wonderful learners and educators who nominated Aucademy in the ITV national diversity awards, 2021.“The best way to learn about autism is from Autistic educators. Therefore, we…
All three speakers so far today have talked about suicide and Autistic distress, which feels a bit much
The current speaker, Ben, who I think is using AAC, has usefully reminded me that Rachel Cullen came up with the Autistic Language Hypothesis
Some messages from Rachel on preparing children for adulthood:
Teach kids to stim
Learn from Autistic adults
Validate the experiences of children
Make Autistic (and queer!) adults visible
(There’s loads more, but they’re cramming a lot into their talk!)