KiluOne more thread about #AutisticLinguistics, #Autism, #Ableism. It was incredibly relieving to realize that so many of my previously unexplained struggles were simply due to disability. What's been harder was acknowledging that I do, in fact, have superpowers, too.
You see, I never really believed in talent. For everything that I am good at, I have spend thousands of hours practicing. Still, it didn't occur to me that having perfect representations of a given sound sequence in your mind was not just a matter of commitment.
I only realized recently that most people probably simply don't have that option. Also, most people habituate to repeated stimuli. And they might not have the hyperfocus it requires to send your mind into the smallest crevices of your vocal tract and fine-tune those organs
until the sounds you produce are identical to the ones you hear. So the silent judgement I reserved for the vast majority of people I took language classes with was ableist.
Another aspect is that I actually find it more painful to be treated like a freak because of my abilities than being dismissed for my disabilities. I've been prodded like a show animal. One guy in Vanuatu actually thought I was a demon. Ok, that was in fact funny.
And please note that not all autistic people have "powers". All of us are worthy of empathy and dignity regardless of our skills. All of us have a unique experience of the world, and all of our memories will eventually be lost, like tears in the rain.
Agnès Henri@kilu Hey Kilu! thank you for the thread. That kind of insight is really useful, I think, both for neurotypical and neurodivergent people (colleagues, students, etc... ) here.
@AgnesHenri Thanks!