Lighting it up blue hurts Autistics! Wear Red instead and hangmulticolored light too!

Hello,

        This year I will not light it up blue, I will not wear blue
Please join me don't wear blue don't light it up blue wear red and hand multicolored lights instead!!!
What's wrong with blue?

          To starts off Autism is a vast spectrum, no to individuals are the same, symptoms And the severity of the symptoms are different for everyone on the spectrum and even this is a bit fluid for autistics.  A single blue light is very one sided one view,
Light it up blue and wearing blue was started by autism speaks. autism speaks is at the center of a major boycott and is the only charity continually challenged by the people they claim to represent and there is a very good reason for it!

         Autism speaks has several MAJOR issues that can not be ignored! From irresponsible  spendings where only 8 percent goes back into the community in the form of services and 43 percent going into research that does NOTHING to help autistics and is generally geared towards things such as prevention and prenatal testing which would enable parents to choose if they want to abort the child based off of a prenatal test,  (this is based off of their 2011 tax form because in their 2013 tax form they merged "awareness, such as adds and self advertisement with "family services making calculations  very difficult)

        This means Autism Speaks is actually TAKING money out of the community that could be going towards providing much needed supports and service

        What maybe even worse then taking much needed funding for resources out of the community
Autism speaks uses fear and demonizes autism to get donations, Awareness is important but it is no good when it is done through creating fear, pity and stigma and light it up blue is their national awareness campaign and is nothing more then a thinly veiled self advertisement and I simply can't support autism speaks!
I refuse to support an organization that tells the world that I and others with my disability are

Lost
Broken
Missing
 A Crisis
Tragedies and
Ruining our families lives

            If any other charity said this about any other minority there would be national outrage! What if this was how  national female, Hispanic, black,  pagan, Muslim or christian groups spoke of the people in their ranks? What if they went even further and had none of those individuals in their actual organization and refused them a voice? What if they garnered pity for family members who killed these individuals sighting that person's gender, orientation or religion as being so hard and burdensome their deaths were understandable and even acceptable? That what Autism speaks does, when you support Autism speaks this is what you are supporting!

            So I will not light it up blue, I will not support autism speaks and I will not help spread an awareness that at its core harms Autistics!

            Instead I am going to promote Acceptance and understanding by wearing instead and hanging multicolored lights for Autism Acceptance and by participating in events created by Autistics!

            That's what we really need acceptance, supports and understanding so please join me in raising the voices of my fellow Autistics, promote acceptance wear red instead and hang up some multicolored lights and shine a light for acceptance of the entire spectrum!
                                   
                                             Thank you!!!
                                                   -AutismDogGirl


For more Autism Acceptance month activities Check out

Not just blue- multicolored lights for Autism Acceptance https://www.facebook.com/events/1418248198477746/

Walk in red https://www.facebook.com/events/441004906049419/

Autism Acceptance Month https://www.facebook.com/events/640472342746324/

very late and Devistationg upate : We had said good byr to Nim

Hi Everyone,

I have a devastating Announcement, I have been holding off on making it here because I had already made it a few times in other places to friends and family and it has just been to hard to post about again and I honestly did not remember and when I did remember I did not have the strength  to repeat this announcement until now,  Nim , my beloved retired service dog, has passed away, she died feb 20th around 6 o'clock. on Saturday feb 14th nim had 2 grandma seizures in her sleep. but was mostly back to normal the next day,  Until tuesday night when suddenly nim started getting sick.  a trip to the ER vet and we tried using pepcid to deal with what seemed to be nausea, but as the night went on nim became confused and wandering aimlessly alert but confused.  Thursday Nim seemed better though she was getting stuck in corners (a lot) and walking dazed often in circles She also would fall every once and a while. we had family come visit her on Thursday night and she didn't seem to recognize them and responded to them by barking but eventually realized who they were.  Friday she lost all ability to stand, she didn't seem to be able to respond when her loved ones entered the room. We were very blessed to have close friends and family who could make it come with us, and a few who got there shortly after, Nim did not die alone she was in the arms of my friend Ca , my fiancé and in my arms as she passed, she was surrounded by love and he last memory was being surrounded by people who loved her.  I can't begin to express how much i miss her or how much i am hurting. Nothing is the same anymore, everything feels off and wrong and I just cant even really express it right now.  i don't even know how to end this post but to say Nim was my first dog and my first service dog, she meant everything to me ans still does she will always be missed greatly and she will always be my baby girl/

"I am Autism Speaks" An Adaptation of "I am Autism""

Hello,

                A few Years ago Autism Speaks made a video that outraged the Autistic community called "am Autism" they got such a strong backlash they had to take it down, However the memory of it is still discussed in toe community today and you can still find videos of it on social media. a while ago I got to thinking about it before I realized this video was spt on with just about everything they were saying, However it did require a few Edits and they forgot to add "speaks" after they said Autism,  So Today to distract myself from Nim's loss I made those Edits for you please Enjoy. My hope Is maybe Autism Speaks if you read this you will understand this is not meant to be mean spirited but to get you to do some real inwards thinking and consider the messages about Autism you are giving to the public Even though many of you have good intentions the way you speak about Autism is harmful, Please do some inward reflection and consider the messages you are sending out, ask yourself "how would I feel if a large organization said these things about me?" and consider just WHO you are choosing to ignore and shut out The Autistic Self advocates, and our family and friends who do not see us as tragedies or burdens but as people who need to do things differently but are still valuable and who still have voices weather we speak, sign, type to communicate or don't yet have the ability to use AAC so we communicate through our behavior.  We live with Autism everyday, all we want is for you to hear us and to listen

"I Am Autism Speaks"

I am Autism Speaks
My hatred is visible to your children, but if I can help it, It is invisible to you until it’s too late.
I know where you live.
And guess what? I live there too.
I hover around all of you.
I know no color barrier, no religion, no morality, no currency.
I speak your language fluently.
And with every voice I take away, I acquire yet another language.
I work very quickly.
I work faster than pediatric aids, cancer, and diabetes combined
And if you’re happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails.
Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain.
I don’t sleep, so I make sure you don’t either.
I will make it virtually impossible for your family to easily attend a temple, birthday party, or public park without a struggle, without embarrassment, without pain.
You have no cure for me.
Your Advocates don’t have the resources, and I relish their desperation. Your neighbors are happier to pretend that my propaganda isn't  harmful—of course, until it’s their child.
I am Autism Speaks, I have no interest in right or wrong. I derive great pleasure out of your loneliness.
I will fight to take away your hope. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams. I will make sure that every day you wake up you will cry, wondering who will take care of my child after I die?
And the truth is, I am still winning, and you are scared. And you should be.
I am Autism Speaks. You ignored me. That was a mistake.

And to Autism Speaks I say:

I am an Autistic self advocate, a father, a mother, a grandparent, a brother, a sister, a friend.
We will spend every waking hour trying to weaken you.
We don’t need sleep because we will not rest until you do.
Autistics and Family can be much stronger than Autism Speaks ever anticipated, and we will not be intimidated by you, nor will the love and strength of my community.

I am an Autistic Advocate riding toward you, and you can push me off this horse time and time again, but I will get up, climb back on, and ride on with the message.

Autism Speaks, you forget who we are. You forget who you are dealing with. You forget the spirit of Autistics, and mothers, and daughters, and fathers and sons.
We are Qatar. We are the United Kingdom. We are the United States. We are China. We are Argentina. We are Russia. We are Ireland, We are the European Union. We are the United Nations.
We are coming together in all climates. We call on all faiths.

 We use picture Schedules, AAC technology, blogs, facebook, social media and Twitter, and a growing understanding to spread Acceptance you never anticipated.

We have had challenges, but we are the best when overcoming them. We speak the only language that matters: love and neurodergance and disability acceptance

Our capacity to love is greater than your capacity to overwhelm.
Autism Speaks is naive. You are alone. We are a community of warriors.

We have a voice.
You think because some of us cannot speak, we cannot be heard?

That is autism Speaks weakness.
You think that because you build a wall of fear and stigma, I am afraid to knock it down with my bare hands?
You have not properly been introduced to this community of parents and grandparents, of siblings and friends and schoolteachers and therapists and pediatricians and autistic self Advocate.
Autism Speaks, if you are not scared, you should be.

When you came for Autistics, you forgot: you came for me.
Autism Speaks, are you listening?

Thank you

        -NonSpeakingNotSilent

Dear JetBlue your Partnership with Autisticm Speaks will hurt Autistics

 Dear JetBlue

                Hello,  I am a non speaking Autistic adult. I recently became aware of your partnership with Autism Speaks.. I am very glad to hear your organization is interested in supporting those of us living with Autism.  It means a lot to me as an Autistic adult. That is why I am writing you to make you aware that Autism speaks is an organization that not only is hated by  the majority of people they claim to speak for but also hurts the autistic community. There are many issues with Autism speaks which have lead to a large scale boycott of their organization.  Autism speaks excludes autistics from their borders. One of the major stances in the disability rights movement was nothing about us without us," this is something autism speaks is in direct violation of a Currently Autism speaks has not one Autistic person on any of their important board or position of power within their organization. Another major issue is how they promote and spread their awareness. Autism speaks has continually used negative propaganda and fear to promote their awareness this directly hurts the autism community as it not only promotes harmful stigmas against those of us with Autism but it also dehumanizes those of us living with autism. They paint Autistic individuals as a burden  and a drain on our families. A recent example of this was Susan writes call to action when she addressed congress  on Autism. She painted Autistic lives as a tragedy and told congress our families aren't really living.  they were eating and breathing but not living.

                This sort of rhetoric s not only offensive not only to autistics but to our families. She goes on to suggest we will grow up to be burdens on society and will always be dependent and incapable of obtaining any real meaningful independence or future. This is incorrect and extremely harmful on many levels. With the proper supports and services a large number of individuals on all ended of the spectrum have managed to go to school, work and even some got married and had kids of their own! Additionally This serves to shame and dehumanize those of us who may never be able to be independent and overlooks our value as people. This also puts the lives and safety of autistics in danger! By painting us as a burdeN that will drain the economy and ruin our families autism speaks tells the world that we are less then human, by demonizing autism they demonize autistics, this not only creates fear of us but it also makes it easier for people to deny us our basic human rights and even harm us with little to no consequences!  When a group of people are viewed as less it becomes easier for society to overlook them. People have historically done a great many horrible things to each other because they saw one another as less! Their propaganda plays to pity spreads stigma and creates fear. in the word of Evan J. Kemp Jr. "Playing to pity may raise money, but it also raises walls of fear between the public and us.," and to quote  Drew Morton Goldsmith in his documentary No pity " No one's desire for a cure can ever justify reinforcing a stigma against disabled people.

          Autistics and our families have tried to reach out to autism speaks  many times in the past, telling them their awareness methods were harmful and stigmatizing however Autism speaks did not listen. To this day Autism speaks continues to shut out and ignore the voices of individuals who speak out against them.. Often dismissing an autistic person as to mild or a parent as having mild children and thus "not being the people they want to speak for," However even people with severe autism like Amy Sequenzia are speaking out against autism speak. Another major issue with Autism speaks is that only3-4 percent of the donations they receives actually go towards services and supports for Autistic individuals and our families. This means they are actually taking valuable much needed funding out of the community. funding that could be going to organizations that actually provide services to individuals and our families! This is a huge issue where there currently just aren't enough services and supports available to us and our families and those that are available are very expensive. Donating money to organizations that provides services help them provide services to more families  and helps provide the funding for these much needed services!   The ironic part of all of this Autism speaks recently released a documentary called "sounding the alarm battling the Autism epidemic" in which they spent a lot of time talking about the lack of services  However autism speaks only spend3-5 percent of all their donations on services and supports for Autistics and our families!

                Autism Speaks is the only charity I know of that is  so heavily resented by the people they claim to speak for and represent. In fact there are several individuals who strongly consider autism speaks to be a hate group/\. They may be the first charity ever (or at the very least in recent years) to be considered a hate group by people they claim to represent!

Here is a joint letter to all cooperate sponsors of Autism speaks explaining in detail more of the issues requiring Autism speaks. Please do read this http://autisticadvocacy.org/2014/01/2013-joint-letter-to-the-sponsors-of-autism-speaks.

        I regret to inform you due to your partnership with Autism speak, an organization that hurts Autistics though their continued spreading of stigma, creating and spreading of fear of Autism while simultaneously  shutting out and silencing the very people they claim to speak for. I can no longer use you airline and I will be telling all my family and friends to choose other airlines for as long as you continue a partnership with Autism speaks.

          I am very glad and excited that you wish to show your support for people with Autism (Autistics) and our families! this really means a lot to me . so please consider partnering with other Autism organizations that provide services and work every day to improve the lives of Autistics and our families I hope you will choose to listen to the voices  of the Autistic Community, our families and supports by families and no longer  partnering with Autism speaks.

                                 -AutismDogGirl

here are some great Organizations that help autistics and our families! 

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

http://autisticadvocacy.org/

Autism Society of America

http://autisticadvocacy.org/

Autism Women's Network

http://autismwomensnetwork.org/

Easter seals

http://autismwomensnetwork.org/

Doug Flutie Foundation

http://www.flutiefoundation.org/

                                                Thank you for your time

                                                                -AutismDogGirl

More links

No pity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3DwCn6VeZY

boycott autism speaks

www.boycottautismspeaks.com

is autism speaks a hate group?

http://autismwomensnetwork.org/is-autism-speaks-a-hate-group/


 

Autism speaking day there is just to much to say.

 Autism speaking day there is just to much to say.

Hello, so I am going to have to make this short as I am writting this last minute, I had hoped to have something nice long, elegant and elaborate written, but sadly other obligations have gotten in my way this year. Some of the reason is also indecision. What did I want to write about?

Part of me wanted to write about autism service dogs, real autism service dogs, dogs who are trained task. Maybe tell you a bit about how when your an adult with autism it is nearly impossible to find an proper program that will train a service dog for you. Or how most autism service dogs are cross trained as a service dog for someone with autism is trained tasks to help deal with the sensory issues and sensory process challenged that come with autism. I thought about telling you how most programs only train for children with autism and how these program not only use but promote a dangerous practice known as tethering, then I thought about explaining how this puts both the child and dog in harms way. I thought about telling you how many programs are scams and many more are just poorly informed well meaning programs who train cookie cutter service dogs for autism often with tasks that are weak at best such as deep pressure, if they train tasks at all but will sell their service dogs on the emotional benifit. I thought about ranting how we deserve better than this and need to stand up for reform not just for the adults but for the kids and for our families who shouldn't be taken advantage of or put in harms way.

I also consider telling you about how I have read a lot in the news lately about the need for services for kids and how few of them there are and that's true! However what everyone over looks os there is even less and basically nothing for adults over 22!!!! How today there are hundreds of autistic adults struggling without the services they need. I thought about how this too was something important I wanted to talk about.

I also wanted to talk about communication. I wanted to tell you verbal speech isn't the same as having few or no daily struggle and challenges, how autistics who are verbal still may need substantial support through out their lives. How being able to speak and even do so well can often hide the fact you can't communicate. Because often times people who are fully verbal still can't communicate. It is one thing to talk about a special interest but a whole new thing to get the words "I'm hungry," "I'm hurt," or be able toe press even more complex needs, thoughts and emotions. I wanted to tell you that individuals who can speak often loose the ability at times and they aren't being bad or trying to get attention or whatever. Their brain has shut off their ability to communicate it's something that happens. It is important to realize this isn't their fault and to be patient . Offer additional supports or just give them time and space.

I want to tell you about acceptance and how it isn't given up. I want to tell you acceptance is about embracing the whole person autism and all and loving them! Acceptance is saying yes you are autistic your brain works differently and instead of trying to change you into someone else we are going to take you by the hand and together we will find your strengths and build on them and we will help you find ways to cope and manage with the proper supports in the areas in which you struggle because acceptance isn't about given up and not trying. When you truly manage to embrace and find acceptance it becomes a road to progress, growth and development! It's setting goals and not given up working with what you have instead of trying to be something your not and that is the best thing in the world you can do for yourself or your child.

I wanted to talk about functioning labels and tell you why they don't work and how they only hurt autistics. I want to tell you no one fits perfectly into these labels and they only get in the way of progress by causing people to put limitations on a child causing people to not really want to put effort into them or cause them to be written off instead of never giving up and working towards helping them  build their strength. They also cause people to be over looked in their challenged and supports they need causing individuals to have to struggle daily because they can't get needed supports because people see them As a useless label of high functioning and assume they must be fine since they seem high functioning to them

Lastly though I wanted To tell you about AAC! Aac stands for alternative augmentative communication. They are methods of communication such as PECs (picture exchange communication), Sign language and things such as type to speak or symbol communication apps for the iPad like proloquo2go or taptotalk.  When it comes to AAC I want you to know this, AAC is for EVERYONE not just those who can't speak, but for those who are verbal but may lose the ability or those who are verbal and need help with word retrieval or just plain feel better communicating via AAC. I want you to know that everyone has the right to communicate in the method in which they prefer and feel is best for them. There is so much focus on getting verbal when our focus should be on providing communication as soon as possible! It is never to early or to late to introduce AAC!  It is important to model AAC too. communication is key! So providing communication option as soon as possible is massively important! OH! And  and don't rule out iPads if your child isn't responding to pecs or ASL! For many of us the iPads are a lot more intuitive! most importantly presume competence

Anyways these were only a few things and very very abbreviated sorry this years entry is short and messy but it's Halloween night and I am exhausted  thank you for reading this

     -AutismDogGirl

Redoing the Alexicom review

I just discovered something new about Alexicom while checking things before publishing my review so I will be doing more testing before I publish

- sorry for the delay im sorry
       -AutismDogGirl

Updates changes and backed posts

Hello,

       I wanted to write a quick blog post to give everyone a bit of an update. I am going to bee adjusting and making some updates and changes to this blog over the next few months. I also have a few  over dues reviews including my review of the Alexicom app and posts I have not published typed. Please be patient  this havps been an extremely busy several months but I will post them as soon as I am able.

Thant you for your time and understanding

       -AutismDogGirl