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Write about what you recognize. That’s why Eric Garcia wrote his 2021 ebook, “We’re Not Damaged: Altering the Autism Dialog.”
As an autistic particular person reporting on politics as senior Washington correspondent for The Impartial, the 31-year-old Garcia had grown annoyed concerning the lack of knowledge of autism as a dysfunction and a number of the stereotypes of individuals “on the spectrum.”
He got down to humanize autism by explaining its historical past, cataloging the dearth of help for neurodivergent people and spotlighting autistic individuals of all types.
Garcia spotlights what it’s prefer to be autistic and presents a powerful assertion for self-advocacy, a rising motion amongst autistic people to articulate their very own wants as a substitute of getting neurotypical individuals communicate for them.
April is Autism Acceptance Month, and CNN not too long ago talked with Garcia concerning the present state of the autism neighborhood and the way society can grow to be much more inclusive.
This dialog has been edited and condensed for readability.
CNN: What’s it like being autistic?
Eric Garcia: I used to be identified once I was 8 or 9, so autism has been a part of my id for many of my life. I don’t know if it makes me higher or worse at my job. It makes me a unique journalist. I’m a bag of nerves with regards to on the brink of decide up the cellphone and name somebody. It’s terrifying. (The) complete concept of calling somebody on the cellphone terrifies me. At different occasions, being in a state of affairs the place I’m overlaying a rally – being in a loud state of affairs – typically it may be overwhelming from a sensory perspective. I don’t drive, in order that’s an obstacle.
On the similar time, I feel that simply in the identical manner that it is likely to be sensory hell for me to interview somebody as a result of I can’t learn their facial expressions, as a result of I’m autistic I can inform when somebody is mendacity or not being straight up with me. I’m extra inclined to ask follow-up questions till I get the (reality). I don’t suppose I might be capable of focus as intensely on my beat or on particular pursuits if I weren’t autistic. I additionally don’t suppose I might put all of the care and focus and analysis that I do into every bit if I weren’t autistic.
There are definitely impediments that autism creates for me. I don’t need to erase them. Autism is a incapacity that comes with impairments. I feel neurotypical individuals have sure impairments they should overcome, too: politeness, eager to be preferred, issues like that. I don’t suppose I might be the identical journalist I’m immediately if I weren’t autistic.
CNN: Why did you write a ebook about autism?
Garcia: The ebook was a response to an expertise I had in 2015. I used to be at a celebration, and somebody requested me if I needed a drink. I stated I didn’t drink as a result of I’m on the autism spectrum and I take a drug that may’t combine with alcohol. Somebody stated I ought to write about it. I began fascinated with autism on the time. Again then, individuals stated vaccines have been inflicting autism. A couple of 12 months later, Donald Trump was saying it, and lots of people believed what he stated. Elsewhere in politics, there have been simply unhealthy insurance policies about autism. The overarching premises have been to keep away from autism and to keep away from autistic individuals as a substitute of creating issues simpler for everybody. I needed to do my half to vary it and set the document straight.
CNN: What did you be taught within the technique of reporting the ebook?
Garcia: I knew about Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey and what they have been saying about vaccines for years, however I didn’t know the way deeply rooted that philosophy was. In researching this ebook, I realized all concerning the historical past of autism, who bankrolled the unique research, and the way we got here to grasp slightly extra about what autism is and the way completely different individuals expertise it in a different way. Studying all this was fascinating for me. I didn’t actually know quite a bit concerning the neighborhood. I didn’t actually perceive myself all that nicely. By reporting this story, I realized extra about myself.
I additionally needed to shed loads of my ableism towards autistic individuals who have issue talking and acknowledge they’re simply as necessary as anybody else. This challenge pressured me to shed my very own bias about them. I additionally realized to shed the concept of high-functioning and low-functioning autistic. Excessive-functioning individuals have impairments and want lodging, and low-functioning individuals can do wonderful issues. It’s not either-or.
CNN: Why is self-advocacy so necessary for autistic people?
Garcia: For the longest time, from the Nineteen Forties to Seventies, discussions about autism have been pushed principally by clinicians and psychologists – not individuals who have been autistic. Then dad and mom drove the discussions – normally, dad and mom of autistic children are neurotypical, so once more, it was individuals from outdoors the neighborhood. The truth, I feel, is that autistic individuals ought to at all times be included in any sort of decision-making. Many members of the autistic neighborhood really feel the identical diploma of skepticism about Utilized Conduct Evaluation (a kind of one-on-one remedy for individuals with autism that was devised and is usually administered by neurotypical people).
CNN: How can the push towards neurodiversity within the company world assist the autistic neighborhood?
Garcia: I feel it’s nice that huge firms are prioritizing hiring autistic individuals. Together with autistic individuals in constructing these workplaces is an efficient coverage as a result of on the very least it opens the door to higher listening of autistic individuals. I additionally suppose this effort is stuffed with issues. Any individual might be neurodivergent. It’s not a query of being a unique “model” of regular. We must always construct firms across the notion that everybody deserves the chance to have a job. If an organization is doing it proper, earlier than they begin hiring individuals with autism, they’ll give attention to the assets they’ve already and make them accessible to all neurodivergent individuals, not simply those that are autistic.
CNN: If you’re a neurotypical individual, how are you going to create more room to point out up on your autistic mates or members of the family?
Garcia: It’s not troublesome. You simply take heed to autistic individuals and elevate their voices. These are the identical issues that each marginalized group in America has demanded. We need to be handled with dignity. With autism it’s necessary to take heed to those that can communicate but in addition those that can’t communicate – actually these autistic people who find themselves not verbal. I need to emphasize this. It’s on autistic individuals like myself to amplify the voices of nonspeaking autistic individuals. Simply as I demand neurotypical individuals take heed to autistic individuals, I must demand they take heed to nonspeaking autistic individuals, too.
CNN: How do you’re feeling about Autism Acceptance Month?
Garcia: This topic is one thing the autistic neighborhood has combined emotions about. It’s necessary to acknowledge that the entire concept of a month to acknowledge autism wasn’t created by autistic individuals — it was created by neurotypical individuals. Carter Woodson (who was a Black man) created what turned generally known as African-American Historical past Month. Ladies promoted what turned Ladies’s Historical past Month. The LGBT neighborhood created what turned generally known as Pleasure. For the autistic neighborhood it was by no means like that.
Initially the month was generally known as Autism Consciousness Month. It was created by individuals with out autism, and the concept was to verify individuals knew autism existed. It was as if to say, “Be looking out!” At the very least the title Autism Acceptance is extra inclusive. It’s about embracing us and welcoming us and together with us.
CNN: What’s the following huge hurdle for the autism neighborhood?
Garcia: From right here, there must be a change of priorities in analysis and analysis. Proper now, you see loads of analysis towards biology and never towards life span. That should change. We don’t know quite a bit about autism and getting old. We don’t know the way autism manifests itself alongside racial strains or gender strains. We additionally aren’t nearly as good at diagnosing autism in women as we’re at diagnosing it in boys.
On a broader scale, we have to take a look at how our responses to crises incorporate the autistic neighborhood. Covid has disproportionately killed individuals with disabilities. At the moment we’re seeing a transfer to reopen the world occurring too shortly, and it’s one thing that may harm autistic individuals. Down the street, I’d prefer to see extra autistic individuals having the chance to talk for themselves and increasingly more neurotypical individuals listening to autistic individuals. Neurotypical individuals simply want to take the time to pay attention.
