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Loud Hands Autistic People Speaking

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Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking - Neurodivergent Knowledge Base

Understanding Autism Through the Neurodiversity Paradigm

Core Concept: Autism as Pervasive Neurological Difference

Autism is fundamentally a pervasive way of being—it colors every experience, sensation, thought, and emotion. Unlike conditions that can be separated from identity, autism is hard-wired into how the brain functions. Jim Sinclair’s seminal work challenges the widespread narrative that autism is a tragedy befalling children and families. The critical insight emerges from the famous essay “Don’t Mourn For Us”: when parents say “I wish my child didn’t have autism,” Autistic people interpret this as “I wish you didn’t exist, and a different child lived in your place instead.”

The neurodiversity paradigm recognizes Neurological diversity as natural and valuable, contrasting with the pathology paradigm that treats Neurological deviation as defect requiring correction. This shift fundamentally determines policy, practice, and lived experience for neurodivergent individuals.

Identity and Self-Understanding

Many Autistic adults report that discovering autistic community and meeting other Autistic people transformed their self-conception. The progression from “What’s wrong with me?” to “How is my neurology different?” to “My neurology is valid” represents reclamation of identity essential to mental wellbeing. Bodily autonomy and self-determination form the foundation of authentic self-expression for Autistic individuals.

The use of identity-first language (“Autistic person”) versus person-first language (“person with autism”) reflects this paradigm shift. Identity-first language recognizes autism as central to identity, similar to characteristics like gender, sexuality, or ethnicity. The phrase “people with maleness” sounds absurd because maleness is valued; using person-first language for autism suggests it’s shameful.

Communication: Beyond the Speech Hierarchy

The Reality of Autistic Communication Systems

Contrary to stereotypes of Autistic social incapacity, Autistic people have sophisticated natural communication systems. When Autistic people meet, “meaning flowed freely and easily”—a stark contrast to the constant translation labor required with non-Autistic society. Autistic communication includes:

  • Sharing fixations and intense interests
  • Interactive stimming for connection
  • Peer Support through reminders about daily tasks
  • Varied forms beyond speech: typing, writing, art, movement, gesture, silence, and pre-verbal understanding

A critical insight: the difficulty in Autistic-Neurotypical communication isn’t Autistic incapacity but Neurotypical unwillingness to learn Autistic communication systems. Autistic people spend entire lives translating into Neurotypical society, yet are told “we can’t relate.”

Communication Pluralism and Aac

Speech is not the only valid or “best” form of communication—it reflects Neurotypical preference, not objective value. Many Autistic people find alternative media more accessible and expressive:

Melanie Yergeau notes that silence can be meaningful engagement rather than withdrawal. The principle “Not being able to talk is not the same as not having anything to say” emphasizes that non-verbal Autistic people communicate through movement, typing, eye-gaze, and other means.

Stimming: Essential Regulation, Not Symptom

The Critical Function of Self-Stimulatory Behavior

Stimming (self-stimulatory behavior) serves critical functions: information processing, Emotional regulation, communication, and understanding environment. Hand-flapping, rocking, spinning, echoing, perseveration, fidgeting—these aren’t frivolous or signs of distress; they’re essential self-regulation.

Key insights about stimming:

  • It’s how many Autistic people process information and regulate emotions
  • Suppressing stimming causes documented trauma, Anxiety, Depression, and lasting psychological harm
  • Many Autistic adults report that pressure to have “quiet hands” caused more suffering than autism itself
  • “If an Autistic shark stops stimming, it will die”

The Trauma of Suppression

The practice of “quiet hands”—forcing suppression of hand-flapping through physical punishment—constitutes psychological and physical abuse regardless of clinical framing. The trauma becomes self-perpetuating: bullies don’t need to be present every moment because they’ve programmed you to bully yourself in their absence.

Hands are “more me than I am”—central to understanding the world through touch and proprioception. Similarly, distinctive movement patterns (walking on toes, jerky movements, atypical gait) reflect how Autistic nervous systems organize movement; they are not willful or correctible through force.

When stimming is protected and celebrated, Autistic people can experience transcendent joy—“excited and happy in a really disabled-looking way” in community with others who move similarly.

Aba: Harmful Practices Disguised as Therapy

Understanding Aba’s Foundation and Methods

Applied Behavior Analysis uses operant conditioning to eliminate Autistic behaviors deemed “inappropriate.” Methods have historically included electric shocks, cattle prods, withholding food/comfort; modern ABA typically uses reward/punishment systems. The stated goal is “indistinguishability from peers”—making Autistic children appear non-Autistic regardless of internal experience.

ABA is fundamentally problematic for several reasons:

  1. Flawed research foundation—early ABA studies used methods developed for “feminine boys” to “cure” homosexuality, revealing conversion therapy origins
  2. Targets harmless behaviors rather than behaviors causing actual harm
  3. Removes accommodations that enabled progress, leaving people vulnerable when deemed “recovered”
  4. Teaches unacceptability of authentic Autistic selves
  5. Requires enormous energy for Autistic people to control and “dead” themselves
  6. Causes lasting trauma—many Autistic adults report PTSD, chronic Anxiety, Depression, and difficulty trusting others

The Judge Rotenberg Center: Systemic Abuse

The Judge Rotenberg Center represents extreme but emblematic systemic abuse. Operating for over 40 years with court approval, JRC uses electric shock, mechanical restraint, food deprivation, Sensory isolation, and other “aversive methods” justified as behavior modification. The program has resulted in multiple preventable deaths:

  • Students restrained while having seizures
  • Medical emergencies treated as behavioral problems
  • Deaths from perforated ulcers and bowel obstructions while staff attributed these to “acting out”
  • An Autistic student shocked 5,000 times in a single day
  • Andre McCollins shocked 31 times over seven hours for refusing to remove his jacket

Despite California’s 1982 investigation finding practices “inhumane beyond all reason,” the program relocated to Massachusetts and continues operating with parents defending it as “necessary.”

Functioning Labels: False Binaries That Obscure Reality

The Myth of “high” and “low” Functioning

“High-functioning” and “low-functioning” labels create false binaries that obscure intersectional disability experiences. These categories are not predictive of actual capability:

  • “High-functioning” Autistic people may have severe hidden disabilities and lack access to accommodations
  • “Low-functioning” labels deny capacity and potential
  • Someone may be “low-functioning” in speech but highly capable intellectually
  • Another may excel academically but need intensive Support for daily living

Julia Bascom critiques how the label “articulate” masks ongoing severe communication trauma. She fluently speaks but only with five people without triggering panic attacks and self-harm. She “never makes requests” not from independence but from inability to manage the interaction that asking requires.

The hidden costs of masking and “passing” are severe: self-harm, Anxiety, health problems (ulcers, high blood pressure), Depression, and lasting difficulty trusting others.

Masking: the Hidden Costs of Passing

The Performance Burden

Many Autistic individuals, particularly those perceived as “higher-functioning,” spend enormous energy masking or “passing” as Neurotypical to avoid abuse, exclusion, and institutionalization. This invisible labor requires:

  • Systematic eradication of Autistic traits (flapping, stimming, distinctive speech)
  • Maintenance of perfect performance—top academic achievement, impeccable appearance, socially appropriate behavior

The paradox is that “high-functioning” Autistic people are told they have it easy and don’t deserve accommodations, yet face pressure to hide disabilities and are dismissed as “not really Autistic.”

One Autistic woman spent decades as a high-achieving professional, maintaining perfect masking until grief Therapy revealed she could not process her world in pieces—a core Autistic trait. The success others saw masked internal suffering and prevented appropriate Support.

Non-speaking Autistic People: Competence and Agency

Challenging Assumptions About Intelligence

Non-speaking Autistic individuals and those labeled “low-functioning” are routinely denied credibility despite demonstrating intellectual capability and self-awareness. Key insights:

  • The expectation that non-speaking people cannot think, analyze, have opinions, or self-advocate is false and harmful
  • Labels like “low-functioning” are pre-judgments based on what someone cannot do, not reflection of actual capabilities
  • A child labeled low-functioning who failed shape-sorting tests may have been capable but chose not to participate
  • Many nonspeaking Autistic individuals, when given access to alternative communication, produce sophisticated writing and analysis

Amanda Baggs describes an Autistic mode of understanding existing “below words, below concepts”—where conceptual thought doesn’t dominate. This represents sophisticated information processing through sensation and pattern recognition, not compensation for language deficits.

Sensory Processing and Environmental Needs

Auditory Processing Differences

Autistic individuals experience sound processing fundamentally differently. Rather than hearing distinct sounds, words, pitch, and tone, some experience “jumbled sounds” or “little bursts of sounds” at a single loudness level—comparable to experiencing multiple simultaneous loud noises in one’s head.

This causes genuine distress—“a feeling of hell.” Autistic people need different environmental conditions:

  • Slower speech
  • Processing time
  • Reduced Sensory intensity
  • Meaningful pauses

Creating Sensory-Accessible Environments

Many Autistic people experience significant sensory sensitivities to fluorescent lighting, loud noises, and tactile sensations. Environmental modifications include:

  • Lower volume and brightness
  • Minimal strong scents
  • Quiet spaces for retreat
  • Permission for movement and stimming
  • Advance notice about Sensory events

These accommodations benefit many people beyond Autistic individuals and remove barriers without harming others.

Autistic Community and Culture

Autism Network International (ani)

Autism Network International emerged from three Autistic adults (Jim Sinclair, Kathy Lissner, Donna Williams) meeting and discovering authentic peer connection. They founded ANI as self-determined community by and for Autistic people—establishing the foundational principle of “Autistic space”: environments where Autistic people set norms without pressure to perform neurotypicality.

Autreat: Creating Physical Autistic Space

Autreat (annual retreat beginning 1996) manifested Autistic space physically with innovations:

  • Crash rooms (low-Sensory retreat spaces)
  • Color-coded interaction signal badges (red=“don’t interact,” yellow=“known people only,” green=“want to interact but struggling to initiate”)
  • Guidelines for non-Autistic behavior (stimming, rocking, echoing acceptable)
  • Sensory accommodations (no perfume/scented products, controlled photography)

Fundamental to both Autreat and ANI: “opportunity but not pressure.” Attendance at presentations, meals, socializing—all voluntary. This absence of coerced social performance paradoxically increased Autistic socializing.

Online Community and Culture

Despite geographic dispersal, Autistic people developed vibrant online culture with specific linguistic conventions:

  • Use of “/sarcasm” tags for literal processors
  • Emphasis on patience, encouragement, and repeated explanation
  • Acceptance of uncertainty and multiple questions
  • Equality regardless of communication method

The culture emphasizes that repeated explanation is an act of kindness rather than condescension.

Self-Advocacy: Resistance and Reclamation

Beyond Formal Channels

Self-advocacy encompasses far more than formal channels—it includes:

  • Institutional resistance
  • Bodily autonomy
  • Saying “no”
  • Covert means of maintaining communication and friendship
  • Sabotaging staff’s attempts to control lives

When Autistic members resisted parent-dominated discussions in early online forums, this was self-advocacy. When an Autistic teen suddenly sits down and refuses to do something done day after day, this is self-advocacy.

Teaching Agency and Autonomy

Teaching Autistic children agency requires respecting their expressed preferences even when inconvenient. When a nonverbal Autistic boy who had experienced years of compliance-focused Therapy was assured his expressed wants and needs would be honored, he began communicating more effectively than years of Therapy had achieved.

The children’s first power is learning “no”—and disabled children need to learn their refusals will be honored.

Media Narratives and the Tragedy Frame

The Danger of Tragedy Narratives

The tragedy narrative—exemplified by Autism Speaks’ 2009 “I Am Autism” video claiming autism works “faster than pediatric AIDS, cancer, and diabetes combined”—reinforces dangerous stereotypes and justifies discrimination.

When media covers parent murder of disabled children (filicide), it frames these as understandable tragedies rather than crimes. After George Hodgins (22-year-old Autistic man) was shot by his mother in 2012, media called her “guardian angel” and “devoted and loving.” Days later, Patricia Corby drowned her 4-year-old Autistic son Daniel—a copycat crime enabled by media normalization.

Autism Acceptance Vs. Awareness

In response, Autistic self-advocates organized vigils and proposed rebranding April 2 as “Autism Acceptance Day” rather than “Autism Awareness Day,” celebrating Autistic community diversity instead of perpetuating fear-based messaging.

Practical Strategies for Supporting Autistic People

Creating Autistic-Accessible Communication Spaces

Establish explicit communication norms:

  • Normalize use of “/sarcasm” tags
  • Encourage repeated explanation without Stigma
  • Accept directness without requiring “polite wrapping”
  • Allow extended response time
  • Value multiple communication media equally

Provide communication flexibility and choice:

  • Offer multiple communication methods—speech, typing, writing, AAC devices
  • Never privilege one form
  • When someone chooses silence, recognize it as meaningful engagement
  • Allow switching between media based on what works in the moment

Supporting Stimming and Movement

  • Protect stimming fiercely as essential regulation
  • Celebrate “disabled-looking” movement
  • Create spaces where authentic Autistic expression is welcome
  • Recognize that suppressing stimming causes trauma

Teaching Bodily Autonomy

  • Honor expressed refusals and preferences
  • Allow natural consequences when safe
  • Validate choice and self-determination
  • Provide advance notice and predictability

Addressing Systemic Issues

  • Abolish restraint and aversive interventions
  • Replace compliance-based Therapy with capability-development
  • Implement early identification without gatekeeping
  • Provide foundational supports universally

Current law permits subminimum wages for disabled workers, allows “aversive interventions” on disabled children that would constitute assault on non-disabled children, and shows leniency toward those who murder disabled family members. Legal equality—including labor protections, abuse prohibitions, and equal application of law—is non-negotiable.

Nothing About Us Without Us

The disability rights slogan “Nothing About Us Without Us” is essential for authentic Autistic advocacy. When non-Autistic people set autism priorities (research on causation rather than employment Support, “awareness” campaigns rather than acceptance), outcomes harm Autistic people.

Key Takeaways for Neurodivergent Individuals

  1. Autism is integral to identity, not separate condition - Acceptance doesn’t deny challenges but focuses on Support within Autistic neurology rather than forced conformity

  2. Stimming is essential and non-negotiable - Suppressing it causes lasting trauma; protecting it enables thriving

  3. Communication is plural and multifaceted - Speech is not superior to typing, writing, art, or other forms

  4. Functioning labels obscure reality - Disability exists on multiple axes; individual needs matter more than categorical judgments

  5. Masking carries severe hidden costs - The pressure to pass teaches that authentic Autistic being is dangerous

  6. Community connection is transformative - Finding Autistic community can shift self-conception from shame to pride

  7. Bodily autonomy is fundamental - “No” means no, even when inconvenient; teaching compliance removes agency

  8. Environmental accommodations benefit everyone - Reducing Sensory intensity improves access without harming others