@stevesilberman.bsky.social used his well of empathy—which suffused his entire being—to show autistic & neurodivergent people as fully formed humans with rights & delights & happiness & love, with families who loved them & people who loved them—& that they loved back.
tinyurl.com/SteveSilbermanTPGA
Ten years ago yesterday, I published my first piece about autism. It sent me on the trajectory to write about autism as my second job, write my first book and now my second book. I still have the emails people sent to me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Something that sticks with me: Alice Wong didn’t really gain notoriety for her work until the last decade or so. How many people who use wheelchairs or who have significant medical disabilities does the world write off simply by how we visually perceive them? Farewell, Alice.
screenshot from The Guardian website featuring a photo of me, an Asian American woman in a wheelchair with a tracheostomy at her neck connected to a ventilator. She's wearing a pink plaid shirt and a magenta lip color. She is smiling and behind her are a bunch of trees. Photo credit: Allison Busch Photography.
Yellow background with black text "This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the time of her passing. Hi everyone, it looks like I ran out of time. I have so many dreams that I wanted to fulfill and plans to create new stories for you. There are a few in progress that might come to fruition in a few years if things work out. I did not ever imagine I would live to this age and end up a writer, editor, activist, and more. As a kid riddled with insecurity and internalized ableism, I could not see a path forward. It was thanks to friendships and some great teachers who believed in me that I was able to fight my way out of miserable situations into a place where I finally felt comfortable in my skin. We need more stories about us and our culture. You all, we all, deserve the everything and more in such a hostile, ableist environment. Our wisdom is incisive and unflinching. I'm honored to be your ancestor and believe disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future. Don't let the bastards grind you down. I love you all."
Speechless. Absolutely devastated. RIP
I've said for years that fearmongering about and around autism doesn't just hurt #ActuallyAutistic people: It hurts their parents. It leads them down rabbit holes and expensive "treatments" and if they don't spend on them, they are stigmatized as bad parents.
wapo.st/4oOSpTQ
"When I began saying 'I’m autistic& disabled' something shifted. I stopped apologizing for my limits& started protecting my capacity. I stopped pretending my energy was endless& started recognizing it as finite, sacred& worth conserving." @lovettejallow.bsky.social:
open.substack.com/pub/lovettej...
"Autistic people are not a special kind of people set apart from all other people. We are just one of many kinds of people, and oppression and injustice take depressingly familiar shapes." -Mel Baggs, rest in power.
web.archive.org/web/20150329... #autism #autistic #disabillity
Another bit from the same piece: Parents and caregivers of autistic children should be made clearly aware that the only thing pursuing an autism “cure” will do is make their families victims of a mercenary autism pseudoscience industry. #autism #neurodiversity
The work we do to advocate for people with speech-related #disabilities is more important than ever. To celebrate SIX years of hard work, we want to raise $10k by 10/10, our 6th birthday. Share our birthday #fundraiser far and wide so we can meet our goal! lnk.to/pledge
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Fellow journalists: I will not quote Alison Singer of the Autism Science Foundation as an autism expert because of the harm she's caused. Maybe you shouldn't either.
We know that nonspeaking people have #MoretoSay. October is AAC Awareness Month, and AAC app maker @assistiveware.bsky.social is celebrating with a short AAC understanding video. Please watch, take to heart, and share.
youtu.be/jGpglhW7I54?... #AACawarenessMonth #nonspeaking #neurodiversity
"Accessing the supports my autistic son needs can be brutally difficult, especially as he and his peers transition into adulthood. But unlike grievance parents, I believe my son deserves respect and understanding—not grievance parents’ relentless exploitation of their children as burdens."
Reporters & @nytimes.com, do better. Talk to folks like @fidgetsandfries.bsky.social, @jessdiaryofamom.bsky.social, @cosmickarmic.bsky.social, @lollardfish.bsky.social, @autisticenough.bsky.social who love and support their high-support autistic kids, and don't pretend their lives are pony parties.
I feel so awful for parents of newly diagnosed autistic kids right now, being drowned in such hateful nonsense. You deserve better. Your autistic kid deserves better.
My kid was diagnosed 20 yrs ago; please let me give you hopeful advice:
thinkingautismguide.com/2025/09/afte... #autism #parenting
Can you believe it's been a decade since #NeuroTribes came out? This groundbreaking, humane, endlessly entertaining history of autism and #neurodiversity now comes in a 10th anniversary edition, with a brand spanking new introduction by John Elder Robison:
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/310415...
I went on CNN's One Thing podcast last week, talking about how absurd & ass-backwards last week's White House Big Autism Announcement was. But as not everyone listens to podcasts, here's a thread of the conversation:
www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...
#autism #TylenolDoesNotCauseAutism #neurodiversity 1/
If my writing about autism does anything, whether it be in my books, my columns or my reported stories, I hope it advances the idea that autistic people are whole human beings as they are with legitimate needs and inner lives that deserve to be told the same as other stories.
Things today's White House autism announcement did not do:
-Discuss strategies to increase supports and services for autistic people/families
-Highlight why autistic people and families deserve respect, not pity or fear
-Endorse one speck of autism research that is not dangerous pseudoscience
Steve Silberman is not here to shout it — so it’s up to all of us.
Vaccines don’t cause autism.
Neither does Tylenol. (I mean seriously WTF?!?!)
The “epidemic” of autism is the result of increased testing, broader definitions, and raised awareness.
LOUDER.
Trump and Robert F. Kennedy's announcement about Tylenol and autism will have tons of negative implications for women's health. But it will also return society to when people blamed unloving mothers–aka "refrigerator mothers– for their autism.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
"Blue Envelope" programs have been created in some states and counties to try to reduce misunderstanding between drivers with disabilities and police, during traffic stops. @communicationfirst.bsky.social created a survey to hear what you think about these programs:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
I fear the impact Kennedys message will have on the self image of autistic people.
His work says autistics are human beings corrupted by chemicals. Aberrations.
This is hurtful myth to internalize for parents and children and obscures that autism is natural inheritance we pass down to each other.
This essentially is sending #autism discussions back sixty years back to the days when society blamed unloving mothers for their children becoming #ActuallyAutistic. It's going to inflict endless guilt among moms across the country.
www.wsj.com/health/healt...
NEW @heardtell.bsky.social grown folk talk correcting revisionist history of Autism, RFK Jr, & dark parts of advocay w/@ericmgarcia.bsky.social
iTunes podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...
Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/5lmQ...
YouTube youtu.be/E_zpffelqpc
Substack open.substack.com/pub/heardtel...
One year on, and I still see you everywhere.
I love you, my friend.
Thank you.
@stevesilberman.bsky.social
#neurotribes
We lost @stevesilberman.bsky.social 1 year ago.
Steve wrote #NeuroTribes after asking, "why is it [mainstream autism] concerns are so divorced from the real problems that the people on the front lines of autism—autistic people & their families—were facing day to day?”
tinyurl.com/NDequitableFuture
Autistic joy is an autistic commonality. And I worry about autistic people like my son who—because they thrive with intensive supports and have a communication disability—have their autistic joy dismissed, ignored, misidentified, or neglected.
#autism #neurodiversity #autistic
The TPGA newsletter is live! This week, topics include autistic communication energy drain & measuring autistic burnout—plus a roundup of autism-related science, news, & culture that you won’t find anywhere else. Written by @ejwillingham.bsky.social; please subscribe:
buttondown.com/TPGA/archive...
My first book We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation came out four years ago this month. It simultaneously feels like it came out yesterday and a century ago. I did it in hopes that people would take the needs of #ActuallyAutistic people seriously 1/
www.harpercollins.com/products/wer...
