as an autistic person, who is highly competent in certain environments, and near disabled in others, I’ve found that I can do things that are normally quite difficult for me if they are related to my field of interest\u2013parsing seemingly arbitrary lists of conditions to fill out necessary forms, for example. I’m doing this a lot lately, in setting up services that would supposedly allow me to better be of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But lately, I seem to have hit a wall. 5 different services that I’ve tried to sign up with have denied access, with cryptic and seemingly arbitrary error messages, and no path to a human to rectify the problem, and no response from the non-human contact form provided. for someone like me, sometimes just having another human to walk through the steps with makes all the difference between failure, disconnection, and simple connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m not generally a conspiracy theorist, but I must admit that the thought has occurred to me, “maybe these connections are failing because I am on an arbitrary list called the autism registry.” conspiracy theorism is the result of a certain kind of isolation. someone like me, who thrives on connection, and who is competent in environments based on nurturing human connection, but who withers in isolation, these missed connections feel highly personal. it’s easy to see how the short hop to the rabbit hole could be an obvious choice for some. the fact that an autism registry has been mentioned on the national stage makes that hop feel more like a logical step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
especially when finding a simple hand to hold is so expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
take care of each other. volunteer to sit with a friend while they fill out a form. ask a friend for help if you need it. what if a livable world depends on such a small gesture?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"