"I couldn't do what I am doing if I wasn't autistic."

April 18, 2023 9:05 AM

Dr. Mary Doherty is a consultant anaesthetist, intensive care doctor, and clinical research fellow. She is also autistic. In 2019 she founded Autistic Doctors International, which currently represents over 700 autistic medical doctors. She argues that while medicine selects for autistic traits, the healthcare system presents systemic barriers to access for autistic adults. She also argues strongly against recent attempts to subcategorize autistic people based on "severity", highlighting that [u]nreliability of speech for usually fluent autistic people, and the speed at which we can go from articulate and competent to completely unable to access speech, is not generally appreciated.
posted by heatherlogan (6 comments total)

The article in the last link is really enlightening. Spoon theory, hermeneutical injustice, who knew?

Thanks!
posted by cron at 9:32 AM on April 18, 2023

As a cold opener, as a concept, "weaponized heterogeneity" (and its obvious corollary) are incredible as conceptual frameworks.
posted by mhoye at 9:35 AM on April 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

Connecting my own speech shutdowns/lack of access to the more stereotypical depictions of nonverbal autism was world-shaking for me. The physical inability to get words out, especially when groups of people are talking or I’m in a very sensory-stimulating environment, that gets harder as I get more tired, getting to the end of the day. I just shrugged, no one could explain this to me, or would chalk it up as shyness or anxiety despite attempts to explain otherwise, and the blank looks from folks who had no understanding of the feeling.

Brains are weird and I’m glad I’ve got better words and tools to describe my own.
posted by curious nu at 9:59 AM on April 18, 2023 [29 favorites]

Thanks for that last link! I’ve always been grossed out by the term “high functioning” and this has put a clean, well-researched framework around avoiding it. My firm has just realized that neurodiversity is A Thing and I will add this to the reading list.
posted by q*ben at 10:19 AM on April 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

Thanks! Really interesting research and perspective.

I’m never sure what to make of seeming comparisons with types or categories of disability.

How is the last line of the abstract likely to be interpreted (“Adjustments for autism-specific needs are as necessary as ramps for wheelchair users”)?

It reads to me like there is an assumption that some types of access (in this case a ramp) are available, or somehow obvious, but this is not the case, which I would hope a researcher and physician would be aware of. Healthcare, like many environments, is not universally accessible, and is often actively hostile with a lack of ramps, lifts, sufficient space in clinic rooms, etc.
posted by narcissus_and_ambrosia at 2:54 PM on April 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

It reads to me like there is an assumption that some types of access (in this case a ramp) are available, or somehow obvious

I think it's meant that the need itself (if not always the access itself) will become more frequently acknowledged. You do not need to explain to most* people that/why wheelchair users need ramps, even though you frequently need to remind people to actually provide them.

*or at least to a high proportion
posted by plonkee at 5:29 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]