4 April 2018

Our Trust Officer Liz Dawes wrote this piece about celebrating differences, and how we can all learn to do the same:

It’s World Autism Awareness Week. So what should you be “aware” of? Well, autism is different for each person. But for my two children I’ll say this:

1. Disability is a practical issue we solve each day, not a defining characteristic. Their autism is just one part of them. Like blonde hair or blue eyes. We deal with it. We move on. You can help by taking the same approach.
2. They don’t find their own existence poignant. You don’t need to either.
3. Don’t wish them a cure. There’s no “fixed” children waiting to emerge. They are perfect as they are.
4. Embrace their difference. Like people who are deaf and people who have depression and people who are schizophrenic and people who are blind, people with autism are just…another sort of person. We all have stuff to deal with. You have stuff too, if you think about it. It might not get a “disability” label, but your colleagues have to accommodate it just the same. I hope you’ve embraced your differences. We love ours.
5. Innovation never came from a room full of people who are the same. So high five the freaks. They have things to say that you won’t hear anywhere else.

So how might this be relevant to the wider community? If you’re a  middle class/public school educated/non-disabled/white male from Oxford or Cambridge what’s it got to do with you? There will be a meeting somewhere, at some point, where your background or other differences make you the freak.  It’s the time where you’ll disagree and be disagreed with most often, but will also learn most and make your biggest contribution – if you’ve got the self-confidence to go. People with disabilities take those meetings all the time, because they have to. So should you.