The Difference Between the Autism Community & the Autistic Community
Channel: Lyric Rivera - Neurodivergent Rebel
Date: 2020-01-24

An autism and neurodiversity blog based on personal experience. Please remember - this is only ONE autistic perspective. We are all unique. 

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Hi everyone.  I’m Christa, the Neurodivergent Rebel.  I was diagnosed autistic at the age of 29, and finding the autistic community really changed my life.  And, I want to be very clear and say the autistic community, because the autistic community is very different from the “autism community.”  This week I wanted to explain to everyone how those two communities differ very greatly.

The autistic community is the community of autistic people themselves.  If you are not autistic, you are not a member of the autistic community – I’m sorry – because you, by definition, are not autistic. 

The autism community is very different, and it includes parents of autistic people who are not autistic themselves.  It includes medical professionals, therapists, doctors, and people who support and regularly work with autistic people. 

People in the “autism community” not the autistic community may be (hopefully!) our allies of autistic people, but they are themselves not autistic. 

And one would hope that the autism community of non-autistic people were great allies to the autistic community, but unfortunately, a lot of autistic people are nervous when they hear people refer to themselves as part of the autism community, because we worry that a lot of people in that community sometimes take advantage of autistic people. 

We’ve got medical “professionals” and people peddling therapies and other things.  We’ve got lots of people talking about autistics in the autism community; whereas the autistic community is autistics trying really hard to speak with whatever communication methods we use for ourselves.

So those are the differences between the autism community and the autistic community.  I myself am part of the autistic community, although these two communities do overlap and intersect. 

Alrighty guys, thank you so much for hanging out with me this week.  Talk to you next time.  Bye!

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