Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Is Autism Speaks Good?
Transcript
- 0:00You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
- 0:04Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
- 0:07an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
- 0:11spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
- 0:19Yo guys, what's going on? Welcome back to the Aspy World
- 0:21podcast, your daily dose of awesome on the autism
- 0:24inspection. What is going on?
- 0:25It's really cool actually to be back doing podcasts every single
- 0:28day. I have a good guest on today and
- 0:30actually funny enough, me and this guest, we were supposed to
- 0:34have this podcast, I think about two or three times before, but
- 0:36you know, things happen, life gets in the way.
- 0:39Anyway, this is Alarisa minor on minor.
- 0:43I'm hopefully I'm pronouncing this correctly.
- 0:45How? How do I pronounce it Luisa?
- 0:47It's Larissa Minner. Minner OK, cool.
- 0:49And you know, you're the second person in the world I've ever
- 0:52met called Larissa. I met one of the girl called
- 0:55Larissa once and I was in Florida in when was like
- 0:59Melbourne, FL And that's I met something called Larissa
- 1:01instinct And that's what she was saying.
- 1:03Look, Clarissa, I'm an idiot, right?
- 1:05Still, without further ado, Larissa, would you like to kind
- 1:08of like tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?
- 1:10You know, in a, in a short, concise way?
- 1:14Oh OK yeah, but short and concise is the tricky part.
- 1:19Since I'm autistic. No, I.
- 1:21Get it? I get.
- 1:21It I get it. Yeah, you've actually talked
- 1:24about that before. No I'm Larissa and I'm autistic,
- 1:30I'm at UD HD or I have some speech disabilities and I have
- 1:33other types of neurodivergences. I'm also an advocate and
- 1:39honestly I just started embracing my neuro diversion
- 1:42identities a few years ago or feels like it's been a long time
- 1:46but I think it's only been a couple years since I really
- 1:48started embracing it. But I I do different types of
- 1:51advocacy work. Was that concise enough?
- 1:54That was very concise. Thank you.
- 1:56And I noticed that you're also kind of like you do, you do kind
- 1:58of like consulting and you do some training, right?
- 2:00Like what? Tell me a bit about that.
- 2:02What's that? What's that like?
- 2:04OK. So this is probably going to be
- 2:05a little controversial because it involves ABA, if that's OK
- 2:09with. Of course, yeah.
- 2:10Look, let me let me tell you something.
- 2:11Can I just say something? This is a statement, OK?
- 2:14Look, people have views on things and they're allowed those
- 2:17views on things. And, and I also think that
- 2:20people have terminology that they want to use, that they can
- 2:23use as long as you're not being completely derogative by using
- 2:25kind of like the R word or the N word.
- 2:27You know, I'm just being just blatant kind of being obvious
- 2:30here. Now ABA, a lot of people have
- 2:32issues with it. And I also had issues with ABA
- 2:35when looking at the, at the archaic ABA where it came from,
- 2:38like the, you know, but when Eric Lovas and all the others
- 2:41moved forward in, in future and, and thought, well, how do we,
- 2:44how do we actually have behavioral therapy without
- 2:47negative impact on the child or the person?
- 2:50There is a, there is an ability to have ABA that does not cost
- 2:52harm to the person. So it's fine.
- 2:55Please proceed. Awesome.
- 2:56Thank you. I'm actually conscious.
- 2:59They've actually had people say they wouldn't collaborate with
- 3:01me if I talked about ABA because.
- 3:03You idiots. No, actually I I had, it wasn't
- 3:09called ABA, but I was in something that was clearly
- 3:11looking back ABA as a when I was a child.
- 3:14I just wasn't identified as autism.
- 3:15But I actually did do ABA applied behavioral analysis as
- 3:20an adult and I haven't met that many other adults that actually
- 3:24did that, and I've never done it either.
- 3:27No. Yeah.
- 3:29And I actually, the interesting thing is I believe it was an
- 3:31autistic burnout when I started it and I didn't understand that.
- 3:36And I actually embraced my autistic unity during me, it
- 3:39ended up getting out of autistic burnout.
- 3:42And the reason why I bring that up is the training that I've
- 3:44been doing part, I do a lot of different training, but some of
- 3:47the training that I've been starting to do in the last year
- 3:50is for BCBAS or ABA therapist on how to prevent autistic burnout
- 3:58in their high end and how to teach self advocacy skills.
- 4:01And I, I'm really trying to suggests that they start
- 4:06teaching or educating the parents and anyone involved as
- 4:10well as artistic individual themselves at an age appropriate
- 4:13level on autistic burnout. And we're talking about like how
- 4:17to focus on things that affect quality of life instead of
- 4:21trying to change, you know, neurodiversion traits.
- 4:23But there are like real pieces for using ABA because there's,
- 4:27you know, sometimes it can be certain behaviours can be life
- 4:31threatening and there is there can be quality of life
- 4:34challenges. Like, yeah.
- 4:37And, and I don't know if you want me to get into any other
- 4:40training, but I also trained organizations on business
- 4:45inclusiveness. Like I've talked to PayPal and
- 4:48some other organizations I've also been talking about, like
- 4:52healthcare and education. I've been trying to tackle like
- 4:54all the different systems, not all of them, I'm exaggerating,
- 4:58but it's they're just, they're so interconnected.
- 5:01Yeah, that's what I've been busy.
- 5:05Dude, And I love that, you know, like the so that kind of work is
- 5:08so important because nobody's doing it like like you have so
- 5:12many organizations who know very little about, you know,
- 5:15divergency and having, you know, having what is it like in
- 5:20America is 1 in 30 or one in 34 people are, are diagnosed with
- 5:23autism in in America, right, the United States of America.
- 5:26That means that like you're going to have an autistic person
- 5:29in pretty much every organization that exists.
- 5:32And if you're not, you know, if you're not up to speed with how
- 5:35do you accommodate an autistic person?
- 5:36It's kind of like having a person with a wheelchair, a
- 5:38wheelchair user in your in your establishment and you don't have
- 5:41a ramp. It's kind of like, what is it
- 5:44going to take the stairs? Like come on.
- 5:46And, and that is so important. I'm, I'm, I'm so with you on
- 5:50that because it's accessibility, right?
- 5:52And it's allowing the accessibility of work globally,
- 5:55there's about 80% of the OCD community and out of work,
- 5:58right? That's huge.
- 6:00So what you're doing is, is, is, is getting that deficit down?
- 6:06Because I had briefed the the EU Parliament back in 2020 on this
- 6:10exact thing and they were so shocked to learn about it.
- 6:13I thought, Oh my goodness, like, how do you not know the
- 6:15statistics? You guys are a government body.
- 6:17Like, you know what I mean? Like it's crazy.
- 6:21Yeah, and it, it is pretty, I'm not going to lie, it sometimes
- 6:25it does feel like bleak, but I know change is happening.
- 6:28But honestly, like dealing with myself, it's not like I have
- 6:32full employment. It's very, I have part time
- 6:35employment and then I deal with the consulting and speaking and
- 6:38I, I hear this like all the time from people, even people that
- 6:42have like 3 master degrees and they're underemployed and doing
- 6:46work that's not in their expertise.
- 6:49Yeah. It's absolutely bonkers, isn't?
- 6:53It it is an oh I wanted to quickly add X.
- 6:58This is how my nerd works for the ABA.
- 7:02I've also worked most organizations on talking to like
- 7:05other autistic individuals, especially like non speaking
- 7:09autistic individuals. I just want to mention that
- 7:11because since they work often with non speakers, I think
- 7:14that's important. I've done some collaborations,
- 7:17I'm just been slow to post those conversations with non speakers.
- 7:20But that's something else I'm passionate about, is making sure
- 7:25that people from different backgrounds and different
- 7:28support needs are being included and compensated for their work.
- 7:33That's something I've I've been avocating like really a lot for.
- 7:37That it's so it's so needed. I did a video, I don't know if
- 7:39you I don't know if you've followed my my YouTube channel
- 7:41and stuff, but I did a video, yes, talking about how the love
- 7:45on the spectrum cast were not paid appropriately, right?
- 7:50Because they weren't paid at all because they said it's not
- 7:53reality TV, it's a documentary when it definitely is reality
- 7:56TV. And I'd talk about my own
- 7:57experience with reality TV and how little they respect autistic
- 7:59individuals, right. So you're absolutely right, you
- 8:03know, and, and you being a per that, I think it's interesting
- 8:05you being a person who's, who's saying, Hey, get this right and
- 8:09give the respect and the actual monetization that's that's, you
- 8:14know, owed to these people or, or, or compensate them in a way
- 8:17where they, where they deserve to be compensated.
- 8:19That's really interesting because nobody's sticking up to
- 8:22that. I found somebody emailed me
- 8:24after that video went out with a couple of organisations that
- 8:26were like, like trying to make sure that the equity value of a
- 8:29person on television is equal to the price that they got paid or
- 8:32something like which is really interesting.
- 8:35But that is a thing. And and do you find this a lot
- 8:37where it's just people are kind of like just used and never
- 8:40valued in monetization? OK, I yeah, actually I'm sure I
- 8:49have a feeling you've encountered that a lot.
- 8:52I I feel like that happens a lot.
- 8:53And without getting too late to inch detail, I've been like a
- 8:57voluntary consultant for places where it was probably, you know,
- 9:04looking back, it was work that was actual work work and not
- 9:09typical volunteer work. I'm not trying to complain, but
- 9:13like now I now I understand more about my rights, I guess is
- 9:17really better because I see this as a civil right issue.
- 9:20Yeah, valuing I, I didn't value myself that much, I think was
- 9:25part of it. And that's common with autistic
- 9:28individuals because of how we're treated.
- 9:30And it's like, like imposter syndrome comes into it, right?
- 9:34Yes. So that's been a big challenge
- 9:36for me. Have have you like experienced
- 9:40that or a? 100% dude, You know for me,
- 9:45imposter syndrome is crazy, right?
- 9:46So I've got, I've got this book out here, Autism for Adults.
- 9:50I don't know if you've come across it, right, but it came
- 9:52out a couple months ago and he got like #1 in Canada, USA and
- 9:58the UK within like, I don't know, 12 hours of coming out,
- 10:00right? And I was like, well, cool.
- 10:02And I got all these people saying like, oh, well then you
- 10:03know, I'm not carrying that out to the book.
- 10:06And I guess some poster syndrome, like, it's not, it's
- 10:08not a big deal, right? I need to do something more to
- 10:10prove to myself that like, I'm worthy or I, I kind of, I'm
- 10:14sitting here on a panel, right? This happens quite a lot,
- 10:17sitting on a panel ready to talk in front of like a big audience.
- 10:19And I'm like, Oh my God, I'm like, do they, I'm, I'm not
- 10:23qualified for this. Like I, I don't know, you know,
- 10:25you know, I have a degree in chemistry and stuff like that.
- 10:27And I can talk about like very intellectual, kind of like
- 10:30analytical data pieces, especially with autism because
- 10:33of my line of work. But then I also think I know
- 10:36nothing, you know what I mean? And I and you get on a poster
- 10:38syndrome like I'm do they really know who they've hired?
- 10:44Yeah, I oh, go on. No.
- 10:46I was going to say the, the work that you do and the, the, the
- 10:51advocacy that you do is so important.
- 10:54Not enough of people do it. And I think that you, the way
- 10:58you're talking about it, right, and your knowledge on it and
- 11:00your expertise in it, I can't believe that you're not doing it
- 11:03full time like you should. Yeah, you should be doing this
- 11:05full time. Like, I can't believe that it's
- 11:07not your full gig. Yeah, and part of it is like
- 11:10getting out there because, again, sick burnout, that's
- 11:16something that I'm passionate about.
- 11:18But I, I'm more aware because I'm in a high stress time in my
- 11:23life right now, but I, I am trying to like, I'm passionate
- 11:27about this work. So it's something that I'm
- 11:29trying to do more of. But often I'm getting like
- 11:33unpaid offers and I have very mixed feelings about that
- 11:37because on one hand, I need to like, I feel like it's important
- 11:43to you educate about the other. My time and effort and expertise
- 11:48is also valuable. So but it's like a mixed filling
- 11:51because it's almost like if I'm not creating content I'm not
- 11:55getting notice but. Or or Yeah, wait one SEC.
- 12:04Yeah. So no, Yeah, you're absolutely
- 12:06right. You know, I'm do you know what's
- 12:07interesting? I'm going to hook you up with a
- 12:09company called a speaker with AK and a speaker.
- 12:15They have like a they're, they're really good.
- 12:16They're like an omnipresent kind of global platform for autistic
- 12:20individuals. And they work with it like, like
- 12:22the guy, you know, the voice of SpongeBob in, in like South
- 12:26America. And they work with a guy who
- 12:27invented like Ninja Turtles and stuff.
- 12:29Well, the interesting thing is they have a section on a website
- 12:31where you can host your offerings or consultancy,
- 12:34whatever, and they'll help promote that.
- 12:36So maybe we can do that for you and help get you out a bit more
- 12:39in front of more people, right? Because your service is really
- 12:41valued. I really, really appreciate
- 12:45that. Thank you.
- 12:46Cool. OK, so tell me, how have you
- 12:52found? I got a few questions, but how
- 12:55have you found online, the online community?
- 12:59How have you found it? Negative, middle of the road or
- 13:01positive? Wow.
- 13:04OK, this it's mixed, to be honest.
- 13:08It, it depends on the, IT depends on the online community
- 13:13because I've noticed people are more bold when they private
- 13:19message me. So when I when I was making
- 13:21content and I'm going to go back eventually to make YouTube
- 13:23content. But when I was making YouTube
- 13:25content, some of the private messages I got on other
- 13:28platforms about it were were basically not nice comments
- 13:32about my artistic traits, like my speech to my mannerisms and
- 13:36stuff I can't change like calling me monotone and robotic
- 13:42and like I'm I'm it was they were I won't they were warming
- 13:47than that. But like I I'd heard other
- 13:49people talk about similar to where their videos are nitpicked
- 13:52for their mannerisms. Yeah, that's not good.
- 13:57By the way, fine. You, you, you don't sound
- 13:58robotic to me. You sound fine.
- 14:00So yeah, people are just idiots. Yeah, well, I did like character
- 14:04wastes, so one of it was actually the character, but
- 14:09well. Like it?
- 14:11Like impressions? Yeah, well, I created a whole
- 14:15fantasy world with autistic characters to teach about autism
- 14:21and I I did like a super villain CEO.
- 14:24That's stern diversion and I've had this whole universe.
- 14:27I want to go back to that. But it was very work intensive.
- 14:31I didn't mean to get on that topic, but it was like it was
- 14:34it's own thing that happened to me.
- 14:36Multiple interests. I love that.
- 14:40I love that dude. OK, here's a question for you
- 14:43and you're an interesting person to ask this question.
- 14:46What do you think about the term Asperger's Syndrome?
- 14:52OK, so I keep saying this. I have mixed feelings because of
- 14:55the history now that we're more aware.
- 14:58But did you see my deep dive into the paper?
- 15:02I don't think I saw your DJ, but I did see where you were talking
- 15:06about. It was, I forgot who you were
- 15:11talking about, but it was a conversation you were having
- 15:13about how you're one of the few that were keeping name and how
- 15:17like that was how like, I know that wasn't the only reason why
- 15:20you're keeping the name, but it was also you're talking about
- 15:24your brand too. Yeah, I kind of remember what?
- 15:27Yeah, it was a podcast episode. Right.
- 15:29Yeah, it was a podcast episode. You're talking to another man
- 15:33but I don't remember. Like I followed his content too
- 15:35but I'm cannot remember his name.
- 15:37Was it Orion Kelly? Yes, yes, yeah, yes, that was
- 15:42the one. Yeah.
- 15:44So yeah, I did Well, so sorry, I'll let you answer the
- 15:46question. Sorry, I don't.
- 15:47And if everyone listening and watching, I'm not trying to
- 15:48adjust. I'm just trying to keep like the
- 15:50flow to make sure I'm staying on topic.
- 15:52I did it. I did a deep dive into there was
- 15:54a paper released in 2018, right, about the kind of like
- 15:58atrocities that that hand Asperger had committed, right?
- 16:01And I'm doing this because these like kind of like inverted kind
- 16:03of things because I didn't, I didn't know much about it, but
- 16:08everyone was like, that's why they stopped using the term
- 16:10Asperger, which is not why they stopped using it.
- 16:11They stopped using it. So like because they could
- 16:13actually just encompass all of it into ASD so people could have
- 16:16access to support, right? So then I was like, why's this
- 16:19all this hatred? So I read the paper, I went
- 16:20through it and analyzed the entire journal.
- 16:23It's huge. And it's about 2726 minute long
- 16:25video of me analysing this journal and pulling out the
- 16:27pieces that I'm talking about. And there is a conclusion there
- 16:32that you can draw if you want to, to say that maybe
- 16:36Ansasberger could have had personal, you know, negative
- 16:44connotation or personal affinity for Nazis.
- 16:48And it's very, and that's clutching at straws, right?
- 16:50It's very clutching at straws. But if you read the paper, if
- 16:52you watch a video where I pull out the pieces, what it actually
- 16:55highlights is Ansas Berger was a person who was trying to protect
- 16:59autistic kids from being deported to concentration camps.
- 17:03He was arrested by the Gestapo. He was an outright opposition to
- 17:08the Gestapo as Nazi. You know, occupation of Vienna
- 17:11became more prevalent and they took over the hospital he worked
- 17:14at. He had less power over the
- 17:15things he did. You know, it was hard.
- 17:19It was hard. It was hard to live and work in
- 17:21those types. So that that's that's the basis.
- 17:23But yes, tell me, tell me what your thoughts and feelings are
- 17:26at this moment like. OK, And I feel like, I know, I
- 17:31know there are people that will disagree with me on this, but I
- 17:36personally feel like it's personal preference.
- 17:38I, I do feel, I personally feel uncomfortable when it's used in
- 17:42a way to say that because I have seen some people use it in a way
- 17:46to like say that they're almost better than those that need more
- 17:50support. And I do have mixed feelings
- 17:53about that. But then there, there are sort
- 17:54of people who say that they feel like it, they're doing that to
- 17:56not minimize other people's needs.
- 18:00But it depends on, I don't know, I, I, I personally feel like
- 18:05language should be up to the person, individual person.
- 18:09I don't like to please language unless it's purposely trying to
- 18:14harm someone or a group of people.
- 18:16Exactly as interesting what you said that you said that you
- 18:22know, people, people use it in a derogative way where they say
- 18:25like, I'm Asperger's and you're classic autism.
- 18:28So you're lower intellectually than me, right.
- 18:30That's horrible. That's nothing to do with
- 18:32labeling. That's to do with you being an
- 18:33asshole. Whether you you have Asperger's
- 18:35syndrome diagnosis on that. If you're an asshole, you're an
- 18:38asshole. So I, I think it's AI think it's
- 18:41a, it's a broad statement and definition of character
- 18:45labeling. If you say you can't use some
- 18:48Aspergers because it causes aspy supremacy, right?
- 18:50It's just this term that you're, you're kind of kind of talking
- 18:52about where someone says, Hey, I have Asperger's, I'm a genius.
- 18:55You all you guys are idiots because you're not not
- 18:57Aspergers, right? That's nothing to do with
- 18:59Aspergers. That's to do with you as a
- 19:00person being a total asshole. So I'd love to just kind of put
- 19:05that out there. People need to just really just
- 19:07calm down and realize that read the Asperger paper properly.
- 19:11Watch my video on it and I'm not look and I don't even use the
- 19:14term Asperger's that much like as in I don't say, oh, I'm
- 19:17diagnosed with Aspergers because I had a reassessment undiagnosed
- 19:20ASD level 2. So I just say I have autism or
- 19:24two, right. I don't actually say, oh, I have
- 19:26Asperger's because that's not what my updated diagnosis says.
- 19:28But I will advocate for people who want to say that they they
- 19:31identify with the term Asperger's because hey, at the
- 19:33end of the day, I know somebody who wants to identify as they
- 19:35them and them. And if I accept them for being
- 19:38them or they, then I'll accept zoning from being Asperger's
- 19:41syndrome because that's who we are.
- 19:44We are allowing people to be themselves.
- 19:45And that's important, isn't it? Yes, that's somewhere.
- 19:48And that actually, while back you in this conversation, you
- 19:52asked me about the online community.
- 19:55And that's actually one of the challenges I've encountered is
- 20:00people wanting to, what I call it policing, but like wanting
- 20:04to, like, control what other people say when it's stuff
- 20:07that's opinions and they're personal, like a personal
- 20:11identification. Yeah.
- 20:13It's almost like correcting someone's pronouns.
- 20:16And that's so personal. Yeah, it's so to you, isn't it?
- 20:20Like you can be who you want, you know?
- 20:22I mean, that's the beauty of the world, isn't it?
- 20:25Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. And that's like something I've
- 20:30talked about to you is that I, I want the community to be more
- 20:35inviting and I and not trying to like nitpick on the community.
- 20:37It's just, it's something that sometimes I've heard people say
- 20:41that they're new to being identified as autistic and they
- 20:44don't always feel like they can reach out to people because
- 20:48they're afraid of being of saying something wrong and
- 20:51misstepping. And I feel like we should be
- 20:54creating an environment where people feel accepted and OK to
- 20:56make, like it's OK to make mistakes. 100% did I, you know,
- 21:01I did you see the my team released a statement on we did
- 21:08it. We would, we do these quote
- 21:09cards, right? And what happens is my team has
- 21:11a tool that takes a statement that I've made from a video in
- 21:15Word format and puts the text on an image of me.
- 21:17And that's a random selection. And then that goes out onto my
- 21:20socials. So as a picture of me smiling, I
- 21:23guess. And I said, you know, the, the
- 21:25survival rate and age or the average age of deceasedness of
- 21:30autistic individuals is this and this.
- 21:32And so people picked up a massive stink and people went
- 21:34nuts on my, I don't know if you saw it on my Instagram and they
- 21:36would go in help a lot. And I just said, guys, look, it
- 21:39was a mistake. Like it was just an autumn.
- 21:41We used a bit of AI to generate some kind of content to make
- 21:44sure that we didn't drop in, you know, providing value for you
- 21:47guys. But also, I made a mistake and
- 21:49I'm human, right? So like, just chill out.
- 21:52Like we can make mistakes. That's fine, as long as we learn
- 21:56and rectify for them. You know what I mean?
- 21:57Like, it's crazy because if we don't, like you said, what do we
- 22:00do? We're teaching an entire
- 22:01generation of people that you can't make a mistake.
- 22:03You have to be bang on all the time.
- 22:05And if you do make a mistake, you'd be shunned forever for it,
- 22:07which is not right. This is bullshit, right?
- 22:10It's not right. And I actually think that makes
- 22:14like perfectionism and anxiety worse.
- 22:20And it also cat it's just it's not the message that I think we
- 22:24should be sending out to people because like you said, it's fine
- 22:28to make mistakes. So we are human.
- 22:32And it's also I you brought up AI.
- 22:34I've also heard people get like shamed for using AI and I feel
- 22:39like there's no shame in using tools at all.
- 22:45Yeah, I think, yeah, because the the whole AI thing, I wasn't
- 22:48even using AI to generate the content.
- 22:50I was having AI helping me as a tool to take this and put it on
- 22:54that so I can put it out. You see, you know what I mean?
- 22:56Like a picture of me. Well, AI generated a picture.
- 22:58It was an actual picture of me. It was an actual quote that I'd
- 23:00said that I just wanted it. I just wanted it to because if
- 23:04somebody has to copy and paste, put it in to come and do all
- 23:05that thing. But I used AI tools that we
- 23:07created in our house to do this. It just need to fine tuning,
- 23:10right? There's nothing wrong with AI.
- 23:11I mean, you could use AI to make your content as long as you're
- 23:13helping people, but who cares? But yeah, we shouldn't be like
- 23:16you're saying making an accepted community is where we should be
- 23:19aiming. We shouldn't be making
- 23:21segregations. Like, you can't say Aspergers,
- 23:23you know, and authors and mums are horrible.
- 23:25It's like, Oh my God. Like honestly, that kind of
- 23:27rhetoric is going to segregate and factioners off so much that
- 23:30we're going to become a dysregulated mess.
- 23:34Yes. And the, the other thing they
- 23:38wanted to put the ring up that's on topic is I also feel like
- 23:42it's alienating parents. And I, I know there's a lot of
- 23:46autistic parents too, of autistic kids, but also I was
- 23:49thinking of more like the neuronormative or neurotypical
- 23:54parents of sick children. And I feel like there's, I've
- 24:00talked to like parents and they're not sure like how to
- 24:02interact with the community. And I feel like there's a lot of
- 24:05civil rights issues where if we could collaborate more with of
- 24:09parents, I feel like we can make more process and policies.
- 24:14I have like a lot of opinions on policies that need to happen, at
- 24:17least in the US. Yeah.
- 24:18Oh, yeah. Well, dude, it's it's a it's a
- 24:19global thing, dude. Asia's even worse.
- 24:23Like Asia culture doesn't even doesn't even think that autism
- 24:25to think like, I know we're going to move from Japan to
- 24:27Washington to give his son access to support, right?
- 24:29It's crazy. OK, here's here's my last
- 24:32question. Right.
- 24:33And this is good. This is a juicy question.
- 24:36Buckle up. What do you think about Autism
- 24:39Speaks? Well, he's honest and open.
- 24:44I'm, I'm, look, I'm not, I'm not judgmental here.
- 24:47I'm just asking a question. So they clearly made some
- 24:51mistakes in the past of some of the campaigns and the videos and
- 24:57and also where the funding went. I I feel I would like to think
- 25:01they're trying, but I honestly don't know like enough.
- 25:05I don't have like an insider perspective, so I don't know.
- 25:08Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Did I answer your question?
- 25:15That was perfect and I agree with you.
- 25:17I don't know, I mean, like I have seen some silly things that
- 25:22they put out. I've seen some of their shady
- 25:24history, but every charity has shady history because you're
- 25:27going back to like the 1950s, nineteen 60s where everything
- 25:30was shady, right? Men could slap their wives,
- 25:32paedophilia was rife. You know, women have no rights.
- 25:35Gay people weren't persecuted for being gay.
- 25:36It's like, come on, everything's another shady history.
- 25:39If we judge everything on this history, let's all give up now,
- 25:42right? You know what I mean?
- 25:44So if we look at it as a organization, yes, they've made
- 25:48some ridiculous videos and campaigns because they were
- 25:51probably misled. On the other hand, two things
- 25:54come to mind. First of all is they're highly
- 25:56funded and they have some really fascinating research programs
- 26:00that they've actually funded. And those programs are actually
- 26:02really valuable. They're not into eugenics.
- 26:05Those programs, you know, there's a lot of problems that
- 26:06are just literal good neuroscience programmes.
- 26:10And I think there's, there's really good information there.
- 26:12And we should thank them for funding those programmes because
- 26:14we should thank people for the good work that they do, right?
- 26:16If we're going to be vocal about everything bad they do, we
- 26:18should be vocal about everything good they do.
- 26:20The other thing is everyone in the autism community that I meet
- 26:24typically, not you, but most people they meet head on,
- 26:30they'll say autism speech is an evil, the gyroscope constant and
- 26:33it needs to be exploded and we're going to RIP it apart.
- 26:35It's a horrible evil empire. I'm like, OK, good luck doing
- 26:39that because you, you and you have about $6 in your account
- 26:42and they're a multi $1,000,000 agency.
- 26:45How do you combat a multi $1,000,000 agency?
- 26:47Because you be the change you wish to see in the world, right?
- 26:50Or you don't. You don't just go and attack a
- 26:52company. They'll, they will just squash
- 26:54you. How do we do it?
- 26:55You open dialogue, you talk to them, you create consultancy
- 26:58groups, you create clinics where you talk to them and you have
- 27:01open dialogue. That is how you create Autism
- 27:04Speaks for the betterment of the community rather than just shut
- 27:08it because all the time they're calling them like possible piece
- 27:11of national horrible company. Nothing's going to change.
- 27:13They're going to meet you with resistance.
- 27:16We need to be open. We need to be able to
- 27:18communication and we need to find some common ground to open
- 27:22communication Comm lines. And once you have those cables
- 27:24set, everything else will just flow.
- 27:27And that's, that's what I'm going to do.
- 27:28I, I, I really feel like we need to sit down and have a talk on
- 27:31it because like, they've done some stupid shit, but can they
- 27:34change from that? I don't know, let's try it.
- 27:36Why not? Because that money, the, the
- 27:38funding that they get can and has been used for great things
- 27:41and we can do great things. It's like, you know, they fund
- 27:43schools like iPads to kids. They have accessibility, right?
- 27:46It's a great thing to do. So there are some really good
- 27:49things that we can do. And I was just interested
- 27:51because I, I, and, you know, I don't know an awful lot about
- 27:53the money, see some research, but I have, the things I have
- 27:56seen are mixed. So.
- 27:58Yeah. And just real quick, like
- 28:01actually when I was in ABA, there was a lack of assessments
- 28:06for adults, like functional assessments.
- 28:08And the one that they had to use for me to see how I went where I
- 28:11need support was actually from Autism Speaks, as they were one
- 28:15of the few that had like that free resource out there.
- 28:19And I mean, my, my AB therapist didn't have access to those type
- 28:25of assessments for adults or the ones that were able were not,
- 28:30we're not, you know, comprehensive enough.
- 28:34That's so interesting, isn't it? Because like, look at that, you
- 28:37know, they benefited you in your, in your life, yet
- 28:41everybody in the community wants to tell you how bad they are.
- 28:43Nobody wants to do well, good things to do.
- 28:45So excuse me, I, I, it's a really interesting, fascinating
- 28:48topic. And I think that we need to be
- 28:49logical and we need to come with a compassionate mind of saying,
- 28:53how can we better the condition of this environment between
- 28:58autonomous speaks in the community, not how can we just
- 29:00say the worst people in the world and don't like to have
- 29:03blue and you know, all this kind of stuff, right?
- 29:07So I think, yeah, I think there's there's a lot there
- 29:09because people get busier. And I'm I'm the other thing.
- 29:11I stand up for the little guy. Somebody wants to say Asperger's
- 29:13syndrome. Somebody wants to like, if
- 29:14there's a mum group in Seattle who says, look, we're doing an
- 29:18autism speech charity Red. And the money we earn from it
- 29:20with an autism speech group is going to pay for the kids to go
- 29:22on a little vacation right in the summer.
- 29:24And these kids are non verbal kids.
- 29:26Great, there's nothing wrong with that.
- 29:28But you have people in the community telling you that it's
- 29:30wrong and you shouldn't be doing it, which is bullshit.
- 29:33Yeah, I, I, I agree with you on that.
- 29:38It's kind of an interesting topic.
- 29:39Sorry. Character, you say?
- 29:41And the other thing is that if obviously people are afraid to
- 29:46collaborate with Alphism Speaks, and rightfully so, because those
- 29:49people are afraid that they will be shut out from the community
- 29:53if they do help collaborate. And I find that very problematic
- 29:56because we need to create. Yeah.
- 29:59Because how do we change something if we're not?
- 30:02If autistic people may not be feeling comfortable
- 30:06collaborating with autism seeks because they might nation by the
- 30:09rest of the autistic community. To me that is a problem itself
- 30:13huge. Problem, dude, we should not be
- 30:15doing that. We should be encouraging
- 30:17positive dialogue and open diplomacy between cables, right?
- 30:23Us. And then we we need to be
- 30:25promoting positive dialogue. You're a very logical person.
- 30:29And I'm glad we've kind of hooked up actually, because it's
- 30:31really, really good. And I think, you know, hey,
- 30:34maybe you could be a person to help pioneer that, who knows?
- 30:38And I think that would be some good that's kind of in your line
- 30:40of work, right? It's kind of like talking to
- 30:44companies and opening them up to different suggestions.
- 30:46And maybe we could do that with Autism Speaks, who knows?
- 30:49OK, so how do people, Larissa, how do people get in touch with
- 30:52you? How do people contact you?
- 30:53How do people find you online? What's what's the what's the
- 30:55411? So I have a website
- 30:59larissaminner.com and Oh yes. Is that linked to all your
- 31:06socials as well? I should look into that.
- 31:10I have a link tree but I don't have link tree memorize.
- 31:15I can I can give you that if you don't worry, if you would like.
- 31:18I can embed it into the video on the show notes.
- 31:20So that's that's fine. If you want to, if anybody's
- 31:21watching this and listening like just go to the show notes, all
- 31:23the description of the video and you'll see Larissa's links.
- 31:26But I'll try and embed it onto the video as well.
- 31:27So, Larissa meta.com, right? Yes, and I'm OK with people
- 31:33emailing me at larissa@larissamina.com,
- 31:38especially if it's like professional opportunities.
- 31:41And I'm also on LinkedIn. You can search for me at Larissa
- 31:45Miner on LinkedIn too. So.
- 31:48So no, nobody asked Larissa on a date via e-mail.
- 31:51OK, yes. But what's happened on the turn?
- 31:56No. No, seriously, it's it's like so
- 31:59inappropriate. People are people are nuts.
- 32:01Like how why, why would you do that?
- 32:03Like anyway, right. Well, Larissa look has been
- 32:04fantastic. Thank you so much for being here
- 32:06today. I think it's been a fascinating,
- 32:08eye opening and exhilarating conversation.
- 32:11I think we've covered a lot of good points, so thank you so
- 32:13much. Thank you for having me.
- 32:16My pleasure. Hey guys, thank you so much for
- 32:17checking out this podcast. Make sure you are subscribed
- 32:20because there are people listening right now who not
- 32:22subscribe to this podcast. I can see you.
- 32:24Make sure you subscribe. OK, guys.
- 32:26See you in the next one piece.