Just another reason not to tell people to smile

Art for book cover needed (Paid!)

Hey, #actuallyautistic (and artistic) Tumblr ladies!

We’re looking for an artist for the cover of a book about autistic women!

An acquaintance named Heather Stone Wodis asked me to share this. She is having a book published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It’s her PhD thesis and it’s a collection and discussion of the stories of several women on the autism spectrum.

She’s offering $100 for a good piece of original art for the cover, created by a woman on the autism spectrum.

It can be something you’ve already done, it can already be posted online somewhere, just as long as it’s your own work and you think it would fit well with a book about autistic women’s stories.

Since it’s a pretty serious book (again, a PhD thesis), I don’t think she’d be interested in art that’s cartoonish, but whatever you have, it can’t hurt to try.

I’m guessing it would have to be a pretty high-resolution image. 300 dpi at least. And big enough to fill the width of a standard book cover (maybe 6 by 9 inches). I don’t think it has to be the same dimensions as a book cover, because they can put the title and author’s name above and below it, or crop to a part of it. But it needs at least enough resolution for them to do that.

To submit:

Send me (@erikahammerschmidt) either a message on Tumblr, or an email at humanalien@gmail.com. Include either an attached file of the art, or a link to where you have it up online.

I will send Heather what you send me. She’ll look at the pieces and pick one to use. I’ll get back to the winner when she decides.

Notes:

1. I am not sure of the deadline, and she isn’t either. It’s probably soon, because the book is just about to come out. So I wouldn’t recommend starting a project that will take a long time.

2. I am not sure how the artist would be paid. I’m guessing she could do Paypal or a check in the mail, but I don’t know for sure. I really haven’t gotten much time to talk to her about this, and I’m in a hurry to post this because the deadline is probably quite soon.

2. She hasn’t told me how she defines either “autistic” or “women.” She seems like a very progressive and accepting person, so I would hope that she would accept self-diagnosed autistics and trans women, but I can’t guarantee that she would. However, I doubt that she would require you to show her your diagnosis or the sex on your birth certificate, and she might have to know your legal name in order to send you the payment but that’s probably all.

Autistic Lifehack: Hearing Problems

If someone says something that you only partially understand:

DON’T ask for clarification with a generic “What?” or “I’m sorry?” (In my experience, people will repeat the phrase the exact same way without helping you to understand).

Example: Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?” Autistic Person: “What?” Them: “Do you like pahganabasa?” Autistic Person: “I’m sorry, what?” Them (annoyed): “Do you like pahganabasa?”

Instead, DO repeat the part that you did understand, and substitute a “What?” for the unintelligable part.

Example: Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?” Autistic Person: “Do I like what?” Them: “Pineapple pizza?” Autistic Person: (Understands the words!)

I’ve also had successes with “I’m sorry, I only heard the first half of that sentence,” or actually verbalizing my interpretation of the part I heard incorrectly as a question: “Pahgana… basa?”.

Sometimes that makes the speaker think that they might be mumbling, or verbalizing in a way that makes them difficult to understand (because there are times it’s really not your brain–it’s their mouth).

This is also a lifesaver if you have Auditory Processing Disorder. It stopped the amount of annoyed sighs because ppl thought I was deliberately ignoring them or them saying the same thing but louder (which does not help when volume isn’t the problem)

I have auditory processing problems and I work in customer service, where I have to help people over the phone all the time.

if you’re on the phone and can’t understand something someone is saying, tell them “I’m sorry, I think our connection is fuzzy and I didn’t catch what you just said.” They will repeat themselves (usually more carefully/clearly than before.) And then you already have an excuse if you have to ask them to repeat more times during the conversation.

People will always understand technology-gone-wonky. If you’re on a call, feel free to blame technology for the rocky communication. Everyone has had a lousy phone connection, it’s a truly universal experience.

Hahaha I do that often (I did it at work like two weeks ago to hide a meltdown... it only sortof worked). But seriously, I’ve been on Skype or whatever and got overwhelmed and just froze (for the video) and carefully clicked Hang Up. Not sure if they 100% believed me, but I’ve done that many times! And then type in, oh dang, sorry, that connection was horrible! What happened?! Let’s just type for awhile!

Autistic Lifehack: Hearing Problems

If someone says something that you only partially understand:

DON’T ask for clarification with a generic “What?” or “I’m sorry?” (In my experience, people will repeat the phrase the exact same way without helping you to understand).

Example: Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?” Autistic Person: “What?” Them: “Do you like pahganabasa?” Autistic Person: “I’m sorry, what?” Them (annoyed): “Do you like pahganabasa?”

Instead, DO repeat the part that you did understand, and substitute a “What?” for the unintelligable part.

Example: Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?” Autistic Person: “Do I like what?” Them: “Pineapple pizza?” Autistic Person: (Understands the words!)

I’ve also had successes with “I’m sorry, I only heard the first half of that sentence,” or actually verbalizing my interpretation of the part I heard incorrectly as a question: “Pahgana… basa?”.

Sometimes that makes the speaker think that they might be mumbling, or verbalizing in a way that makes them difficult to understand (because there are times it’s really not your brain–it’s their mouth).

This is also a lifesaver if you have Auditory Processing Disorder. It stopped the amount of annoyed sighs because ppl thought I was deliberately ignoring them or them saying the same thing but louder (which does not help when volume isn’t the problem)

I do this a lot- I have really shit auditory processing and ADHD, and we often get sensory issues. I have to be on the phone a lot for work and my auditory processing isn’t good enough for me to really deal with phones. I’ve def done the repeating thing a lot. Customer: “Do you have the green car with the akj;ldfjksal;fjda?” Me: “The green car with… the flux capacitor or the mobile pizza oven?” Customer: “The pizza oven!” Me: “Okay cool! Yeah, we’ve got that, and in lime green too!” Makes my life a zillion percent easier, especially since phones add an even worse layer of difficulty to my words-to-brain lag time.

My mum and I are going on a road trip soon. I’ve also gotten into making food I haven’t made before. The bread and mochi have been family favourites, and the brownies have been an ongoing favourite. The reason I bring this up on this post is today I was talking to mum and she couldn’t hear me properly, and that reminded me of this post. The conversation went something like this:

“I was thinking of making brownies, bread and mochi for the road. What do you think?”

“Brownies, bread, and…?”

“Mochi.”

“For the…?”

“Road.”

“Sounds good!”

Mum has hearing problems and she uses this tactic a lot. Thought it might be helpful!

Yay!

Just because you’ve not wrung yourself out to the brink doesn’t mean you don’t need it and aren’t allowed to use it. Protecting yourself from getting to that point is absolutely okay and encouraged, so please use your mobility devices. Anyone who says otherwise can kindly go smell some pretty flowers.

For the longest time I’d been afraid to use my wheelchair unless my legs had zero functionality or until I actually fell down. And you know what? It sucks to fall down, it’s scary, and it hurts. But I felt like I wasn’t allowed to use it unless I absolutely, positively had no other choice. And that, my friend, is internalized ableism.

Being a part of the spoonie community here on Tumblr has helped me so much. Just this weekend I went on a retreat thing and brought my wheelchair just in case I might need it. And it’s really the only reason I didn’t have to go home early. I waited till I absolutely needed it the first day. And even after my meds kicked in and my legs were a tiny bit steadier but still scary and difficult to walk with, I used it - as a wheelchair and as a sort of walker. I used it how and when I needed it and I helped prevent my condition from worsening.

I love my wheelchair. It helped me take care of myself this weekend and I was lucky to be in a really supportive group who were understanding not only about needing my wheelchair, but also when I went non-verbal.

So please, fellow spoonies, use your mobility devices whenever and however you need to. You’re allowed to, you’re encouraged to. Take care of yourself and protect yourself. ❤

(Disclaimer: I’m not mobility-disabled).

It seems like a good simple way to think is: always save energy/mobility for an emergency! At least, it’s what I first thought of when I read the first few lines.

Sure, you *could* walk until your legs are wobbly and tired, but what if there was an emergency, and you had saved some spoons to break out of the “In Case Of Emergency Break Glass” case?

Or, starting to go off-topic to something I’ve experienced more of, what if you didn’t make random small-talk with people who totally don’t matter, and could then communicate effectively how someone could help you with a meltdown?

Autism and directions/questions

Question:

when my parents ask a question, I’m always like “what do you mean” because my brain takes it 131 different ways

Answer:

so I am also taking this 131 different ways so are you asking why your autistic brain does this or if this is normal for autistic people?

this is normal for autistic people

why autistic people do this is up for debate but from what I have read its starts with autistic people are different anatomically our brains have more connections in it then other over which means we make more mental connections then other people do so that’s what this happens, probably, maybe there are many factors.

asking, “could you be more specific?” is never inappropriate, especially with bosses you want to do the job the way they want you to do it. and if they ask “What do you mean be more specific?” because they think they are being oblivious just give two different examples of what they could mean, even though there is a hundred ways you could take that. silly aillistics usually can’t think much more past two things at a time :P

we make more connections :)

*doesnt understand a post*

*looks at notes and tries to find comments*

Local Man Immediately Feels Better After Eating For First Time In 12 Hours. Wonders If Science Knows About This Miracle Cure. 

autism problem #1055

Scheduling a social event on a day and then not being able to do anything else that day, because no, you are Busy that day

Or only doing things to get ready for The Thing lol