Untypical: How the world isn’t built for autistic people and what we should all do about it

by Pete Wharmby

Without the knowledge needed to appreciate how hollow and vicious these ideologies really are, they can be very enticing. With careful manipulation by others, autistic young people might find themselves immersed in dangerous discourse, especially online, and gradually find themselves supporting views and ideas that are beyond the pale. After years of being ostracised and treated poorly by their peers in real life, it may even be understandable why they might fall for the tempting lies offered by such political beliefs.

Autism is known as an invisible disability, and it can be hard to appreciate that our challenges and struggles are worthy of being classed as a disability.

charities and organisations ostensibly set up to help autistic people (or at least their parents …) often have no one who is autistic anywhere in their leadership structure.

Almost all autistic people may experience what it is to be non-speaking for short periods, perhaps, for example, during a shut-down.

I find that when my stress levels reach a particular point, my voice begins to falter as a tool, becoming less reliable and less focused, and I begin to lose my vocabulary and grammar.

Black autistics cannot unmask as freely as white autistic people may be able to (when circumstances permit) because of the added threat of racist interpretation of behaviour.

Too often I read about how ‘vulnerable’ autistic people are ‘targeted’ by the trans community, and are therefore forced into being trans against their will. Autistic people may be many things, but being vulnerable to such nefarious schemes (if such schemes even exist, which I’m certain they don’t) is not one of them. Too many of us have spent hour after hour analysing our own behaviour, going over things in minute detail so as to be completely sure, to determine that we are, in fact, autistic – a conclusion that seems to almost always be borne out by official diagnosis. It stands to reason, therefore, that we possess the faculty to make similar decisions about our gender and sexuality.

the world is a hostile, terrifying place for autistic people everywhere, for so many reasons, that even in a middling-size book like this I’ve only scratched the surface. For as long as this continues, autistic people of all backgrounds and life experiences are going to suffer. They will suffer reduced life expectancy, reduced lifetime income, reduced opportunities, reduced likelihood of starting a family, reduced ability to live a life that’s true to them, reduced safety on the streets, reduced provision at school, at work, on public transport, in every town, city and country in the world. This cannot be allowed to continue.

The status quo is no good. It leads to meltdown, burnout and early death for a significant portion of the population.

The 1 to 10 per cent of us that share the planet with you need you to make this effort – at last, after all these years – to accept us into your world, to take this neurotypical world and make it untypical; an untypical world that’s genuinely built for everybody.