Marieke Nijkamp, the author of successful young adult novels like This is Where It Ends and Before I Let Go, happens to be autistic. And on World Autism Awareness Day, she had plenty to say about the importance of autism acceptance.
Nijkamp kept it very simple, compiling her thoughts in a series of "reminders" on Twitter.
"It's that time of year!" she wrote in part.
Reminder 1: Acceptance is more valuable than awareness.
Reminder 2: Listen.
Reminder 3: Avoid Autism Speaks like the plague.
Reminder 4: Seriously: Avoid Autism Speaks.
Reminder 5: Watch the way you frame the conversation.
Reminder 6: "Do speak of autism as simply another neurotype."
Reminder 7: "Educate yourself."
Reminder 8: Pseudoscience deserves to be called out.
Reminder 9: Oh yeah, and about vaccines...
Reminder 10: Change the way you celebrate.
Nijkamp knows what she's talking about––and her thread was a hit.
This is the way it should be done, folks. We're tempted to print out copies of this thread ourselves and tape them to telephone poles and other public surfaces.
