April 25, 2025 • 26 mins
Everyone has a slightly different experience of finding Autistic identity. Lucy describes some of her experience that many of us will recognise.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
We speak our words, we listen,we speak our words, we listen.
We speak our words.
We listen.
We speak our words.
We listen.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (00:18):
Hello everybody and thank you for
finding us here at Autistic Radio.
Lucy is one of our maincontributors here at Autistic Radio.
She takes part in her own substack.
She takes part in our 4 4 4 drop-ins.
She takes part in the 5, 5,5 Facebook discussion that.
(00:46):
Something that's comeinto her life recently.
The opportunity to advocate andadvocating is something that
takes a lot of different forms.
Advocating could be just explaining tosomebody on the bus that we don't need
to look autistic to be autistic or.
(01:15):
It's identifying people and diagnosingpeople and realizing autism when
you go further than just speakingto one person, it takes on a whole
different set of skills and meanings.
Let me introduce you, Lucy.
What, what has led you.
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (01:42):
I think I come from a kind of a generation where maybe
the generation before us were spendingtheir whole lives with their autism and
just having to, to, to fit it in andframe it, and that included my family.
There's a lot of autism in my family,so I felt quite, when I got to,
to the point where, and it was mydoctor that spotted me, I went to.
(02:09):
I felt quite freed by that.
It answered a lot of questions.
I understood my life, and then I lookback and I saw that my father was
autistic as well by his behavior.
He was in a generation wherehe didn't have any community or
anybody to go to to talk about this.
He was just a quirk of his nature.
It's just the way he was.
He lived his life so.
(02:39):
That we're all out there, but wemight not wanna go out and socialize
and talk and all this sort of thing.
Speaking up for people whodidn't have the opportunity.
And that was my first kind of feelingabout it, is that I, I thought, you
know, now I know I kind of wanna tellthe world, but I didn't have any place
to put that at the very beginning.
(03:00):
I. I started using the sort of localservices to try and get myself a little
bit socialized, find a group of peopleI could speak to, and I came across
an inclusion coach called Jackie.
I used to go to one of theirmeetings and, but I started saying,
and that, that's not for me.
So she decided to do a one to.
(03:25):
And we'd speak.
And she said, this is really interesting.
I talk about my autism, my experiences,my life, my neurodiversity.
She said, this is interestingand we could use you.
We, we, we could use your help.
And she suggested that shego back and talk to the, the
rest of the group about me.
And then they, they said, we wouldlove to have you here, sort of.
(03:55):
And a training session with them.
And from there it kind of blossomedand people gotta know about me.
And so I had opportunities thatI could jump on from there.
And that's where I'm now, I'm sort of ina consultancy role with a lot of people.
I'm working really hard to connect withother autistic people and to connect
with non-autistic people as well.
People who just don'tunderstand and need to.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (04:24):
The first is that it was actually a medical
professional, your doctor, who suggestedthat you might explore autism, and
then the second thing is that it wassomebody who was paid in the community.
This coach, this diversity coach whosupported you and then invited you speak.
(04:53):
Reflection on servicesthat sometimes work well.
We hear an awful lot of people experienceswhere they're saying constantly
that the services don't work well.
But in your case, there seems tohave been something that has been
a very positive benefit for you.
(05:21):
That first experience of beingpositive that's encouraged
you to trust the whole system?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (05:28):
I think I'd use the phrase that I got lucky.
I don't think it's everybody'sexperience that I think that I've,
I've had the opportunities that havecome to me have been just through she.
I've, I've seen a lot of doctors over theyears and this has never come up before.
So the, the fact that that cameup at that point and it was all a
fresh new thing was like, wow, okay.
(05:49):
Okay.
But I mean, you've gotta rememberwith this the late identifying
thing and you know, being, beingin your forties when you find out.
I mean, that means there's an awful lotof times where I was missed, you know?
I was missed and I wasmissed for a lot of my life.
So I don't think that I'm totallypositive about it because there was this,
this, and this and this before wherethey didn't notice that I had symptoms
(06:13):
or signs of autism or neurodiversity.
As far as Jackie was concerned,she, she was, she, I still, I'm
still in touch with her, although I.
With her.
She really just found that I did better ona one-to-one basis, and she noticed that.
(06:36):
So once again, it's kind ofgetting lucky, getting the right
person, being in the right place.
So, but you know, I'm positivebecause I've, I've got here and I
think it's better to kind of workon the positive side of things
and I, and project positivity out.
I like to have like a nicepositive outlook and say,
(06:56):
it's really not all that bad.
You know?
It really is not all that bad being me.
It's really not all thatbad having this brain.
It helps in so many ways, and thoseare the things I like highlight.
I don't really like tolook at it as a disability.
I just like to think.
(07:17):
My own attitude is, is quite apositive one when it comes to advocacy.
I like to project a really positive image.
We do talk about negative things,but you know, that's fine.
We can, but I like to talk it up.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (07:29):
So the history for you is actually
one that is quite negative.
You could have had this information,uh, a lot earlier in your life, but
means.
There's a change and you'reable to use these double
(07:51):
negatives to create a positive.
To say it's not that bad.
I'm wondering if your experience ofbeing maybe inappropriately dealt
with for many years and then findingthat key to your own psyche, your own.
(08:19):
To push for advocacy so that other peoplerealize earlier and get involved earlier.
Is that one of your motivations?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (08:33):
Yeah.
This is really difficult.
I tend to talk to a.
Groups where they're not, youknow, they're, they're not really
conversant with the terms orthe, or the ins and outs of it.
So my advocacy is a lot of thetime a general public thing.
I have of a few otherautistic people in groups.
But I mean, I, I, I find thatmy own target is to look at my.
(09:09):
Once they, they know themselves,I guess they know themselves and
they cope in the way they cope.
But I like to think of myself assomebody who can go out there and
spread a different message to differentpeople, the general public, to people
who aren't embedded in this or knowabout it or have questions about it.
(09:29):
I. I like the ideas that I can take apositive message to a group of people
who really dunno anything about me, whoreally dunno anything about neurodiversity
in general, and that I can help changethe attitude of just the ordinary person.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (09:49):
I personally, I find that really valuable
because what I've noticed is.
Part of a journey for theperson themselves, and they
leave behind the simple stuff.
They leave behind.
(10:10):
The basic first things that we start tolearn about ourselves and move on to the
complex to a form of advocacy that has
themselves, but misses.
And the grassroots is what youdescribed, the general population
(10:34):
really don't get the basics, do they?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked: No, they don't. (10:36):
undefined
And the questions that I get asked aresometimes almost a bit breathtaking
in the kind of the audacity.
I, I allow myself to beopen to anybody's opinion.
It's fine if people don't understand.
I know they're gonna be naive.
And I know they're gonna not haveanything to hold this up against.
(11:00):
They, they can't, they,they've got no idea.
And like, I, I, I, I think I've saidbefore to, to others, I've been asked
things like, how can autism, howcan your neurodiversity be stopped?
And that was a big question for me.
I stopped, what do you mean stopped?
And I felt like, see what you'retrying to say is that people
(11:21):
like myself should be eradicated.
That was the question that in, inits basic form and it's questions
like those, I'm happy to answerbecause I wanna tell that person.
We people that thinkdifferently, that have
(11:47):
need.
Not a detriment and I simple.
I don't really wanna go complex
questions.
Understand what?
I've got an awful lot to share about that.
(12:07):
So yeah, ask me difficult questionsand I'll give you simple answers
and we can start from that point.
Maybe complexity is somethingthat you have to work towards.
You can't just dive straight in.
And from where I'm, I've gottastay on that level of just
being like a people person.
Just being out there and just saying,no, you know, let's have a conversation.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (12:29):
I phrase.
Questions, and I'llgive you simple answers.
So often the professionals, theresearchers, the advocates from
the autistic community, they comeacross with jargon and complexities.
(12:50):
What you appear to be tryingto do is to reach people where
they are with understandingand speak to them eye to eye.
That, that's so valuable to me.
I wish there were more people like you,Lucy, because I do see that an awful lot
(13:10):
of the intelligent people like yourselfwho are autistic, rush towards a kind
of graduated situation where they'retalking about the big complexities.
A general population to justget some of it, isn't it?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (13:31):
Absolutely.
It's, it's, we need to be able to, to,to, I, I, I'm, I'm not an unintelligent
person, but I'd like to start fromthe ground up and I still feel like
I'm taking baby steps into everything.
I'm, I've lived this all my life.
I'm now, and I'm still comingto terms with that, that
(13:53):
diagnosis, baby steps, bit by bit.
It starts with knowing yourself and.
I can only glean it frommy own past experience.
I don't really wanna dive too deepand I do wanna keep its grassroots
(14:13):
and it, it would just be too much totry and explain anything complex to
the people that I end up talking to.
I could go in there with stats andfigure, but they're not gonna take it in.
But honest conversation is differentand, and, and that I think is the.
If I was gonna go any into anythingcomplex, it would just be for my own good.
(14:34):
I could take it out into the populationthat I'm working with at the moment.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (14:38):
For your own ego complication,
I want to include some of the texts.
There's one here that says, sometimesautistic people simplify the complicated.
A general part of the autisticway is to try and break things
(15:02):
down into simplificationsand to not over complicate.
So in other words, it it, the oppositeof what I've been describing, that
some of the advocacy that I see outthere is very complex and doesn.
(15:24):
Autistic people differ in a generality,is that the autistic sensibility is to
simplify the complicated and not justaccept the complicated at face value.
So I, I'm, I'm happy to, to seethat another text is describing a
(15:45):
common tongue, so when they react.
To speak at the grassroots, they're sayingthat you are finding the right words, the
way of communicating on the level withthe other people that need communication.
And a recent text comes in to saythat they're concerned that we, the
(16:11):
autistic people are often seen orportrayed as unable to have basic
conversation or communication.
We get labeled as people with acommunication deficit, autistic
spectrum disorder instead ofautistic social difference.
(16:37):
A SD could mean two differentthings if we allowed it.
What do you feel about that?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (16:42):
Listen, I mean, we get up every morning.
And we go into a world wheremost of the people we meet aren't
gonna have our experiences.
So we are actually well trained inbasic con conversation and communication
because we've had to use that all ourlives in order to fit into a structure
that doesn't necessarily welcome usin to, to think that we could not be
(17:05):
able to have basic conversations is.
Stupid.
Stupid.
I mean, that's, that's a, a kind of apretty stupid word, but I mean, it's
stupid to think that we haven't gotthat because how would we have ever
functioned in our lives and our workand our jobs in our interactions if we
didn't have a basic knowledge of justhow to have a simple conversation?
(17:26):
Because that's what's about it'sinteraction at a bus stop a says.
We're robotic or justtrained to do one thing.
We, we, we learn and evolve, andI think that's part of our autism.
We evolve a way of surviving in aworld where we're not always welcome.
(17:49):
Here's the term I'm tele, I hatetelephones, and I always have done,
I've got a mobile phone that'sthat I always tell people not
I've charged.
I've got that thing where I don't likepicking up a telephone to an unknown
voice on the other end, where I'mgonna have to sort of get through a
gatekeeper and have a discussion aboutwhat I want and all that sort of thing.
(18:13):
I, I, I would avoid as much as possibleif my phone rings, I panic straight away.
Because I don't like,I don't like unknowns.
And I think that's what it's, so there,there are ways in which I sort of see
that, yeah, I, I do have some basiccommunication problems, but only through
the fear of, of, of what is unknownto me on the other end of a telephone.
(18:34):
So yeah, it does take a bit of workwhen I have to do something that's
I.
Myself having reception duties andthat's part of life skills training.
That's another aspect.
Yes, I've been a receptionist verymany times and customer services
(18:58):
very many times in my life.
I've been quite able to dothat and and deal with that.
So it's kind of in my personal life.
I'm scared of phones in mypublic life, in my working life.
Something easily.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (19:15):
Yeah, I'm glad you picked up on the texting there.
I want to go through it again.
So perhaps then the conversationdifficulty is environmental or structural
as a difficulty, and then they go on to.
Remind everybody that you havereception duties, life skills
(19:38):
and training have described thatthey are different contexts.
The same person that can be can havelearned a whole set of skills to be the
receptionist, to be the person answeringto be in customer services is still the.
(20:02):
Very strange to a lot of listeners whoare not autistic, but to a lot of us,
it, it's perfectly normal for somebodyto have those compartmentalized skills.
Something you describedas that's your work life.
That's your home life.
And then the same text as just crownedthat by saying, reception is the
(20:26):
word, receiving communication in.
The unexpected phone call from astranger receiving the reception
of that is entirely different frombeing the person who is trained
and ready and able to receive.
(20:48):
In the other context,it's all about reception.
Communication is aboutreception, as well as transmit.
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked: There has always been. (20:55):
undefined
Going out into world and doingwhat I've done and worked a
of very, of high intensity.
I worked in rehabilitation clinicsand offices, all these places where
I'm dealing with actually quite highstress things, but the difference
(21:19):
between me and work me a lot of thetime, it's just that if I'm in a
structured, organized place of work.
Where I've got a time that I start anda time when I finish, I know the words,
I've learned the pattern and that I'vedealt with problems like this before.
(21:40):
It's just familiarity with that structureand within a structure, I tend to thrive.
I'm no good socially.
I'm terrible off the cuff ina or a whatever, but there is.
I.
(22:08):
And the home me is very differentbecause when I'm home, it's my space.
I wanna be isolated and I do nottake kindly to anybody sitting foot
over my, the threshold of my house.
And that's just the way I'm,so I guess we're back to a
little bit of masking there.
I would, I would say,
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (22:27):
well, I, I'm so interested in finding more about this.
Move from how you set it up withthe different types of communication
and move to the actual nittygritty of how you got involved in
(22:48):
advocating and what happened there.
Are you willing to come back and join usnext time and tell us the real skinny?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (22:57):
Absolutely.
Yep.
An open book?
Yeah.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (23:08):
We'll join Lucy in the second part of this conversation.
For those of you out there lookingto advocate, advocacy starts with
a conversation on the bus, andit does not have to go all the
way to creating an organization.
Every time we give
(23:32):
our.
Autistic radio is about us.
It's for us, and it's from us.
(23:52):
Autistic Radio is about you.
It's for you, and it can be from you.
We have every single Sunday dropin four, four 4:00 PM every Sunday.
That's not live.
That's us getting together,us talking community.
(24:18):
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the Facebook page that he creates.
Involve yourself by suggestingwhat we should talk about next.
Share it with Harry and.
(24:39):
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Speak to the world, your project,your idea, your enthusiasm.
We have a whole range of differentprograms that will fit what you want.
As far as listening goes, there'ssome challenging stuff out there.
(25:04):
Because amongst the identity, theentertainment, and the community,
we also make serious programs withautism professionals challenging
their ideas and bringing whatyou say in other spaces to them.
(25:25):
A lot of those are difficult listens,but it's a holistic gathering.
It comes all together.
Autistic radio is very varied.
We need a favor to encourage us.
We need you to share us.
(25:47):
When you share us.
You give autistic people power.
When you share us, you makeus impossible to ignore.
When you repost on LinkedIn and Facebookand anywhere else, you are advocating
for everybody in the autistic community.
(26:11):
So pick the things that you arehappy with and get them out there.
So thank you, thank you, thankyou, thank you from all of us.
We speak our words, we listen,we speak our words, we listen.
We speak our words.
We listen.
We speak our words.
We listen.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (00:18):
Hello everybody and thank you for
finding us here at Autistic Radio.
Lucy is one of our maincontributors here at Autistic Radio.
She takes part in her own substack.
She takes part in our 4 4 4 drop-ins.
She takes part in the 5, 5,5 Facebook discussion that.
(00:46):
Something that's comeinto her life recently.
The opportunity to advocate andadvocating is something that
takes a lot of different forms.
Advocating could be just explaining tosomebody on the bus that we don't need
to look autistic to be autistic or.
(01:15):
It's identifying people and diagnosingpeople and realizing autism when
you go further than just speakingto one person, it takes on a whole
different set of skills and meanings.
Let me introduce you, Lucy.
What, what has led you.
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (01:42):
I think I come from a kind of a generation where maybe
the generation before us were spendingtheir whole lives with their autism and
just having to, to, to fit it in andframe it, and that included my family.
There's a lot of autism in my family,so I felt quite, when I got to,
to the point where, and it was mydoctor that spotted me, I went to.
(02:09):
I felt quite freed by that.
It answered a lot of questions.
I understood my life, and then I lookback and I saw that my father was
autistic as well by his behavior.
He was in a generation wherehe didn't have any community or
anybody to go to to talk about this.
He was just a quirk of his nature.
It's just the way he was.
He lived his life so.
(02:39):
That we're all out there, but wemight not wanna go out and socialize
and talk and all this sort of thing.
Speaking up for people whodidn't have the opportunity.
And that was my first kind of feelingabout it, is that I, I thought, you
know, now I know I kind of wanna tellthe world, but I didn't have any place
to put that at the very beginning.
(03:00):
I. I started using the sort of localservices to try and get myself a little
bit socialized, find a group of peopleI could speak to, and I came across
an inclusion coach called Jackie.
I used to go to one of theirmeetings and, but I started saying,
and that, that's not for me.
So she decided to do a one to.
(03:25):
And we'd speak.
And she said, this is really interesting.
I talk about my autism, my experiences,my life, my neurodiversity.
She said, this is interestingand we could use you.
We, we, we could use your help.
And she suggested that shego back and talk to the, the
rest of the group about me.
And then they, they said, we wouldlove to have you here, sort of.
(03:55):
And a training session with them.
And from there it kind of blossomedand people gotta know about me.
And so I had opportunities thatI could jump on from there.
And that's where I'm now, I'm sort of ina consultancy role with a lot of people.
I'm working really hard to connect withother autistic people and to connect
with non-autistic people as well.
People who just don'tunderstand and need to.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (04:24):
The first is that it was actually a medical
professional, your doctor, who suggestedthat you might explore autism, and
then the second thing is that it wassomebody who was paid in the community.
This coach, this diversity coach whosupported you and then invited you speak.
(04:53):
Reflection on servicesthat sometimes work well.
We hear an awful lot of people experienceswhere they're saying constantly
that the services don't work well.
But in your case, there seems tohave been something that has been
a very positive benefit for you.
(05:21):
That first experience of beingpositive that's encouraged
you to trust the whole system?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (05:28):
I think I'd use the phrase that I got lucky.
I don't think it's everybody'sexperience that I think that I've,
I've had the opportunities that havecome to me have been just through she.
I've, I've seen a lot of doctors over theyears and this has never come up before.
So the, the fact that that cameup at that point and it was all a
fresh new thing was like, wow, okay.
(05:49):
Okay.
But I mean, you've gotta rememberwith this the late identifying
thing and you know, being, beingin your forties when you find out.
I mean, that means there's an awful lotof times where I was missed, you know?
I was missed and I wasmissed for a lot of my life.
So I don't think that I'm totallypositive about it because there was this,
this, and this and this before wherethey didn't notice that I had symptoms
(06:13):
or signs of autism or neurodiversity.
As far as Jackie was concerned,she, she was, she, I still, I'm
still in touch with her, although I.
With her.
She really just found that I did better ona one-to-one basis, and she noticed that.
(06:36):
So once again, it's kind ofgetting lucky, getting the right
person, being in the right place.
So, but you know, I'm positivebecause I've, I've got here and I
think it's better to kind of workon the positive side of things
and I, and project positivity out.
I like to have like a nicepositive outlook and say,
(06:56):
it's really not all that bad.
You know?
It really is not all that bad being me.
It's really not all thatbad having this brain.
It helps in so many ways, and thoseare the things I like highlight.
I don't really like tolook at it as a disability.
I just like to think.
(07:17):
My own attitude is, is quite apositive one when it comes to advocacy.
I like to project a really positive image.
We do talk about negative things,but you know, that's fine.
We can, but I like to talk it up.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (07:29):
So the history for you is actually
one that is quite negative.
You could have had this information,uh, a lot earlier in your life, but
means.
There's a change and you'reable to use these double
(07:51):
negatives to create a positive.
To say it's not that bad.
I'm wondering if your experience ofbeing maybe inappropriately dealt
with for many years and then findingthat key to your own psyche, your own.
(08:19):
To push for advocacy so that other peoplerealize earlier and get involved earlier.
Is that one of your motivations?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (08:33):
Yeah.
This is really difficult.
I tend to talk to a.
Groups where they're not, youknow, they're, they're not really
conversant with the terms orthe, or the ins and outs of it.
So my advocacy is a lot of thetime a general public thing.
I have of a few otherautistic people in groups.
But I mean, I, I, I find thatmy own target is to look at my.
(09:09):
Once they, they know themselves,I guess they know themselves and
they cope in the way they cope.
But I like to think of myself assomebody who can go out there and
spread a different message to differentpeople, the general public, to people
who aren't embedded in this or knowabout it or have questions about it.
(09:29):
I. I like the ideas that I can take apositive message to a group of people
who really dunno anything about me, whoreally dunno anything about neurodiversity
in general, and that I can help changethe attitude of just the ordinary person.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (09:49):
I personally, I find that really valuable
because what I've noticed is.
Part of a journey for theperson themselves, and they
leave behind the simple stuff.
They leave behind.
(10:10):
The basic first things that we start tolearn about ourselves and move on to the
complex to a form of advocacy that has
themselves, but misses.
And the grassroots is what youdescribed, the general population
(10:34):
really don't get the basics, do they?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked: No, they don't. (10:36):
undefined
And the questions that I get asked aresometimes almost a bit breathtaking
in the kind of the audacity.
I, I allow myself to beopen to anybody's opinion.
It's fine if people don't understand.
I know they're gonna be naive.
And I know they're gonna not haveanything to hold this up against.
(11:00):
They, they can't, they,they've got no idea.
And like, I, I, I, I think I've saidbefore to, to others, I've been asked
things like, how can autism, howcan your neurodiversity be stopped?
And that was a big question for me.
I stopped, what do you mean stopped?
And I felt like, see what you'retrying to say is that people
(11:21):
like myself should be eradicated.
That was the question that in, inits basic form and it's questions
like those, I'm happy to answerbecause I wanna tell that person.
We people that thinkdifferently, that have
(11:47):
need.
Not a detriment and I simple.
I don't really wanna go complex
questions.
Understand what?
I've got an awful lot to share about that.
(12:07):
So yeah, ask me difficult questionsand I'll give you simple answers
and we can start from that point.
Maybe complexity is somethingthat you have to work towards.
You can't just dive straight in.
And from where I'm, I've gottastay on that level of just
being like a people person.
Just being out there and just saying,no, you know, let's have a conversation.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (12:29):
I phrase.
Questions, and I'llgive you simple answers.
So often the professionals, theresearchers, the advocates from
the autistic community, they comeacross with jargon and complexities.
(12:50):
What you appear to be tryingto do is to reach people where
they are with understandingand speak to them eye to eye.
That, that's so valuable to me.
I wish there were more people like you,Lucy, because I do see that an awful lot
(13:10):
of the intelligent people like yourselfwho are autistic, rush towards a kind
of graduated situation where they'retalking about the big complexities.
A general population to justget some of it, isn't it?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (13:31):
Absolutely.
It's, it's, we need to be able to, to,to, I, I, I'm, I'm not an unintelligent
person, but I'd like to start fromthe ground up and I still feel like
I'm taking baby steps into everything.
I'm, I've lived this all my life.
I'm now, and I'm still comingto terms with that, that
(13:53):
diagnosis, baby steps, bit by bit.
It starts with knowing yourself and.
I can only glean it frommy own past experience.
I don't really wanna dive too deepand I do wanna keep its grassroots
(14:13):
and it, it would just be too much totry and explain anything complex to
the people that I end up talking to.
I could go in there with stats andfigure, but they're not gonna take it in.
But honest conversation is differentand, and, and that I think is the.
If I was gonna go any into anythingcomplex, it would just be for my own good.
(14:34):
I could take it out into the populationthat I'm working with at the moment.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (14:38):
For your own ego complication,
I want to include some of the texts.
There's one here that says, sometimesautistic people simplify the complicated.
A general part of the autisticway is to try and break things
(15:02):
down into simplificationsand to not over complicate.
So in other words, it it, the oppositeof what I've been describing, that
some of the advocacy that I see outthere is very complex and doesn.
(15:24):
Autistic people differ in a generality,is that the autistic sensibility is to
simplify the complicated and not justaccept the complicated at face value.
So I, I'm, I'm happy to, to seethat another text is describing a
(15:45):
common tongue, so when they react.
To speak at the grassroots, they're sayingthat you are finding the right words, the
way of communicating on the level withthe other people that need communication.
And a recent text comes in to saythat they're concerned that we, the
(16:11):
autistic people are often seen orportrayed as unable to have basic
conversation or communication.
We get labeled as people with acommunication deficit, autistic
spectrum disorder instead ofautistic social difference.
(16:37):
A SD could mean two differentthings if we allowed it.
What do you feel about that?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (16:42):
Listen, I mean, we get up every morning.
And we go into a world wheremost of the people we meet aren't
gonna have our experiences.
So we are actually well trained inbasic con conversation and communication
because we've had to use that all ourlives in order to fit into a structure
that doesn't necessarily welcome usin to, to think that we could not be
(17:05):
able to have basic conversations is.
Stupid.
Stupid.
I mean, that's, that's a, a kind of apretty stupid word, but I mean, it's
stupid to think that we haven't gotthat because how would we have ever
functioned in our lives and our workand our jobs in our interactions if we
didn't have a basic knowledge of justhow to have a simple conversation?
(17:26):
Because that's what's about it'sinteraction at a bus stop a says.
We're robotic or justtrained to do one thing.
We, we, we learn and evolve, andI think that's part of our autism.
We evolve a way of surviving in aworld where we're not always welcome.
(17:49):
Here's the term I'm tele, I hatetelephones, and I always have done,
I've got a mobile phone that'sthat I always tell people not
I've charged.
I've got that thing where I don't likepicking up a telephone to an unknown
voice on the other end, where I'mgonna have to sort of get through a
gatekeeper and have a discussion aboutwhat I want and all that sort of thing.
(18:13):
I, I, I would avoid as much as possibleif my phone rings, I panic straight away.
Because I don't like,I don't like unknowns.
And I think that's what it's, so there,there are ways in which I sort of see
that, yeah, I, I do have some basiccommunication problems, but only through
the fear of, of, of what is unknownto me on the other end of a telephone.
(18:34):
So yeah, it does take a bit of workwhen I have to do something that's
I.
Myself having reception duties andthat's part of life skills training.
That's another aspect.
Yes, I've been a receptionist verymany times and customer services
(18:58):
very many times in my life.
I've been quite able to dothat and and deal with that.
So it's kind of in my personal life.
I'm scared of phones in mypublic life, in my working life.
Something easily.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (19:15):
Yeah, I'm glad you picked up on the texting there.
I want to go through it again.
So perhaps then the conversationdifficulty is environmental or structural
as a difficulty, and then they go on to.
Remind everybody that you havereception duties, life skills
(19:38):
and training have described thatthey are different contexts.
The same person that can be can havelearned a whole set of skills to be the
receptionist, to be the person answeringto be in customer services is still the.
(20:02):
Very strange to a lot of listeners whoare not autistic, but to a lot of us,
it, it's perfectly normal for somebodyto have those compartmentalized skills.
Something you describedas that's your work life.
That's your home life.
And then the same text as just crownedthat by saying, reception is the
(20:26):
word, receiving communication in.
The unexpected phone call from astranger receiving the reception
of that is entirely different frombeing the person who is trained
and ready and able to receive.
(20:48):
In the other context,it's all about reception.
Communication is aboutreception, as well as transmit.
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked: There has always been. (20:55):
undefined
Going out into world and doingwhat I've done and worked a
of very, of high intensity.
I worked in rehabilitation clinicsand offices, all these places where
I'm dealing with actually quite highstress things, but the difference
(21:19):
between me and work me a lot of thetime, it's just that if I'm in a
structured, organized place of work.
Where I've got a time that I start anda time when I finish, I know the words,
I've learned the pattern and that I'vedealt with problems like this before.
(21:40):
It's just familiarity with that structureand within a structure, I tend to thrive.
I'm no good socially.
I'm terrible off the cuff ina or a whatever, but there is.
I.
(22:08):
And the home me is very differentbecause when I'm home, it's my space.
I wanna be isolated and I do nottake kindly to anybody sitting foot
over my, the threshold of my house.
And that's just the way I'm,so I guess we're back to a
little bit of masking there.
I would, I would say,
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (22:27):
well, I, I'm so interested in finding more about this.
Move from how you set it up withthe different types of communication
and move to the actual nittygritty of how you got involved in
(22:48):
advocating and what happened there.
Are you willing to come back and join usnext time and tell us the real skinny?
Lucy-Dawson-Autie-Unmasked (22:57):
Absolutely.
Yep.
An open book?
Yeah.
Jules-AutisticRadio.com (23:08):
We'll join Lucy in the second part of this conversation.
For those of you out there lookingto advocate, advocacy starts with
a conversation on the bus, andit does not have to go all the
way to creating an organization.
Every time we give
(23:32):
our.
Autistic radio is about us.
It's for us, and it's from us.
(23:52):
Autistic Radio is about you.
It's for you, and it can be from you.
We have every single Sunday dropin four, four 4:00 PM every Sunday.
That's not live.
That's us getting together,us talking community.
(24:18):
Every Sunday, Harry leads a fivefive 5:00 PM a discussion around
the Facebook page that he creates.
Involve yourself by suggestingwhat we should talk about next.
Share it with Harry and.
(24:39):
The bigger picture, advocate, use us.
Speak to the world, your project,your idea, your enthusiasm.
We have a whole range of differentprograms that will fit what you want.
As far as listening goes, there'ssome challenging stuff out there.
(25:04):
Because amongst the identity, theentertainment, and the community,
we also make serious programs withautism professionals challenging
their ideas and bringing whatyou say in other spaces to them.
(25:25):
A lot of those are difficult listens,but it's a holistic gathering.
It comes all together.
Autistic radio is very varied.
We need a favor to encourage us.
We need you to share us.
(25:47):
When you share us.
You give autistic people power.
When you share us, you makeus impossible to ignore.
When you repost on LinkedIn and Facebookand anywhere else, you are advocating
for everybody in the autistic community.
(26:11):
So pick the things that you arehappy with and get them out there.
So thank you, thank you, thankyou, thank you from all of us.
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