Amplifying Autistic voices

It's World Autism Day 2022, and for a long while I honestly couldn't decide whether to write anything at all to mark this day. I think that some autistic people quite rightly feel irritated by hearing non-autistic voices at any time of year, but particularly in this month. Awareness and Acceptance are both important and we would hope that one follows the other but education is necessary. I don't feel the need to amplify my voice, but I would love to amplify the voices and writings of autistic people who I read and learn from.

With that comes an added pressure though; the fear of leaving someone out and of inadvertently upsetting people. I struggle with that because at heart I am a people pleaser and I'm never intentionally unkind! However, having weighed all these thoughts up, I felt that saying nothing and keeping quiet on this day was not an option because there is still so much for many of us to learn about autism.

This was originally going to be a simple Facebook post but I decided it should be on my blog as a more permanent resource, pointing the way to autistic voices. Some of these I have shared many times before, in Facebook posts, Tweets and reviews of books they have written. Some are more recent finds. I've loved listening to, and reading, everything they have to say.

There is no particular order to this list and I am definitely not up for ranking anybody so please do not take offence if you see your own name or your favourite writer lower down than you would like. The list will be divided into three parts; those who write or speak about PDA specifically, those who cover autism more generally and ADHD and other conditions.

My list is a work in progress. It's starting off with some of those who I already know well from seeing regular posts. I know there are many more neurodivergent voices out there (particularly in the ADHD category) so I will return to this post over the months ahead to add to my list. I've tried to include links for all entries so far but this is a time-consuming process so please bear with me for any I add without further detail. For those who have written books that I know of, I have included the link to my review of the book. If you are interested in helping the autism community then a quick google search of a name should lead you to more resources from any of these individuals.

PDA

Chloe Me Just Me (YouTube Chloe Me Just Me)

Julia Daunt (Being Julia book review)

Riko Ryuki (Riko's PDA Page on Facebook)

Sally Cat (SallyCatPDA on Facebook)

Libby Scott (@bloglibby and Ways to be Me book review)

Kirsty Forbes (InTunePathways on Facebook)

Kyra Chambers (The Prism Cat: Reflections on Neurodiversity on Facebook)

PDA Rebellion (Blog)

Our Neurodivergent Life (@ndivergentlife on Facebook)

AUTISM

Chris Bonello (Autistic Not Weird on Facebook)

Not Raingirl (Not Raingirl on Facebook)

Siena Castellon (The Spectrum Girl's Survival Guide book review)

Purple Ella (Purple Ella on YouTube)

Authentically Emily (@itsemilykaty)

This Is Immie (@thisisimmie)

Neuro divers (@neuro_divers)

Tigger Pritchard (@Autisminformation on Facebook)

Kerry Magro (@Kerrymagro on Twitter)

The Autism & ADHD Diaries (The Autism & ADHD Diaries on Facebook)

Summer Farrelly (Summer Farrelly (Autistic Perspectives) on Facebook)

The Nurture Programme (The Nurture Programme on Facebook)

Lyric (@neurodivergentrebel on Instagram)

Spectrumy (Spectrumy on Facebook)

One blog at a time (@oneblogatatime.uk on Facebook)

the girl with the curly hair (@TheGirlWithTheCurlyHair on Facebook)

Jodie Smitten (@JodieSmittenWiltshire on Facebook)

Rebecca Burgess (Author, freelance comic artist and illustrator @theorah on Twitter)

Steven (Steven’s Living life on the Spectrum on Facebook)

Dr Pooky Knightsmith (pookyknightsmith.com)

Kieran Rose (The Autistic Advocate on Facebook)

Joe James (The Autistic Photographer on Facebook)

Tiffany Hammond (@fidgetsandfries on Facebook)

Giraffe Party (@autisticpartygiraffe on Facebook)

Autistic Izzy (@autieselfcare on Instagram)

Autienelle (@autienelle on Instagram)

Autistic Black Girl (@autisticblackgirl on Instagram)

Unmasked (@unnmasked1 on Facebook)

Neurobeautiful (@Neurobeautiful on Facebook)

Neurodiverse Adventures (@neurodiverseadventures on Facebook)

OTHER

Me Myself and ADHD (Me, Myself and ADHD book review)

Pink Pear Bear (pinkpearbear_adhd on Instagram)

ADHD Actually (@adhdactually on Instagram)

ADHD Alien (adhd-alien.com)

To Be Continued.....

I'm always keen to learn more so if you know of other regular autistic writers or video and social media publishers, please do let me know via the comments.