The Autistic Writer: Ableism

tyunglebower ♦ October 6, 2023 ♦ Leave a comment

Ableism can refer to a hateful, dismissive attitude toward those with disabilities. Viewing such people as somehow broken, or worse than that, subhuman, is ableism.

Ableism also manifests in a refusal to make accommodations, especially in the public sector with use of public funds, for those with disabilities. Buildings, parks, schools, built with little to no accessibility for those in wheelchairs for example display an ableist mentality at work.

Yet another, more subtle version of ableism poisons society. It is the assumption that a person with disabilities either isn’t in fact disabled, or that they are otherwise capable of overcoming their disability if only they put their mind to the task.

Level 1 (“high” functioning) Autistics such as myself experience this type of ableism most often.

Yes, even in the writing world. Or, perhaps I should more specifically say, the marketing and publishing arm of said world. For upon closer examination, despite gradual changes, much of the advice, many of the expectations of author success are rooted in ableist approaches.

“You’re well-spoken, obviously highly intelligent. You shouldn’t have any problem at all.”

Such was the assessment of every state-employed job development counselor I had for 3 years. Not one of them landed me so much as an interview, and more than one of them said that my struggles with their suggestions made no sense.

I no longer work with the state job development agency in question, but their underlying ableist mentality runs parallel to the societal structure within the author community.

Consider the following advice I often received in my excruciating efforts to secure employment:

Cold calling. Mingling. Introducing myself to powerful people, offering to help them solve a problem for free. Attending conferences and workshops. Glistening resumes and practicing both 30 and 60 second “elevator pitches” in the mirror every night. (“You’re an actor, you’ll be great at that!”)

If you haven’t caught on by now, much of the same expectations are in place when it comes to book marketing and promotion, for both the self-published author and the more “traditionally” published among us.

I’ll let you in on a bit of a secret that isn’t; it’s no more practical for me to do these things in pursuit of book sales and networking among fellow creatives than it is for the sake of a job.

Yet as with job hunting, particularly in the United States, the very DNA of making one’s way as an author, the blueprints, the essence of making a name for one’s self as a writer, regardless of talent, is fused with a neurotypical worldview and laced with ableist thinking.

Notions of pure capitalism and gregarious, extroverted, charismatic interaction with society at large are offered up, if not foisted upon the writer as the only path to success.

Other than pure capitalism, none of the above strike me as particularly wrong. Many ride the wave of such an approach with varying degrees of ease, into success. My beef is with the assumption that because of “the way of the world” there is zero alternatives for those that struggle in the particular way writers such as myself struggle. I’m angered with the binary of “do these things, or give up writing.”

And yet, because I am “smart” and I “don’t look disabled,” I should have no problem doing any of it. Just a matter of trying harder, and getting out of that good old comfort zone.

People on the Spectrum do manage to thrive with such strictions. For the millionth time on this blog alone I will restate that Autism manifests differently for everyone. However, should those on the Spectrum, even those who manage to “muddle through” such constraints be ignored? Should their stories be untold on a wider scale because they suffer from certain crippling anxieties and confusions?

Of course they should not. Not anymore than someone who cannot walk should have to crawl out of their wheelchair and through the front door of an establishment. That would be unconscionable.

Let’s open our minds to the struggles of writers with different sets of disability. Let’s not be ableist in our consumption of the written word.