I used to have pinned posts on autism heafing my Twitter and Facebook pages. These would be deep dives into autism, offering memes, explanations, links, and resources on all things autism. I argued for autism acceptance rather than simply autism awarness. I have found the impact of such general education to be negligible. The paradox is this: the people who are likely to read the information provided and educate themselves are the people who are in least need of education; they are already pretty sensitive and well-informed, and more than prepared to respond to others' needs and requirements. The people who are most in need of education don't read or, if they do, do so briefly, in a most perfunctory manner, then go back to their normal behaviour.
To take a couple of points out of many:
1) we are all a little bit autistic;
2) see the person, not the label.
I covered these errors and issues raised by both these points in the fifty plus memes I pinned on my Facebook page.
Point one is a nonsense, akin to telling a pregnant woman that we are all a little bit pregnant. Whilst many people will claim to share autistic traits to some extent, it is ticking most of the boxes and well above and beyond the norm that makes the difference. There is no 'little bit autistic.'
Point two is more tricky, given the stigma associated with labels. I explained that without the label, you wouldn't see the autistic person, you would simply see the person as detached from the autism as an impairment to be ashamed of.
Sadly, talking to people who know me, it became clear that if they had read these memes, they had no understood them - they had certainly not learned the lessons and were instead repeating the tired old tropes autistic people know and loathe.
So I removed the pinned posts. General approaches to education don't work. You need close and ongoing exchanges in reiterated encounter to change thoughts and behaviours.
I write here and in other places for those people who come to read, reflect, and learn. There is little value in a general truth-telling: it is better to address truth-seekers.
