The question had a backstory, a preamble and an ending. It was from an autistic person, whose support requirements I don’t know; it related to parents who describe their children as having “severe autism”. The question is gone now. My reply remains. I was asked to make it shareable, so I’ve repeated it below.

How do you…? Here’s what you do:

You promote the words and the communication and health rights of people deemed to have “severe autism”. You spread what they say far and wide. You promote organisations which have numerous high-support and non-speaking autistic people on their board.

You cultivate friendships with autistic people who have high support needs. You learn about movement disorders, causes of encopresis, ion channel diseases, gut health, and about AAC. You make yourself an ally to people who need help with feeding and self-care.

You support parents of autistic people who are deemed “severe” by creating opportunities for socialising with their children, or by providing respite. (Picnics in wheelchair-friendly zones without a lot of ambient city noise are one option.) You involve other autistic people.

You partner with SLTs who provide methods of communication which non-speaking people have said works best for them and you steer parents towards these methods. You execute the dreams which people with high support needs have communicated.

These are a few of the things which we #ActuallyAutistic people do.

If you are not already doing any of these things, would you like some help getting started? In later posts, I will expand on all of these, giving practical examples.