flappyhourcast 002: Autistic Passing

Autistic Flappy Hour Podcast

Welcome to Autistic Flappy Hour, a podcast with an autistic angle! For our second episode we share the 'flappy things' making us happy since we last recorded and discuss the concept of passing as it relates to autism. In short, 'passing' is the ability to appear as being neurotypical or non-autistic in some contexts.

• View the post for this episode on our website
• Read a transcript of the episode

Flappy Things

Laurine's flappy thing was the release of the schedule for Autscape, the UK autistic-run conference and retreat. Nat was also excited about it as both our UK co-hosts be there from the 21st to the 24th of August.

Nat's flappy thing was all the nice comments we have been getting about the podcast. Thank you so much to those who took the time to send us their thoughts! Nat is also pleased to report that the communication cards they talked about in our last episode are now in stock.

Cisco's flappy thing was that following a Washington Post article which he felt does not represent a full picture of neurodiversity, he has decided to write his own article about it, based on people's experience of #Autchat. Do contact him if you would like to be part of it!

Related links

• Autscape's 2015 schedule
• Pictures of Autscape's 'Sparklies in the dark'
• Stickman Communications - Autistic Spectrum Conditions Communication Cards
• Washington Post - How autistic adults banded together to start a movement
• ASAN - Autistic Self Advocacy Network
• Cisco's initial tweet asking for contributors to his #Autchat article

Discussion - Autistic Passing

We discuss what passing means with regards to autism. Nat gives an overview of the origins of the term and how it is and has been used in racial, historical and gender contexts.

After explaining what passing means to us personally and our relationship with passing, we debate whether it is a concept we are critical of (spoiler alert: we are). Acknowledging that there are still situations where we feel it is necessary for us to pass, we talk about these as well as situations when we feel able not to pass.

Finally, we wonder whether we can differentiate between passing as having to control ourselves in a way that feels arbitrary, and learning social skills in order to be 'the best autistic person we can be'.

Related links

• #Autchat storify on passing
• Lydia Brown's FAQ on autism - which Laurine quoted from
• Nobody Passes - an excellent anthology exploring many contexts in which 'passing' applies
• Dani Ryskamp - On functioning and 'functioning'
• xkcd - Dream
• Ask Cisco - Everybody stims
• The horrifying American statistic mentioned - "At least half the people shot and killed by police each year are believed to have mental health problems"

Get in touch

We hope you'll be back for our next episode, which will be about autistic spaces, with Laurine as the main host! In the meantime, why not get in touch by leaving a comment on this post, emailing us at flappyhourcast at gmail dot com or sending a message on one of our social media accounts listed below.

Our social accounts

• @flappyhourcast on Twitter
• Our Facebook page
• Our Tumblr account
• Cisco's Twitter - @AskCisco
• Laurine's Twitter - @lcgrmo
• Nat's Twitter - @quarridors
• Find out about past and future #Autchat discussions at bit.ly/autchat