Online Community Spaces

This week‘s reading, chapters 5 and 7 of Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement took a look at the different kinds of community spaces online for autistic people and parents of autistic children. One was formed by an autistic person looking for a space and later divulging into activism, while the other was a parent trying to gather resources for others trying to learn. They both were looking for spaces to connect, which eventually led to increased activist autism advocacy and activism.

I think you can see the exact same experience in the disabled rights movement and community, which the autistic community parallels strongly/is a part of. While it may have started off as simply a place for like minded people to connect and feel like part of a community, it led to strong activist movements as well. In the documentary Crip Camp, for example, it began as a place for disabled kids to connect with each other and gain a sense of acceptance, but many people who attended the camp also grew up to be active in the disabled rights movement. It’s so incredibly important for people to have access to safe spaces like these, and for effort to be exerted to gain the support and rights they deserve. The internet today plays a huge role for the autistic and disabled communities, where they aren’t necessarily able to get boots on the ground all of the time, making it an important communication tool.