Asking people to use preferred pro-nouns is abelist and discriminatory - what affects your ability to comply?

I am fully supportive of the disabled community and would love to see a more open approach to communication.

My issue is that some posters started off by saying "I can't do this because of X". I spend a lot of time trying to break down barriers. Colleagues try to get young people work placements and are told "no because they can't do X".

This is often not the case and people can be taught, can change and can adapt and can work successfully. So when people say "I can't do this because of X it feeds into discrimination".

X makes it more difficult but it can be done. Now if you don't want to do it because you object on other grounds - go for it, just be careful.

If you read my posts I'm trying to break down fixed ways of thinking about disability and allow people to develop skills.

I'm berating no one.

If you read the title of the thread I think you may come to the realization that you are berating people for talking about the problems they are having instead of "adapting" ass you think they should.
Usually we talk about the problem to seek a solution. Short circuiting the process is ill advised. I would think, as a person who works with children, you would know that.

Sorry, should say on the subject of preferred pronouns, not on ableism.

@Moussemoose you might want to take a look at what Camille Paglia has to say on this subject, she’s got it bang on.

Or perhaps, for once, neurotypicals could adapt to us?

It would be so lovely if the non-autistics, with their supposedly superior empathy and communication skills, could adapt to us some of the time.

I always say that I'm not disabled by my condition; I'm disabled by society's attitude toward my condition.

Shut up and adjust. Shut up and adjust more. And more. And more.

Mousse, I am not here to represent the autistic community - I'm here for me, just like you are

It astonishes me that we teach lying to appease authority from the earliest age as a good thing and then depending on the circumstances punish people for lying. All part of the dominance dance but don't dare name it that.

Perhaps, but would you ever impose a 'three strikes and you're out' on students with these difficulties?

I don't know about MM but MNHQ is certainly willing to throw those of with autism under the bus, despite claiming its support for minorities. Good to know that feelings are more important than supporting people with disabilities.

And thanks for the extra cognitive load, MNHQ - like I don't have enough to do, trying to act neuro-typical in my daily life.

Where are the rules making the world lie for my fucking feelings?

I would hope when you work with autistic young people you wouldn’t be insisting they lie.
You wouldn’t be working with my child if that was the case!
Recognising the two sexes is one of the basic things that humans do. You can’t force people to ignore that, and given that one of those sexes has proven over the years to be more dangerous than the other, it should be a safeguarding issue to override such a basic and fundamental difference when teaching anyone.

However, when you start to use learning difficulties as a reason for not using them you might end up backing yourself into a corner.

I find this post inherently disabilist. I have a child (nearly 10) who has a severe language disorder and autism. He is unable to linguistically distinguish between ‘he’ and ‘she’ and might never be able to. Friends, family and school staff are frequently ‘misgendered’. God forbid he encounters anyone with such a lack of understanding when he becomes an adult.

Yep. The old medical model of disability - we're broken and not as good as other people so we have to jump through hoops so society will accept us.

even if they are not perfect they can adapt

Perhaps, but would you ever impose a 'three strikes and you're out' on students with these difficulties?

So how would you explain to a person with autism that they are expected to lie in order to spare feelings? Many autistic people would find this highly distressing.

Yep. I didn't have any say about being born autistic and it has affected every aspect of my life. Now I am being expected to lie to protect another person's feelings. OTOH, it is another way that society expects me to adapt to it because I'm broken.

I object because it's lying and morally wrong.
It goes against my deeply held beliefs.

Sorry I came on to post about how all these new ‘woke’ policies are discriminating against disabled people and got annoyed at the rubbish Mousse was spouting. Off to calm down for a bit

I rarely post but I can’t believe i’m reading some of the things here.

To the poster who is telling people with autism that they should try harder, you are telling them to talk in a way that, for them, is lying. You are asking them to say things that, fundamentally, they do not believe. It would be like me trying to teach my autistic cousin to tell the world that she believes in a particular religion, just to keep people of that religion happy. It would be impossible.

Religion / belief is a protected characteristic - I am a Quaker, speaking the truth is central to my religious belief. Used to drive the dc mad as I would never 'fib' to get them off the hook with school. Where does that leave me if I am compelled to call men "she"?

I will try to be strategic in my use of language and avoid pronouns, I will not tell a lie, so this makes it very hard for me to speak the truth.