>> Oh, I know. The trick is knowing which is which in any given situation. Each is their own special sort of dead end in the labyrinth. And I think I have run into all of them. <<
Sometimes they'll tell you, which makes it easy. This works most often with money and power issues. "That's a great idea, but there is no money for it" tells you to examine finances for ways to fix it. "I'd love to help, but I don't have authority over that decision" means find out who does or find a way to put authority in the hands of someone helpful. Very handy for elected positions.
Otherwise, you have to triangulate. Someone who repeatedly says disparaging things about neurovariant folks is probably a bigot. You may just have to treat them as a rock problem and look for ways around. Someone who keeps saying "I don't know" is more likely ignorant, which is something that information can fix.
>>That's exactly what we've been doing. Describing traits, providing their names, and describing what they are not.<<
>>Note that the site is, at this point, strongly targeted at uni students, so that's where the advice is going.<<
Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. If you start with uni students, 5 years or so later they'll be job hunters, workers, and young parents. It's a natural route of expansion, if you can encourage regular users to submit content.
>>The Quiet Spaces list is going to be basically an overlay on the online map which can be accessed with a simple query. It won't be locked off to anyone who goes looking for it. (And most of those spaces are just this corner behind that building, or this section of library, or this corridor where no-one ever goes. This function will include notes and photos.<<
*chuckle* My college had a word-of-mouth network among the freaks and geeks crowd to show freshmen where the best hiding places were. It was a big enough school there were lots of low-traffic nooks and crannies. There was a whole pocket garden almost nobody ever went to, and a tunnel between libraries with vending machines and tables. Having a searchable database would be awesome though.
>> We're also in talks to have specific Autistic spaces, which are a lot like the quiet rooms you describe (only also set up with network access and power points). <<
Different types of quiet rooms do have different needs. The reason I separated some in my list is because if you don't, everyone tries to pile into the same place and annoy the hell out of each other. Frex, when some people say "quiet room" they literally mean QUIET -- a room with sound baffles. (You can make these cheaply from egg-crate foam.) But other people mean a room that uses soft sounds (e.g. white noise generator, aquarium, fan) to cover outside sounds. Autistic people are way pickier than average about that, because one might help while the other makes it worse. If you don't have both options, they'll fight.
The best approach I've found is to have people design their quiet room together, discussing what they want and why. If needs diverge, first try to make the components customizable, and if that doesn't work, diverge the crowd into separate rooms.
>> In these cases, we're worried about the tragedy of the commons, where NTs find that these rooms are perfect for studying, because they basically are, and monopolise them, so that autistic students can't get near them, or have to exert more spoons in kicking out abusers than they'd recover in them. These I think of more like disabled parking spots. Yes, everyone would love to use them, but they don't have to. We need them to function. <<
One option is to have the quiet rooms, or at least some of them, for members only. That's where a club comes in handy, although I acknowledge your objections to that format. You'll have to decide which priorities are more important to you. Another option would be private property. Could autistic students chip in and rent an apartment or an office or a storefront? Look around for empty spaces. If you're paying for it, you get to say who can use it or not.
Another option is to spread out the impact over a wide area. The more quiet rooms you have, the more good study spaces, etc. the easier it is to diverge them and the less people will step on each other.
Many people do absolutely need quiet rooms. Autistics need to not melt down. Nursing mothers need to breastfeed or express milk. Muslims need to pray. People with various health complaints need to lie down. Ordinary people who are approaching overload need a place to depressurize before they explode. It is to everyone's advantage to establish enough spaces and suitable features to meet those needs. By all means, focus first on autistic safe spaces. But don't lose sight of how depressurizing other people helps you: it makes them less likely to blow up in your face, which makes campus safer for folks who don't handle social stress well.
All students need comfortable places to study. Some of them need vibrant ones like a coffeehouse. Most seem to prefer quiet ones like libraries. For a group project, they'll need small meeting rooms. Some campuses are much better equipped with these features than others. If yours is, map them and distinguish by features. ("Need a place to study silently? Go here. Need a place to work on small-group projects? These are bookable rooms. Need a place to relax before you explode? Here they are. Need a private place with a sink to attend medical or lactation needs? There are two.") Because you're right, if there aren't enough study rooms and you make quiet rooms, you might get mobbed.
Another solution: make some of them portable. I've taught people how to make quiet tents for eventing. You need a tent or portable screen, a chair, a fuzzy blanket, and some pillows. It won't close out all the sound but muffles it a bit and gives visual privacy. In a crowded place, that helps a lot. Because it's portable, you can move it whenever you wish and tell only the autistic folks the new location. You know, like moving the sugar dish when the ants find it.
>>There is none whatsoever for disabled staff, and that can't be allowed to stand. <<
You have certainly identified some drawbacks of the club approach.
Re: Thoughts
Sometimes they'll tell you, which makes it easy. This works most often with money and power issues. "That's a great idea, but there is no money for it" tells you to examine finances for ways to fix it. "I'd love to help, but I don't have authority over that decision" means find out who does or find a way to put authority in the hands of someone helpful. Very handy for elected positions.
Otherwise, you have to triangulate. Someone who repeatedly says disparaging things about neurovariant folks is probably a bigot. You may just have to treat them as a rock problem and look for ways around. Someone who keeps saying "I don't know" is more likely ignorant, which is something that information can fix.
>>That's exactly what we've been doing. Describing traits, providing their names, and describing what they are not.<<
That sounds fantastic. Is it up yet, and if so, open to the public? I have a list of autism resources.
>>Note that the site is, at this point, strongly targeted at uni students, so that's where the advice is going.<<
Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. If you start with uni students, 5 years or so later they'll be job hunters, workers, and young parents. It's a natural route of expansion, if you can encourage regular users to submit content.
>>The Quiet Spaces list is going to be basically an overlay on the online map which can be accessed with a simple query. It won't be locked off to anyone who goes looking for it. (And most of those spaces are just this corner behind that building, or this section of library, or this corridor where no-one ever goes. This function will include notes and photos.<<
*chuckle* My college had a word-of-mouth network among the freaks and geeks crowd to show freshmen where the best hiding places were. It was a big enough school there were lots of low-traffic nooks and crannies. There was a whole pocket garden almost nobody ever went to, and a tunnel between libraries with vending machines and tables. Having a searchable database would be awesome though.
>> We're also in talks to have specific Autistic spaces, which are a lot like the quiet rooms you describe (only also set up with network access and power points). <<
Different types of quiet rooms do have different needs. The reason I separated some in my list is because if you don't, everyone tries to pile into the same place and annoy the hell out of each other. Frex, when some people say "quiet room" they literally mean QUIET -- a room with sound baffles. (You can make these cheaply from egg-crate foam.) But other people mean a room that uses soft sounds (e.g. white noise generator, aquarium, fan) to cover outside sounds. Autistic people are way pickier than average about that, because one might help while the other makes it worse. If you don't have both options, they'll fight.
The best approach I've found is to have people design their quiet room together, discussing what they want and why. If needs diverge, first try to make the components customizable, and if that doesn't work, diverge the crowd into separate rooms.
>> In these cases, we're worried about the tragedy of the commons, where NTs find that these rooms are perfect for studying, because they basically are, and monopolise them, so that autistic students can't get near them, or have to exert more spoons in kicking out abusers than they'd recover in them. These I think of more like disabled parking spots. Yes, everyone would love to use them, but they don't have to. We need them to function. <<
One option is to have the quiet rooms, or at least some of them, for members only. That's where a club comes in handy, although I acknowledge your objections to that format. You'll have to decide which priorities are more important to you. Another option would be private property. Could autistic students chip in and rent an apartment or an office or a storefront? Look around for empty spaces. If you're paying for it, you get to say who can use it or not.
Another option is to spread out the impact over a wide area. The more quiet rooms you have, the more good study spaces, etc. the easier it is to diverge them and the less people will step on each other.
Many people do absolutely need quiet rooms. Autistics need to not melt down. Nursing mothers need to breastfeed or express milk. Muslims need to pray. People with various health complaints need to lie down. Ordinary people who are approaching overload need a place to depressurize before they explode. It is to everyone's advantage to establish enough spaces and suitable features to meet those needs. By all means, focus first on autistic safe spaces. But don't lose sight of how depressurizing other people helps you: it makes them less likely to blow up in your face, which makes campus safer for folks who don't handle social stress well.
All students need comfortable places to study. Some of them need vibrant ones like a coffeehouse. Most seem to prefer quiet ones like libraries. For a group project, they'll need small meeting rooms. Some campuses are much better equipped with these features than others. If yours is, map them and distinguish by features. ("Need a place to study silently? Go here. Need a place to work on small-group projects? These are bookable rooms. Need a place to relax before you explode? Here they are. Need a private place with a sink to attend medical or lactation needs? There are two.") Because you're right, if there aren't enough study rooms and you make quiet rooms, you might get mobbed.
Another solution: make some of them portable. I've taught people how to make quiet tents for eventing. You need a tent or portable screen, a chair, a fuzzy blanket, and some pillows. It won't close out all the sound but muffles it a bit and gives visual privacy. In a crowded place, that helps a lot. Because it's portable, you can move it whenever you wish and tell only the autistic folks the new location. You know, like moving the sugar dish when the ants find it.
>>There is none whatsoever for disabled staff, and that can't be allowed to stand. <<
You have certainly identified some drawbacks of the club approach.
For this point, however, try the teacher's unions. There's a National Education Association plus one for each state. The whole point to unions is to get workers stuff they need to work safely and effectively. So for disabled staff, first check if their workplace is unionized. If so, talk to the union rep about making accommodations. Bear in mind that numbers matter: if there are only two autistic teachers, they're less likely to gain a quiet room than if they band together with the one who's breastfeeding and the two with migraines. You'll have to count heads and bet whether you have enough to get your own room or need to share. If the place isn't unionized, consider starting one. It's another option besides the ADA and if you can go wall-to-wall, a union has teeth that the administration can't easily ignore. They can still screw you, but they have to work a lot harder.
Then again, staff have advantages that students don't: territory. Most campuses give people an office. Departments may have a wing or a building. They already have space. It's just a matter of allocation. Look at what you have. I've known teachers who had a two-room office, or a walk-in closet, or a cluster with an empty room used as random storage space. Are any of the autistic folks in positions of authority (e.g. professors, department heads) on campus? If so, those people tend to hold larger territories. Use what you have. Clean out the crap room and declare it a quiet room by fiat. If you don't already have such a space, find out what you need to get one. All campuses have to have a system for staff to claim space, temporarily or permanently. Find out the magic phrases your campus wants and use them. Call it an evening meditation group if that's what it takes to bag a room from 6-10 PM on weeknights.
Staff also have better access to grants. Got anyone good at writing applications? Money can solve a lot of problems, and there are some programs to pay for disability accommodations. Autism counts.
>> That sounds like a route to "Self-narrating zoo exhibit on call", rather than "You know the guy who runs that department? You know he's autistic, right?" <<
I can see why that connection would come up. If it doesn't appeal, nobody has to do it. It's just a solution that some folks have found useful in solving the "nobody writes good things about us" problem.
However, the positive version of "self-narrating zoo" is actually the flip side of what I described. Most writers have a "pool" or "stable" of consultants on different topics they can ask when writing about something. One of my fans knows nuclear physics, one's a biochemist, several are computer programmers, several have chronic pain, a bunch are various kinds of neurovariant, and so on. If I need to know something I can't find online, I can ask my fans and usually get a good answer. This is a good way to solve the problem of nobody writing accurate things about you.
A prompt call is when a creative person puts themselves up to make whatever people want. There are free-for-all ones in addition to individual ones, too. Sometimes people tell very personal stories; other times they ask for generalities. It's common for my fans to ask me for real-life fixits: "I got shafted (description) so can you write a scene where that gets handled better?" Sure, no problem, here's your thingie. I literally call my project a Poetry Fishbowl because "fishbowl" is the name of an exercise where one or two people sit in the middle while other folks sit around and kibbitz. (Fun for me, but the middle position is not recommended for most autistics.) So it's a way for people to get types of material the mainstream is just not interested in furnishing. Look at the caliber of mainstream portrayals of autism and you can see why an alternative may be desirable.
>> What I'm trying to achieve is that the successful autists who are already out there don't have to hide it. <<
I agree, this is an excellent goal.
Many other identity groups have found it useful to showcase successful people. After several decades of this work, it's no longer huge news when someone announces that they're queer. A website has the enhanced feature that when you showcase an autistic professional, you can link right to their business site so people can shop there or whatever.
This is somewhat hampered by the fact that many autistic people prefer to avoid attention. But so did queers, once, and that's changing as the environment gets saner. For some autistics it may be hiredwired, but I think a lot of the so-called "antisocial" aspect is just not wanting to be around people who hurt them or demand they they hurt themselves. In a more positive environment, at least some autistics are a lot more sociable -- proven by the dramatic change in gregariousness if you put a bunch of them in a convention where they get to set the expectations.
Fiddle around with it and see what ways you can find to promote awareness of successful autistics and what kinds of jobs are a good bet. There's more than computer programming out there.