这封信由 The Winsor School in Boston 的 16 岁的 Leela Uppaluri 撰写，是 The Learning Network 学生公开信竞赛的前 9 名获奖者之一，我们收到了 8,065 份参赛作品。
Dear Classmates,
You should know that I am not autistic. But growing up just 16 months younger than my autistic brother has given me a front-row seat to how this condition is viewed by many of you. In school, we are surrounded by values of education and inclusion, but these values don’t seem to translate to disability awareness.
Though only four years old, I remember like it was yesterday when my mom told me that my brother is autistic. How she whispered the word “autism” to me, as if she was shielding me from a four-letter word, hoping to protect me from classmates who might later mimic and bully my brother. In 6th grade I remember hearing many of you label autism a “disease.” A disease connotes something wrong with a person, something needing to be fixed. Unfortunately, these constructs outline how we have all grown up thinking about autism.
Fast forward to 9th grade — I have even heard some of you use the “r” slur or the words “moron” or “lame” jokingly. And I’ve also grown up in a world where when you don’t do so well on a math test one of you might joke “are you autistic?” Whenever I hear these insults, I come home angry. Angry because you use an important part of my brother’s identity, who he is, as a put-down. When I’ve told you that you are being ableist, you’ve called me “sensitive.” Though you speak naïvely, you devalue my brother and those like him when you use such language.
The truth is, one in 36 of us is diagnosed with autism. Moreover, people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the United States, and as new disability categories within neurodiversity emerge and grow, so does that percentage. Make no mistake — autism is in all of our classrooms, and we must move toward true acceptance now.
How do we achieve acceptance? Not being ableist is a start. Join a disability advisory group in your school to learn why using language like the “r” slur is not appropriate. Avoid language like “low functioning” that is demeaning and devaluing to some of your peers and learn how to treat and include your autistic peers as you would want to be treated and included. Last, applaud neurodivergence instead of making excuses for it. In other words, the next time you see my brother sway to “Hey Jude” in the aisle of a grocery store or wear headphones to block out sensory overload at California Pizza Kitchen, don’t stare! Just smile. By doing so, you are showing how you accept him and other autistic people for who they are.
Sincerely,
Leela Uppaluri
Works Cited
Data & Statistics on Autism Spectrum Disorder.”Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4 April 2023.
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. Becoming Disabled. The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2016.