Natasha: Access intimacy: Proactively providing people with accessibility options instead of making them ask for it.

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Natasha: Wrapping up by talking about actionable steps:

Disability justice: She tells her kids they are an equity house not an equality house. We do not all need the same things. We need to move from independent stance to an interdependent stance, community minded. No One Is Independent.

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Audience member: Chinese from Hong Kong, ESL. Came here because we live in a political environment in which it is such a gift to be able to find communities. In their culture, that doesn't exist as much, but also people are good at finding cracks to do things.

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Natasha: A lot of autistic people know that it's so much and often too much to take care of other people's need and they still do it. [And this is one reason why burnout can be an issue.]

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Natasha: And then some of us have sensory sensitivities, we need our space. Some people are passionate about sharing information. And we all know accessibility and inclusion is important, and Natasha was trying to help people cope. And she forgot to take care of herself, to eat all day.

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Audience member from Ukraine: Her daughter has a friend who is a girl. Definitely autistic but undiagnosed. Social struggles come from being unsupported.

Natasha: This conference has a a lot of ND people all in one people with competing access needs, voice regulation, personal boundaries.

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Audience member: Autistic woman, Trans, AMAB, was constantly told she was doing masculinity wrong. Her brothers were diagnosed early, she was diagnosed at age 31.

Natasha: Research often overlooks autistic people who were assigned a gender that doesn't fit.

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Audience member Maiya: We're expected to be she boss badasses strong women, and anything that disrupts that is side-eyed.

Natasha: And if you can't live up to that, it's bad. Can lead to mental health issues, e.g., depression.

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Camille Proctor: Women are expected to be the caregivers, like Natasha was with her six siblings. Those women can have weightier masking because if they're not OK then no one is OK.

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@autisticenough.bsky.social the difference in presentation between autistic girls and boys leads to girls being discriminated against for showing the same traits, being told to act like a "lady" etc.

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Audience member: Self denialism is a thing.

Natasha says, yes, especially when the culture is hostile to autism.

@faethinking.bsky.social: Two people can have the same traits, but be treated entirely differently depending on their gender, race etc.

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Audience member: Autistic girls and women can mask more than autistic boys and men. Natasha says yes.

Audience member: Sometimes the mask is so thick it fuses to your skin and you don't know where you end and the mask begins.

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Factors contributing to barriers to access for autism for families of color: There are systemic barriers, for Black families specifically. There are inequitable healthcare systems, inadequate funding and research for autism programs. Addressing this issue is a justice matter.

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Natasha's first daughter was more obviously autistic, her older daughter less so. So when her second daughter was diagnosed, Natasha said that if her daughter was autistic then she was too. The pediatrician said hmmm.

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Natasha: When she told her mom she was autistic, her mom said that she couldn't be because she acted like everyone else in her family. And so if she was autistic so was everyone in her family. Natasha said hmmm.

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Natasha: Medically, it is very expensive to be autistic. Autistic people are more likely to have chronic medical conditions. It's expensive for the average middle class family. For people who have other racial, cultural, gender, and financial barriers it can often be insurmountable

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Natasha: Black parents who push back against an autism diagnosis, who have a stress response, we have to understand that they are now dealing with another form of oppression and needing to fights. They can have a fear response. Doesn't mean they don't want to support their child.

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Natasha: For the Black community, and working with orgs like Color of Autism, more information is getting out into the community about basic autism traits, supports, resources. Because a lot of people are still in the "awareness" tire, not ready for #AutismAcceptance.

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Natasha: What people do not think to acknowledge is that after 400 years of transatlantic slavery, then Jim Crow, then red lining, then and then and then, all of that lack of access. Which is why in the Black community, in her NW Georgia community, autism was considered a "white" thing.

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Natasha: Autism can be interpreted differently in Black people. Natasha was ONLY labeled as gifted growing up. Even though she had so many autistic traits.
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