Writing About Polar Bears In Rainforests: Interview With A Teenage Non-Speaking Autistic Author
Issue Twenty
Dear Readers,
Last week I had to rush to my parents’ place when my father was hospitalised for emergency surgery. Thankfully, he is on the mend now, and instead of making hospital trips, we’re engaged in playing board games with him at home. I’m enjoying family time, how have you been?
For all new subscribers, I’m Priti Salian, the author of this newsletter, and an independent journalist, editor, researcher and media trainer, based out of Bengaluru, India.
The previous issue about Long COVID resonated with many readers who wrote to me with their thoughts. Thanks also to those who wrote in about contributing to Reframing Disability. I really appreciate it.
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In this issue, hear from Aditi Sowmyanarayan about her writing career, resources and media on autism, specifically non-speaking autism, language and interview tips for content creators, recommendations, and an opportunity.
To serve you better, I’d like to know you better. Could you fill out this 1-minute survey to help me?
Aditi Sowmyanarayan is a 19-year-old award-winning writer and an avid blogger. Her fiction novella, With You Right Through, won the best manuscript award at JK AutHer Awards Season 4, 2022-23, which was later published as Gobble Thy Prejudice. Aditi’s collection of short stories, Small Stories Big Thoughts, received positive reviews from readers, including praise from the Stanford Neurodiversity Project.
Aditi is passionate about raising awareness about non-speaking autism. As a freelance writer, she blogs at smallstepbigthought.blogspot.com about her lived experience of autism and to promote awareness and the use of Augmented and Alternative Communication (AAC) among those with complex communication needs. She was a YLAC Artivist Fellow in 2023 for her campaign “mind.the.spectrum” which aimed to raise awareness and promote social acceptance of autistics among teens.
Aditi and I have been acquainted online for a while, and I have long admired her work as a writer and disability advocate. As a non-speaking autistic individual, she uses text-to-speech technology to communicate. When I requested an interview, Aditi, Reframing Disability’s youngest interviewee to date, shared insights about her young yet burgeoning career.
“My readers should read my work because my writing engages them and not because I am a non-speaking autistic who writes”
At what age did you start writing and what inspires you to write?
I have always enjoyed observing people and spinning colourful tales in my head, but I began writing them when I was fifteen. That is when I picked up the ability to type on the laptop, which, for me, is a lot more comfortable sensorially, than writing on paper with a pen. I enjoy observing people. The rich tapestry of human personality and experiences serve as inspiration to create protagonists and tales that I write.
Are a lot of your fictional characters based on disabled or neurodivergent people?
Actually no, they are not. My collection of short stories, “Small Stories Big Thoughts” doesn't feature neurodivergent protagonists, nor does my award-winning novella, “Gobble Thy Prejudice”. But there is one thing that I figured along the way; stories have an immense power to grab the attention of readers and deliver powerful messages. So, I decided to create neurodivergent protagonists for the advocacy blogs that I write for Avaz, India Autism Center and the Institute of Neurodiversity, besides some of my own blogs. I use stories as a medium to deliver my messages and I like to think that has worked well.
Could you talk about how you work with your editors when you author a book?
Text is my preferred mode of communication. While I use Avaz, the text-to-speech app, primarily to have conversations, I am very comfortable using email, WhatsApp and most social media and networking apps. I communicate with my editors over WhatsApp and email, and work on the necessary edits. We share the manuscript on Google Drive, so working on comments and edits is a lot easier.
What are the barriers you might have faced finding work and working as a writer because of your neurodivergence? Do you find this profession to be inclusive?
So here is how it has been for me so far: I started off with writing short stories and finding a publisher for that wasn't exactly easy. But I guess that scenario would hold true for any sixteen-year-old, who is a first-time writer and is keen to explore traditional publishing as the preferred option. Maybe the fact that I am a non-speaking autistic would have made it 10% more difficult to find a publisher. This scenario changed when, perchance, Bookosmia got in touch with me to write a blog for a blogfest that they were a part of. When I mentioned the short story collection and shared the manuscript with them, they readily published it. This book, “Small Stories Big Thoughts”, was launched on February 11, 2023 and is in its third print now.
The initiatives that I write blogs for function in the neurodiversity landscape, so I have not faced any significant barriers in working with the teams. I am yet to look for a more generic content writing kind of role. I would probably have a different experience when I look for such a role, but I am hoping that my blogs will help employers understand me better, should I be in such a situation.
Writing is one of the most inclusive professions, in a sense. What you need is the courage to put your thoughts out there in the form of your writing and you can do that from any geographic location. That works perfectly well for someone like me with very ‘limited’ social skills.
I do understand there will be occasions like book signing and the works but I guess the work life of us neurodivergent [people] is about finding the balance between gently pushing one’s boundaries and seeking accommodations.
What do you think about disability inclusion in children’s and young adults’ storytelling in India?
I had an opportunity to compile a list of must-read books about disability for Bookosmia last year and I realized [that] while there is a good mix of books about both visible and invisible disabilities for children under the age of eight or nine, we do not have too many books about invisible disabilities for older children, teens and young adults. There is Extra, by Archana Mohan, where the protagonist is a person with Down syndrome and Bipathu and a Very Big Dream, by Anita Nair, which revolves around a person with cerebral palsy. But these are visible disabilities.
I was just watching a series on Netflix, called Geek Girl, based on a book of the same name, where the main protagonist is neurodivergent, possibly autistic. While her character has been written beautifully and realistically, there is absolutely no mention of a disability or a label. I wish we had more such books written by Indian authors in the Indian context, for this normalises conversations around disability and addresses the taboo around invisible disabilities in a very organic manner. To borrow an expression from the series, I wish to see more stories about ‘polar bears in rainforests’. Maybe this is just my way of telling myself to write something in this genre.
What advice do you have for other non-speaking autistic young adults aspiring to become writers?
Writing, like any other skill, needs practice, polishing and fine-tuning. What worked for me is that I love to read; I read different genres. Classes on creative writing, writing fiction and non-fiction also helped. There is one thought that is always at the back of my mind while I write: my readers should read my work because I write well and my writing engages them and not because I am a non-speaking autistic who writes. I like to think that thought has made a difference to my writing.
No representation in the media
Aditi’s mother, Shwetha Srivathsan, feels that there is a huge lack of representation of non-speaking autism in the media. “While the awareness about non-speaking autism has increased in the last decade or so; the reason being how technology has been able to give the community a voice, the representation of non-speakers in the media and writing is very minimal to none,” she says.
“As with most other aspects of autism, there are stereotypes associated with this community. Not every non-speaker is a poet. There are non-speakers, who author fiction, like my daughter. There are artists like Amrit Khurana, Nishant Sriram and Ritwick Gupta, and there are non-speakers who have an ear for music and a mind for math and so much more. To borrow from one of Aditi’s blogs: “Like in a neurotypical world where different people are good at different things, we non-speakers have varied interests and strengths”.”
Low media awareness, of course, stems from the problem that the larger society doesn’t know about alternative means of communication for non-speaking autistics, and instead, assumes, that there is not much non-speaking autistics can do.
The problem is systemic, Shwetha says, because there are “very few to no opportunities for education and work in most countries. In India, we are yet to get to a space where non-speakers are able to access school completion and college opportunities.”
“What the community truly needs is the right opportunity to hone their skills and build on their strengths,” Shwetha says.
Aditi recommends
Children’s books on disabilities
Aditi wrote this blog with 19 books for children on diverse disabilities. A few that she strongly recommends:
Gappu Can't Dance by Menaka Raman
Satya Watch Out by Yamini Vijayan
Kanna Panna by Zai Whittaker
Clumsy by Ken Spillman and Urmila Gupta
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a 13-Year-Old Boy With Autism by Naoki Higashida
Talking Fingers: Voices Of Indian Non-Speaking Autistics (two volumes)
OTT Shows
Geek Girl on Netflix. “While the term neurodivergent or autistic is not mentioned at all in the show, it does a brilliant job of representing autism as the main protagonist Harriet Manners has autistic traits,” says Aditi. It is based on a book of the same name written by an autistic writer Holly Smale.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix. In this popular Korean series, Woo is an autistic trainee lawyer who faces prejudices at her law firm. “The show deals with some very relevant themes rather well,” Aditi says.
Aapki Antara on Zee5 in Hindi. Aditi enjoyed the first 15 episodes and found that they portrayed childhood autism nicely.
Other resources on autism and neurodivergence
This piece by the Institute of Neurodiversity (ION), includes pointers on communicating with non-speakers and effective communication by non-speakers. Aditi, who is on the steering committee of the India Chapter has contributed to this piece and other resources to ION, which is a Europe-based not-for-profit that works to create a level playing field for neurodivergent people in the spaces of education, work and healthcare.
Spectrum is another resource I use that publishes the latest news and analysis about autism research. Developed by the same team, The Transmitter is an essential resource for the neuroscience community, delivering insights, tools and news and analysis of the field.
A group for non-speaking autistics
Along with Aniket Kadam and Tarun Paul Mathew, Aditi manages Silent Expressions, a group envisioned as a safe space for non-speaking autistics older than 16. If you are a non-speaking autistic or a neurodivergent person from anywhere in the world, use WhatsApp, and would like to exchange thoughts and ideas with others from the community, fill out this Google Form to join the group.
Language note
Unlike a lot of persons with disabilities who prefer person-first language, many individuals from the autism community prefer identity-first language, i.e., they prefer to be called “autistic” rather than “person with autism”.
“Non-speaking autistic” is preferred over “nonverbal autistic” because while non-speaking autistics don’t speak, they use Augmentative and Alternative Communication such as sign language, written or typed communication, pictures or drawing, text-to-speech, or devices that support such communication.
However, the best way to address someone is by using their preferences. Asking people before characterising their disability is the way to go.
Interview tips for journalists
This guide from Autistica, UK’s autism research and campaigning charity includes simple and effective tips such as asking autistic people their preferred mode of communication, giving information in advance, asking direct questions, not being sad about their autism, etc. The bottom line is to be respectful and attentive to the interviewee’s needs. Doesn’t that apply to every interview we conduct?
Listen
In this audio piece by NPR, disability activist and author Emily Ladau talks about how anyone can be a better ally to persons with disabilities. Language, diversity and identity, it has all that you need to know.
Opportunity: Grant Writing For Journalists
This free Poynter course will give journalists the ins and outs of applying for grants, from developing a project or program to drafting a budget and creating a monitoring and evaluation plan.
Thank you for reading this issue of Reframing Disability! Hit reply or comment below to share your thoughts on non-speaking autism or anything else. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter! I hope you liked this edition and will share it widely to support my work.
Warmly,
Priti