The first article I ever read by The Articulate Autistic had me connecting so deep in my soul I HAD to reach out and connect with the human behind the words.  To my sheer delight, I met Jaime A. Heidel and we immediately became friends. 

We share so many things in common, among them an auditory processing delay so we both enjoy having live closed captions when we visit on zoom.  She is one of only a handful of people I will call on the phone although we laugh because we both HATE talking on the phone.  And you better text first before you call and make sure it’s OK.  Just saying. LOL.

She says what many of us do, “I am not an advocate.  The Oxford Dictionary’s definition of an advocate is:

“a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.”

If anyone truly fits publicly supporting the autistic voice and perspective in a way that translates, connects and bridges differences it is my glorious, talented friend, translator and writer, Jaime A. Heidel.

Meet Jaime…

Social Autie: What is your specialty or focus area of Autism Advocacy?

Jaime:  I call myself an “autistic behavior translator” because I do just that; translate autistic behavior for non-autistic people to understand. My focus is on the ‘why’ of autistic behavior. Why do autistic people do what we do? What are our intentions, motivations, thoughts, feelings, and ways of seeing the world? While I can’t and don’t speak for every autistic person, I use my pattern-recognizing abilities to create a basic framework for understanding and better communication between autistic and non-autistic people. 

Social Autie: Why did you begin advocating for yourself and others?  What makes this personal to you and Your Big Why? 

Jaime:  I began advocating because I could see where the disconnect between non-autistic and autistic communication was happening, and I wanted to address it; to make the connection. I spent my life explaining myself, my motivations, and my reasoning to others, and it developed into an ability to explain the motivations and reasoning of other autistic people. My “Big Why” is to prevent the almost-inevitable development of PTSD in autistic people as a result of being chronically misunderstood and punished for the things we say and do naturally that do not have the same social meaning or motivation behind them as non-autistic people. 

As it currently stands, society rarely produces un-traumatized autistic people, and it can make the ability to separate trauma from neurodivergence nearly impossible. I hope that the next generation of autistic people can grow up in a world where their neurodivergence is accepted and understood instead of punished and/or manipulated into “acting non-autistic”. 

Social Autie: What is/are the top tip(s) or insight(s) you have discovered for advocating for a) others and b) yourself?

Jaime:  I’ve discovered that the most important thing I can teach a non-autistic person to do is to approach autistic behavior with curiosity. Not anger, not fear, not offense, but curiosity. To teach them to take a step back, breathe, and ask for clarification when they don’t understand something instead of jumping to an emotional response that will confuse or traumatize the autistic person. 

Another is that not all autistic people are the same. I write from a place of generalities that often comes from polling other autistic people and my ability to recognize patterns. That said, every autistic person is different, is an individual, and they may not resonate with my generalities, and that’s OK. It’s enough for me that I’m getting the conversation started and helping other autistic people find their own voices to express their experiences of living as neurodivergent people in a neurotypical world. 

Be sure to tune in tomorrow on Podcast and YouTube to episode 81 of the Mind Your Autistic Brain Talk Show to join us in a very personal conversation about what it is like being autistic in the workforce.

Read Jaime A. Heidel's work and connect with her at The Articulate Autistic.