Importance of communication skills

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How important are effective communication skills for an "autism advocate"?

No offense Gallowglass, but we shouldn't let our issues with other people dominate thread titles. People who don't want to be involved shouldn't be forced to whenever they enter this part of the forum. It's at their own violition that they criticize and complain.

I think in order to be able to advocate anything you need decent communication skills, in order to get your message(s) across and to discuss what you're advocating with the wider public, since they are the target, are they not?

That's easily arguable I am sure but the fact is that it is aimed somewhat at a particular person who is very noticable in quite of a few of the threads just below this one.

The talking points from the script of single issue politics.

Some recent visitors who are demanding the party line be followed.

This is a place for diverse points of view.

You lot are spamming.

This type of post leads to where the most highest functioning of advocates have the say so vs. not allowing other advocates to speak. It's just a control and manipulation tactic. My communication skills are good enough to where I've achieved media, broadcasting and effective community relations that raise tens of thousands a year. For a disorder which effects communication the individuals that are not even diagnosed or just mild to make a post like this is absurd when they themselves have been saying how I cannot communicate properly with them and they won't bother. Well enough people bother already!

Hello,

Everyone should have a voice on the forum, it is only fair that we share resourses for the greater good.

We can assist everyone to be a voice of positive change via support.

We are diverse and this diversity should rightly be celebrated.

All my very best to you!

How can you advocate if nobody can understand you?

Of course it is crucial!

Hello WildColonialBoy,

'We can assist everyone to be a voice of positive change, via support.'


I think we can see and hear where the other person is coming from. If the underlying principle is correct the other details are secondary. That is not to say that secondary details are not important, yes they are, and they are important to us.

But with support we all learn and adapt. Skills are best integrated in a supportive environment.

This is not to say we can not speak our own minds. We can and should, in a supportive manner.
If we become upset over something then we can simply let go of it.

Just press the internal delete option.

Thank you for reading my post.

All the very best to you!

Ps. I am a child of colonisation.

This is nice and warm and fuzzy but:

Would you be happy if you were charged with a capital crime and your lawyer could not speak English?
Would you be happy if an advocate for a cause you felt deeply about was so inept they ended up validating the counter argument?

Warm and fuzzy might be nice but killing with kindness is not.

Honestly I find sides validating each-others arguments but they just don't want to be seen agreeing on much of anything becuase it would remove the power of social "hostility".

Impairment in communication is common in all ASD's. Even if one's grammar and spelling, is perfect and vocabulary is immense, the ability to communicate can be impaired in other ways. If Autistic people are to be enabled to advocate for themselves or others, those difficulties in communication should at least be tolerated, unless they personally harm others.

We often cannot see our own individual communication impairments, in not understanding other points of view, understanding when we have talked too long, or have spent too much time in the weeds of detail. But that's autism, it comes with the territory.

Since Autism, largely, is an issue of communication difficulty, unless we want to hand over the advocacy to people other than autistics, it would be fair to accept the fact that Autistic people have communication impairments, and do the best we can to tolerate those differences, when someone attempts to advocate.

In another thread not too long ago, a letter was presented here by an organization inviting people to work as autism advocates with a requirement of a college degree to participate.

A young girl wanted to, but was sadly disappointed that she might not be able to achieve her goal to advocate without a college degree. Not an issue specifically related to skills, but one related to differences in educational attainment

If the poll results suggest that communication is crucial in Autism Advocacy, the message we send to those that have a desire to advocate for themselves or others, may be received as the literal truth and those that have the desire to advocate, with communication impairments, might decide to no longer pursue it.

There are many people that come here to read, and never post; they are the overwhelming eyes that exist here. Whenever one of our own is criticized for their skills that others as well may not share to perfection, it is not an invitation for those to participate, but could be disheartening to those that might feel they don't measure up to what it takes to be a part of this support group.

We are free to express that view, and criticism of the skills of others is accepted if it is not done in excess here, but it is not an act of advocation for others that visit here and witness a message that some with autism can't do what others do because they have impairments in communication skills.

And for those without autism that visit here, who come here to learn about it and see how autistic people interact, they gain an impression that we can't accept the impairments in each other, but expect others to accept them that don't have autism.

However, there is no requirement to advocate for autism here, neither for ourselves, the autistic community, or outside of the autistic community.

My answer then, to the poll topic, is it is crucial that we tolerate differences in communication skills among those autistics that advocate for autism, if we want to see autistic people advocate for themselves, other autistics, and for autism outside of the Autistic community.

If you don't understand what I mean about differences in communication skills beyond grammar and spelling among Autistic people, some extremely highly functional, take a look at this post. It's the best example I think I have ever seen here. The issue is not limited to grammar and spelling:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt172233.html

So you would be happy if your Doctor had not passed his/her degree and your lawyer had not passed the Bar?

My point here was that a standard was set for advocation of autism, that the young girl thought would be required to advocate anywhere for autism. When in fact, no college degree, is required for an individual to advocate for autism; in that specific job announcement apparently it was.

The analogy here is if non-impaired communication was a requirment of autism advocacy, there would be very few autistic people advocating for themselves, in the autistic community, or in the general community. Some literally can't, but they can still do it with communication devices, if given the training and the opportunity to use those communication devices.

It certainly doesn't require a college degree or non-impaired communication to advocate for Autism.

...hands up the two jokers who voted that communication skills were "not important" in an advocate?

I suspect that we are talking at cross purposes.

To me, advocacy is a part of the political process to secure scarce resources and legislative change that will benefit Aspies. In order for it to be effective, such advocacy requires a professional approach, therefore, a degree is not an unreasonable requirement.

I suspect that your version of advocacy is "people advocating for themselves" which clearly does not require a degree.