Ann Memmott

@annmemmott.bsky.social

6547 Followers 1203 Following

Autistic disabled researcher, carer & Mum. #AutisticElder Personal page, own views. Like/repost = "I've read it" See also LinkedIn Encouraging moderation, a peaceful & fair society, & better research.

Four illustrations, which apply to a wide variety of situations on social media now, not just LGBTQIA+ lives.
In each, there are two people. In the first, a character in blue says to the other, "I don't like your kind"..in the second, "Know why, Oh just a little book called THE BIBLE!"..."You;re evil! God hates you! I hate you! You don't deserve rights!". The character hits the other one with the Bible. "Ow" says the victim. The victim finally responds by raising both arms in the air and shouting, "Stop That!". The original character looks shocked and says, "OMG, I'm a victim of oppression!"

A photograph by NBC news, showing the Nun, dressed in white, who was arrested by ICE and detained. She was on her way to Mass. Congress members intervened to get her released.

"Autistic people are often described as having “social deficits,” but many misunderstandings between autistic and
non-autistic people come from both sides. The Double Empathy Problem (DEP) shows that communication difficulties are relational and shaped by differences in experience, expectations, and power, not individual deficits or
problems within the autistic person. Understanding this helps challenge stigma, reduce blame placed on autistic
people, and promote more respectful and equitable relationships."

A list of rights won by women during the 20th century, discussed in the post. These include the right to vote, the right to divorce, the right to equal pay for equal work (1970s), the right for married women to work (only happened in the 1970s), right to open their own bank account (1970s), the right not to be raped by their husbands (1990s).

A poster about the service described in the opening post. A service from Autism Central and the NHS. Talk to someone who gets it. Book your free session today.

An illustration showing an autistic professional, absolutely exhausted, getting home. In the world outside, various pictures showing the colour blue, a small screaming white boy, puzzle piece logos, the words 'Autism Speak' 'Why do autistics like trains' 'profound autism day' 'Is autism curable?" "5 Core Deficits of Autism" and "A quick look at some treatment and therapy options".

An illustration of two almost identical scenes. The first is set in 1982 where a rich individual in a business suit has hoarded nearly all the cookies. A worker sits next to him, with only one cookie. Opposite, a person with no cookies at all. The rich person says to the person with one cookie, "Careful, buddy, that foreigner wants your cookie".

In the next illustration, it's now 2025, and the rich person's stash of cookies is now about 100 times bigger. The worker only has one cookie. The other person still has no cookies at all. The rich person tries the same line again.

Front cover of two books:
The Scale of the Spectrum - Joanna Grace, and The Queerly Autistic Workbook - Erin Ekins.

I'd like to congratulate Hannah Spencer on her election as the new MP for Gorton and Denton. This result shows people are bitterly disappointed with Labour but horrified by the rise of Reform. Keir Starmer's government has been consumed by the Westminster soap opera instead of delivering on the issues that matter most, tackling the cost of living crisis and fixing the NHS. It's clear people are willing to vote tactically for the party best placed to beat Reform, and across huge swathes of the country that is the Liberal Democrats. We've seen that in our record gains in local elections, and we will see it again come the elections in May.
Daisy Cooper, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Four illustrations, each showing two people. One holds a Bible and says, I don't like your kind. Know why? Oh, just a little book called The Bible! You're evil! God hates you! I hate you! You don't deserve rights!" He hits the other person.
The other person throws their hands in the air and says, "Stop that!"
"OMG, I am a victim of oppression!" says the first character.

A snip from the linked paper, showing that higher hours of ABA didn't do most of the things it claimed to do.

A four part illustration. A person says to another person, "I don't like your kind. Know why? Oh just a little book called The Bible! You're evil. God hates you. I hate you. You don't deserve rights." The first person hits the other person with a copy of the Bible. The other person shouts, "Stop that!". The response from the first person? "OMG, I am a victim of oppression!"

"A lot of these men are classic narcissistic abusive men and now that we're starting to say no, they can't come into our spaces, all of their entitlement and rage comes out", says Smith.

"...using 'protective equipment' [e.g. ankle restraints, arm restraints, helmets with full visors etc] with [autistic] individuals who exhibited overactivity (e.g. continual pacing), excessive bids for attention (e.g. repetitive questioning) and repetitive behavior (e.g. stereotypy)..."

A collection of slim candles, alight.

An illustration by Ann Memmott, showing the burden on autistic children. It shows a child holding a huge pile of books, whilst teetering up a flight of steps and with a heavy rucksack on their back. The steps have labels such as 'no empathy, deficit, illness, disorder, tragedy, incapable'. A side box lists the number of things they must 'improve', including never moving hands without permission, not using natural speech or voice note, not using natural body language or face expressions, using eye contact even if it hurts to do so, coping with blinding, deafening environments without complaint.

A red and white pill bottle with "Autism - Rapid Release gels - 24 gelcaps" written on it.

Flyer for the conference, details of which are on the link which is in the post.

A list of things that the ADOS autism assessment tests for, to see if the child isn't autistic yet.
Normalised use of pointing, gestures, eye contact, face expressions, shared enjoyment, 'quality' of social interactions, lack of 'stereotyped' words and phrased, lack of unusual sensory 'behaviours', lack of autistic 'mannerisms' and lack of 'repetitive interests and behaviours'

Snip showing the numbers diagnosed/not diagnosed, by age and male/female.

Thank you for contacting us about the article you have seen. We want our stores to be inclusive and welcoming places for our colleagues and customers. We have written to this customer and explained that our colleagues typically work across all departments in our stores and customers can always ask to speak to the colleague they feel most comfortable with. We also explained that our colleague was asking a customer if they needed help. They were not working on a bra fitting or offering this.

A poster for the film Star Trek - Beyond. It shows three characters including Kirk and Spock,

Gregg Wallace substantiated allegations. 16 sexually explicit comments, 12 inappropriate comments, 7 instances of bullying, 4 instances of culturally insensitive/racist comments, 3 instances of being in a state of undress inappropriately, 2 instances of sexualised comments to or about someone, 1 instance of unwanted physical contact.

Lana, posting on other social media, gives a view about the antics of groups in the USA.
"If you are using undocumented immigrants' tax records to find and kidnap them, then it was never about them paying taxes.

If you are showing up at their place of employment, then it was never about them not working.

If you are showing up at courthouses, then it was never about getting them to "do it the right way".

If you are kidnapping women and children, then it was never about criminals.

If you're refusing to give them due process, then it was never about the Constitution.

If you are building concentration camps in Florida to keep them here in cages, then it was never about the border.

If you're spending billions to do this, then it was never about the economy.

And if you're doing all this in the name of a 34 time convicted felon, then it was never about following the law."

A peach coloured rose in bloom, with other rosebuds close to blooming.

Positive affect. One element of play that was
rarely directly measured in this research is positive
affect or behavioral indicators of happiness or
enjoyment. Although descriptive definitions of
play within play taxonomies often include positive
affect (Barton, 2014), in the current review, Lang
and colleagues (2009) and Reinhartsen and
colleagues (2009) were the only authors who
measured child affect during or postintervention.
Research has advanced to support play as a critical
intervention goal, suggesting overt enjoyment or
positive affect is not a critical element. That is,
changes in affect during academic or adaptive
interventions are not generally considered relevant
and its role in play research is thus far understudied. Descriptive studies showing changes in affect
during play are needed before positive affect
should be considered a behavioral marker of play.
However, future research could identify methods
of measuring changes in positive affect following

the acquisition of play skills (e.g., counting smiles
and laughter).

A picture of Ivar Lovaas, a white older man. "You see, you start pretty much from scratch when you work with an autistic child. You have a person in the physical sense - they have hair, a nose and a mouth - but they are not people in the psychological sense. One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is to see it as a matter of constructing a person. You have the raw materials, but you have to build the person". Interview with Paul Chance, 1974.

The Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR) intervention model, also known as Floor Time™, is designed to help children work around processing difficulties to reestablish effective contact with caregivers or play partners and begin to master developmentally appropriate skills. It is designed to increase socialization, improve language, and decrease repetitive behaviors.

Two example photos of a crowded noisy restaurant. The scene at the top as it might appear to most people, perhaps.
The scene at the bottom for some autistic people once in sensory and social overwhelm. Blinding, deafening, overpowering stench of competing foods and aftershaves, perfumes and drinks, clattering, clanging, shouting, laughing, music blaring, and very understandably some cannot tolerate it any more and have to leave, or become very distressed and enter a meltdown, or go into a silent and awful-to-experience shutdown. It's not a 'bad behaviour' from us. It's being put into an environment that we're simply not designed for.

Poll from X, for autistic people, 2200 votes in total. Do they want autism charities to help groups do experiments on autistic children, giving them a drug to see if it 'normalises' their social skills?
The vast majority said no.

An essential guide to caring for people with a learning disability and autistic people. Book by Routledge Publishers, 2025. The cover is hand drawn and shows inspirational quotes, a planet, a field, trees and a house, with a pathway. Colour scheme mostly blue and green with some orange and brown.

Huge list of things the autistic children could do after having social skill normalisation from a robot, apparently, according to their parents. Snip from the paper.

Less preoccupied with self-interested topics.
Reduced inappropriate body touch with others.
Reduced inappropriate self-muttering and voice-making.
Maintained appropriate social distance with others.
Improved eye contact.
Improved manner.
Enhanced attending and listening during communication

Etc etc within paper.

There are moments when I wonder how exactly a Labour landslide has come to this. How a government that was elected with gutter-low expectations less than a year ago has, with such efficiency, failed to meet even them. I remember the headlines in recent years about children sleeping on their bedroom floor because they don’t have a bed, or pretending to eat out of an empty lunchbox as they’re ashamed their parents can’t afford a sandwich, and I wonder how this column even needs to be written. A Labour government is in power and we are still debating whether the state should help children who are cold, hungry and dirty

A peacock and hen, resting in grass by a tree.

Tweets from X from Donald Trump Jr, e.g. "I sometimes forget that part of the mental disorder of leftism is an inability to understand sarcasm. So for the confused libs out there, I'm well aware that Jill Biden is a fake doctor, not a real one...Unlike the Dems who were calling for her to be Surgeon General in 2020 [clown emoji]"

A post on X by Donald Trump Jr. "What I want to know is how did Dr Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???"

MSc Applied Behaviour Analysis graduate and Positive Behaviour Support Practitioner for the National Autistic Society.
Lists The National Autistic Society and Queen's University Belfast (well known as an ABA training centre).

A snip from the linked paper. Figure 1 from page 15, showing the huge range of difficulties that some autistic people may have when using different transport systems.

A photo by Ann Memmott, of three pink and cream Paeony flowers in a flower border.

A china mug with daisies and other wild flowers on a light green background

A poll result showing the vast majority of autistic respondents in a poll on Twitter said they did not want to be taught nonautistic social skills by a robot.

The list of aims which is discussed in the posts, obtained from that link.

The list of 42 MPs which is shown in the link on the post.

Inclusive Toilets: How to respond to the new UK sex-based rules.
You can't tell someone's biology by looking.
You can't know their chromosomes without testing.
So don't try.
Sex isn't always visible or binary.
Most people don't know their own chromosomes.
Interrogating bathroom users is invasive and illegal.
Everyone deserves safe access to facilities.
Inclusive organisations can uphold dignity and privacy by refusing to enforce impossible, discriminatory rules.

A line drawing illustration by Diversity Doodles. The picture shows an adult and a child and a huge line of hoops, with a sign in the distance saying "help with hoops this way" at the end of the line of hoops that have to be jumped through. The adult says to a child, "I see your diagnosis states you have difficulty jumping through hoops? If you could just jump through these to get over there, we MIGHT be able to give you some help".

The Supreme Court said that it may be “proportionate” to exclude trans men from women’s single-sex spaces such as counselling for survivors of sexual abuse where “reasonable objection is taken to their presence, for example, because the gender reassignment process has given them a masculine appearance”.

In other words, trans men can be excluded from male-only spaces because they were assigned female at birth and from female-only spaces because they appear too masculine. “It could be argued that it is this decision which is ‘incoherent and unworkable,’”

An illustration entitled, "Questions for the 'toilet police: In the quest to spot people 'not allowed' in the loo, how are you going to identify e.g...
An older woman who recently had chemotherapy for cancer and a mastectomy? A woman with short hair who doesn't want to conform to the 'idealised' appearance of women? A Trans man who has now been told by the Government they must use the female toilets? An intersex person whose medical team guessed they were female, when they were born? A male caretaker, cleaner, tradesman, etc, in there on legitimate duties?