70. S6, Ep3: Not autistic enough: disability discrimination and intersectionality

Aishah-Nyeta is an advocate for climate, race, and disability justice from Virginia in the USA. She says she grew up feeling ‘stupid’ and different from her peers due to her dyscalculia and the social challenges of her undiagnosed autism.

Now 25, she was diagnosed autistic in 2020, when she began using her Instagram account to educate her friends and community – and the wider world – about autism and her particular experience as a Black autistic woman.

She recently graduated with a BA in Climate Change and Society, and hopes to bring awareness and innovation to the environmental challenges and injustices of the world. She also serves as a Gen-Z advisor for the Climate Mental Health Network, an organisation that aims to address the mental health consequences of climate change.

In our conversation we talk about:

➡ Growing up hyper aware of her difference

➡ Auditory processing disorder

➡ Her difficulties sharing her autism diagnosis with her family

➡ Disability discrimination at university

➡ The intersectionality of identities, and how we can all do more to understand them

I hope you’ll enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Skin picking is mentioned in this episode (the proper term for this, which neither of us could remember, is dermatillomania or excoriation disorder). If you’d like more information about this condition, visit this NHS page.

Squarepeg is a podcast in which neurodivergent women, and trans and nonbinary people, explore navigating a neurotypical world and share their insights, challenges and successes.

I hope that these conversations will be inspiring and thought provoking, open you up to new ways of thinking about being neurodivergent, and help you feel more connected to a worldwide community of people with similar experiences.

I’m Amy Richards, and after being diagnosed autistic at the age of 37 I’m now on a mission to learn more about different perspectives and issues around being a neurodivergent adult in a world that feels like it doesn’t quite fit.

EPISODE LINKS:

Aishah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aishah_nyeta/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AishahNyeta

Website: https://www.aishahnyeta.com/

If you'd like to connect or get in touch with Squarepeg, you can find me on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squarepeg.community/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/squarepegautism

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/squarepegautism/

Or on my website: https://squarepeg.community/

THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS!

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