Embracing Neurodiversity for Autism Acceptance Month: V. Tisi's Journey as an Autistic SLP Advocate
In honor of Autism Acceptance Month, we are excited to feature V. Tisi, M.A., CCC-SLP. V. shares her unique perspective as both an autistic individual and a speech-language pathologist, offering valuable insights into the intersection of neurodivergence and professional practice. From challenging misconceptions about high-masking autistic individuals to advocating for greater systemic support, V.’s experiences highlight the importance of inclusion, understanding, and compassion in supporting autistic individuals.
Could you share your experience as an autistic individual who works as a speech-language pathologist? How do these two aspects of your identity inform each other?
It was actually being an SLP that brought me to knowing about autistic people, and where I found myself. In an effort to normalize and connect with autistic clients as well as explain things to their parents, I would share about myself. I found myself too easily recognizing patterns of why these autistic students and clients did what they did, and why, and I didn’t like it when those traits sometimes got criticized. But after a few years of this, I realized the trend was because I also had the exact same traits not because they were “normal” as in neurotypical, but “normal” as in it was normal for me. I still normalize those traits, but now from an informed place of not only my own but my community’s perspectives.
My favorite thing about what I do is helping parents connect with their autistic children in the way the autistic children want to connect, and the lightbulb moments that the parents’ goals for connection were right there all along, just different than what they expected. My least favorite thing because it requires being uncomfortable is to address my own internalized ableism so I don’t project that onto my clients and their families. This hard work truly heart work.
What are some common misconceptions about autism that you’ve encountered both in your professional and personal life?
I think the most common misconception is that high-masking speaking autistic folks don’t need accommodations, including AAC. I use AAC all the time. It may not be very obvious such as a tablet device with a specific program, but I shut down and go non-speaking often and prefer to use written communication almost exclusively. In many of my high masking autistic clients, they need AAC when addressing high-stress communication such as their emotions or when self-advocating. I’ve heard “every autistic person deserves access to AAC” before, and I think we definitely need to all think about this a little more.
What are some ways society can better support autistic individuals, especially when it comes to communication and acceptance in everyday life?
Oh boy, we need a huge systemic overhaul, everywhere from access to identification to those most marginalized from the identification process (e.g. high masking, female-phenotype, minoritized races, elder generations, etc.) all the way to whole-community access for every single person. If jobs were more accepting and accommodating, we’d see less burnt out autistic parents of autistic children who can be more present for their individual needs. If society was more accepting and accommodating, families would not be as isolated and have more of a “village”. If the mainstream society was more informed, more active as allies, we would have better policies that influence medicine, education, all of it. Autism affects us from the second we wake up to our actual sleep, and no moment is missed in between, so I really can’t say a short list. Perhaps that’s also my autism speaking because I like to be thorough and accurate, and I can’t prioritize a few random ways as more important than others.
What inspired you to pursue a career in speech-language pathology?
It happened by chance, so I really believe it’s kismet. I had no idea what this career even was until I saw a trifold brochure at my community college recruiting SLPAs when I was reading every single random thing on the walls of the hallway pre-smart phone days to kill time before class. I ferociously started researching about it when I got to class, and became obsessed ever since. It was the perfect match. I’ve always had a compassion towards and interest to be around disabled people; I would volunteer in the special education classes during recess in elementary school and I apparently was the first person my ex-boyfriend’s autistic non-speaking sister ever “liked” (I’m positive that’s untrue, but I was told I had a large impact on her life immediately). I think a large part of it is some sort of gravitation I have within myself to other neurodivergent and disabled people, even before I knew I was neurodivergent and disabled myself. There’s a meme out there about neurodivergent people always traveling in “wolf packs” of other neurodivergent people, and I definitely think that rings true for me.
What is one thing you’ve learned in your speech therapy practice you wish all people knew?
I’m so glad that more and more people are being aware of Natural Language Acquisition and Gestalt Language Processing, and I wish all people knew! It put a label on what I always had a gut feeling about, and the fact that we can shift perspectives about GLP speech production as being totally functional and worthy and not something to extinguish is just one step towards the equity I would like to see about how we view and treat autistic (and other GLP) clients.
