Autistic people have a right to privacy. We should be able to choose what people know about us. We should have control over what pictures and videos are shared of us. We should have control over the stories people tell about us. We should get to decide what things about us get shared and what things about us are private.
A lot of parents take pictures of their kids. This can be a good thing, but some parents take pictures of their kids doing private things.They may take pictures of their kid in the bath, or having a meltdown. Then, they share the pictures with everyone on the internet. Autistic people deserve privacy, even when we are kids. We need even more privacy when we’re having a hard time.
Sometimes, autistic people will teach others about autism.We might share private things about our lives to help people learn. That doesn’t mean we want to share those things all the time, or share these things with everyone. Don’t repeat private things an autistic person tells you, and ask first if you want to share our story with someone else.
Autistic people also have a right not to share private things. Autistic people talk about autism all the time, and some people ask us private questions about our lives.We have a right to not answer these questions. We should still get to talk about autism.We shouldn’t have to share when we were toilet trained, when we were diagnosed, or whether or not we hurt ourselves.We get to decide what we want to share.
Autistic people you are close to might tell you private things. This is a normal part of being family or friends.You shouldn’t tell other people about things we say in private. The rules are the same for us as when a non-autistic person tells you a secret.