The Map We Autistics Needed
I haven’t posted on here in a while. One reason is I’ve been working on this:
For a lot of autistic people, going somewhere new often means a lot of guesswork, and a lot more sensory and cognitive risk, and expense, than non-autistics would think: Will the lights be too harsh? Will it be too loud? Is there anywhere to step away? Guess wrong, or find yourself in a certain situation, and a single outing can cost hours or days of recovery time. Over time, many of us just stop going places. Our world shrinks.
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Two of us — burned-out, disabled, autistic adults — got tired of ending up in these situations. So we started writing down our thoughts about places: honest, firsthand reviews of how a space actually feels to move through as an autistic person. Lighting, sound, smells, crowds, staff, spatial design, whether there’s anywhere to decompress or rest, whether a place is financially or cognitively exploitative. We decided to put it on a map.
It’s called Autisticrits. It’s free, no ads, no sponsorships. Kind of like Yelp, or Google Maps, but for autistics.
It’s just getting started and still sparse. But it’s up. If you’re autistic, wherever you are, and want to be a part of this project, feel free to submit a review, of literally anywhere. A park, a cafe, a business, a train station, a doctors office…anything.
