Getting an autism diagnosis can be incredibly challenging, especially for women later in life. Before she had the labels to understand her experiences, Vanessa Leu struggled with daily shutdowns and meltdowns without knowing why. The 21-year-old disabled artist, advocate, and AMI Apprentice takes us along on her journey of accepting her late autism diagnosis while confronting the internalized ableism that surfaced along the way.
Caroline Fyfe is a postdoctoral research associate at the university of Edinburgh, who previously worked at the Karolinska institute in Sweden, and is the author of the study looking at sex differences in autism. She shares the outcomes of the study.
Anne Cary is a late-diagnosed autistic women who wrote the editorial that came out with Caroline’s study. She wanted to call attention to the crisis of under diagnosis that is Disabling so many autistic girls and women. She shares her experience with realizing she’s autistic and the internalized ableism that came with the news.
Ratsamy Pathammavong is a Disability and Inclusion Manager in the Disability community. She’s a mentor to Vanessa, and was the first to show her that taking the required accommodation is more important than fitting the norm. Ratsamy shares her experience with grieving the life she could have had if she could have understood her diagnosis sooner.
Yuki Ng is a Disabled performer and activist. Vanessa and Yuki became friends over Yuki’s openness about their neurodivergence. The two compare their thoughts on medical diagnosis, whether it’s necessary, and what it means to learn to accept autism through self-validation.
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AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation and positive portrayal. To learn more visit AMI.ca and AMItele.ca.
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