Imagining Futures into Being with AutScape

Blessed Are the Binary Breakers

First Laura Sommer and then Rowan share their experiences at AutScape, an annual meeting of autistic folk of all ages in England. Both discuss how AutScape has given them glimpses of what it would be like to live in a world where autistic culture is celebrated, diverse communication styles and sensory needs are accommodated, and special interests received with joy.

Be sure to check out ⁠Laura's Autistic Liberation Theology podcast⁠ for a companion episode that centers around this question: how can various marginalized groups resist the world's assumptions that we have no place in any positive future — be it the immediate future, the speculative futures of science fiction, or the Kin(g)dom of heaven?

⁠Click here for an episode transcript⁠!

Talking Points:

• (0:00) Introducing AutScape and the need to imagine futures for ourselves that the world claims we don’t fit into
• (4:38) Laura’s AutScape experiences — a glimpse of what socializing & community could be like an an autistic-centered world
• (11:15) Prophetic promises and “making a way out of no way”
• (13:00) Introducing Rowan; gently ribbing neurotypicals
• (17:50) How AutScape helped Rowan embrace the autistic identity; AutScape as a space to try out new things
• (28:12) Communication badges; universal design; wrapping up

This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn. This episode also made use of "At Home," "Sunrise, St. Chapelle," and "Closing Time" by John Hamilton, with permission.