The movie follows a girl named Music (Ziegler), a nonverbal autistic teen who uses augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). “And second, because all kinds of autistic people use social media — nonspeaking autistic people, autistic people with intellectual disabilities, autistic people who can’t live independently and need support with daily tasks — and many of them did speak out about finding Sia’s film offensive and her comments about autistic people insulting.”Disability advocates and autistic people also expressed annoyance over this particular comment as well. Gross calls Sia’s decision to ignore the voices of nonspeaking autistic people “very strange.” “She first defended the film by saying that nonspeaking autistic people cannot work as performers,” Gross said. “And now she is defending it by saying that nonspeaking autistic people cannot use social media. Neither of these things are true, and both of them are very odd statements to make when discussing a project that she claims is meant to empower nonspeaking autistic people.”Important conversations are happening now.

Source: Huffington Post December 23, 2020 23:48 UTC