Monique Blakemore

At a national CEO meeting this week, I was asked to apologise.

Let me be clear: it disappoints me—deeply—when we should be working together, and instead I’m sitting at a table listening to ableist narratives… from within our own community.

So yes, I interrupted. And I called it out.

Why? Because those of us in the room—me, them—we hold enormous privilege. With that privilege comes a responsibility. When we encounter systems, language, or moments that create friction between Autistic and neurotypical ways of communicating, it is not just an opportunity—it is a duty—to call it out. To exploit that friction. To use it as a gap that can be filled with learning, with progress, with new ways of doing things.

That’s what I and A4 are doing. And we’re asking for sector-led support. Because this isn’t just about us—it’s about the people who don’t yet have the privilege to sit in those rooms, speak on those panels, or shape the policies that define our futures.

When we disrupt—when we refuse to quietly go along with the status quo—we help clear a path for those who have been systematically excluded to come alongside us. And that path needs clearing. Desperately.

Why? Because autism-specific policy is being diluted under broader ND umbrellas. Because we still lack robust, diverse representation across the spectrum. And because silence or "politeness" in the face of ableism only reinforces exclusion.

I might have some respect for my “peer” if they’d chosen to engage with the content of what I was saying. But they didn’t. They made it about the interruption. (By the way, it seemed like a genuine pause—they’d stopped talking. That’s when I stepped in.)

Yes, I apologised. With all the performative sincerity I could muster. “Very, very sorry. Ever so naughty.”
No, I’m not sorry. Not even a little.

Because accepting “how things are done”—when “how things are done” includes discrimination against Autistic traits—is not acceptable. And I won’t be schooled into accepting it.

I will always interrupt narratives that try to tell me I should.