Last week, when we focused on mass and the autism community on the blog, I mentioned the community’s motto: if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person. I also mentioned that roughly 95% of individuals with autism are impacted by sensory processing disorder, so it’s likely a very common occurrence for autistic individuals to have challenging experiences of the mass.
One of the best ways to understand and appreciate the autism community is to be immersed in the community.
This amazing video from the National Autistic Society presents one example of how sensory processing might affect and autistic person in public. Keep in mind that this is not necessarily a literal representation of how an autistic person or person with sensory processing disorder experiences the sense, but they are trying to visually and audibly recreate the feelings engendered when the mind processes, as they say, too much information, in a way that is relatable.
Watch this and imagine how an autistic person’s experience of the mass might be. Let me know what you think after your watch the video; I’d love to read your thoughts.
This additional video from the National Autistic Society is a bit longer and tries to actually recreate the experience of sensory overload for neurotypical people. I found this one more challenging to watch than the original, popular video above.
Do these experiences spark any ideas for how to support the autism community at mass? In faith formation settings? In Parish Community settings?