I Wish the Whole World Had Interaction Badges

Kassiane Sibley
timetolisten.blogspot.com

I wish the whole world had interaction badges.

Autreat is known for being Autistic space. The red/green/yellow badges that attendees use to indicate how much interaction they're up for and with whom are the most well known, not to mention concrete, examples of how that Autistic space works.

The badges are a little different from the name tags, in that they are not required, and not wearing one has a meaning that isn't taken to be "I forgot it because I am in a strange place." But I'll get to that in a minute. Right now I'm writing about the interaction badges because they are a symbol to me of a society that is set up for people very like me.

To explain the badges more thoroughly:

Wearing a red one means "do not initiate interaction with me." It does not mean "I wish to be ignored if I initiate with you," although just not interacting with someone is always, always an option.

A yellow badge means "Only initiate interaction with me if I already know you." This can be a bit vague because knowing someone comes at a different point for different people, and the people one wishes to interact with may change frequently. Some people explicitly give people yellow-badge permission. A few times I was on yellow yet I still had to tell acquaintances that I just could not talk to them right then, it was too much -- and my sets of people I wished to interact with did change depending on why I am was that badge.

Green means "I would like to interact, but I struggle with initiating. Talk to me!" It does not just mean "I will talk to you." It is explicitly asking for a bit of help with a common Autistic difficulty with social approach.

No badge means "I can initiate, or you can initiate, I'm up for interacting with you." So it's basically saying you can or will do the things generally expected out here in non-Autisticland.

Sometimes people modify their badges to give more social information. I wore a little sign all week that said "I <3 hugs! But please ask first!," for example. I do, in fact, love hugs. There is also no good way I've discovered to ask people I've not known a very long time for a squish. Putting it in writing and wearing it started the process without there being any chance of a failed hug attempt.

I did not realize before Autreat how much social anxiety I actually have. I do have friends. I enjoy my friends. I even enjoy meeting new people sometimes. I do suck with approach, however, and I did not realize how much that can cause distress until it was a non-issue. Not having to worry about it meant I did not have to worry about it since it was already, essentially, taken care of.

The whole world cannot at this time have interaction badges, but they are one thing I am taking home and modifying for home use. Without this particular experience, I'd never have known for sure that the majority of my anxiety is environmentally based, nor would I have known that a few pieces of construction paper can reduce it fairly substantially -- that the problem isn't necessarily me, but the environment not fitting me.

Environmental modification ideas are just one of the things I brought back from Autreat. They're certainly the most tangible, but probably nowhere near the most important.