Ryan Roach: What has your experience been like during the pandemic?

Becca Thomas: It’s been a lot. It’s been over three months now I guess since things really got started and, you know, we started lockdown here in Illinois about mid-March. But at the beginning of March, I actually lost my grandmother to cancer. And a couple days after I got back from her funeral, that’s when we started lockdown. So it was kind of weird and a very difficult place for me to be in the midst of the panic and uncertainty that was going on, especially at the beginning of when this all started, and still be very much in grief over losing my grandmother.

But then just coming back home and having to be in more extreme isolation than I’d ever experienced, aside from my partner who I live with. So I was just very anxious and depressed, and all of the news that I was trying to keep up with was very overwhelming. In addition, before the pandemic started, I had already been unemployed for almost six months, spending most of my time at home looking for jobs and everything. But still, my period of isolation has felt very intense, which is something that Autistic people deal with already in our day-to-day lives. It’s something that is talked about a lot in the Autistic community. But there was this, I guess I don’t know if it’s like a “silver lining” or what to call it. But when the pandemic started – as terrible as everything that was happening is, and people were becoming, you know, unemployed in massive numbers and everyone was all of a sudden isolated – I started to feel actually less shame about being unemployed and about spending so much time in isolation. Because all of a sudden it wasn’t just me, it was all of my peers and most of everyone I know, and everyone on social media was going through something similar that I had already been going through. Whereas before it was just me and other people in the disability and Autistic community who were talking about these things. All of a sudden everyone’s extremely aware of this situation of being unemployed, which is terrible, you know, this massive unemployment, like, it really is a crisis. But at the same time, there was this feeling that this is how we’ve been living, this is how a lot of people who are disabled or who are Autistic or neurodivergent already spend our lives.

So that was something I really felt at the beginning. And since then, I think it’s been hard because as isolated as I was before, it’s just more extreme now, and I think that’s something a lot of people are going through. And in isolation, all of those issues you may have already had with mental illness, which I also have, gets worse a lot of times. It gets worse when you don’t have community. And at the same time, when your only community is this feed of other people’s pain and anxiety that’s being fueled on social media, which is a lot of people’s only connection, that is very overwhelming as an Autistic person. Some Autistic people have low empathy and some have hyper empathy. I’m more on the hyper empathy side of the spectrum, so I really feel this immense wave of anxiety and grief. Just like, all of these feelings that are very intense surrounding the pandemic and everything else that’s happening currently in the country. So, while social media and staying in contact with people is one of my only lifelines, it’s also something that I have to periodically step away from because it just bears down on you. So yeah, that’s something I think that is also especially unique maybe to being Autistic and to this online community.

RR: I know you had mentioned in our email conversations that the media is using the opening of the economy and society for people’s mental health, but without really considering what mental health means. Can you expand a little bit on that topic?

BT: I feel like it’s really ironic. Because it’s mostly conservative media sources or media pundits that sort of use mental health as a talking point – as a defense or reason to reopen the economy – without considering that, first of all, this is a very complex issue, and it can’t be reduced to something as simple as, “Reopen the economy for people’s mental health.” Even reopening the economy, it’s going to be a long road to get things back to where they were. And even if everyone who lost their job somehow magically got their job again, which is not going to happen in any time, there would still be, like, a massive mental health issue.

And they’re not talking about anything that’s actually going to help mental health resources. They’re not talking about supplying funding or creating sort of special task forces to target the mental health crisis that they love to talk about as an excuse to reopen. Besides that, how do you think people with disabilities are faring in this, during this time, when they’re at higher risk of dying right now in the pandemic? That in itself is going to wear on your mental health, like, being worried about whether or not you’re going to survive. Being unemployed and unable to afford to buy groceries is going to severely impact people’s mental health. And if they actually cared about mental health, they would be fighting for resources that would help people right now instead of using it as a flimsy excuse. Furthermore, the death of a family member is one of the biggest risk factors for suicide. And people are losing family members who have tragically lost their lives to this pandemic. The death toll is astronomical already and rising every day. Those people who are passing away have families. And it’s not just an isolated thing. Like, those people are grieving and that cannot be taken lightly. And in the midst of all this, the majority of the population has had little to no support from the government and from the administration and from the people who are claiming that the economy will somehow fix all of these issues.

RR: During the pandemic, the government and media have deemed the chronically ill, disabled, and immunocompromised communities as “vulnerable.” What are your thoughts on the terminology of “vulnerable”?

BT: I think the connotation and the way that they use it is almost as if that these people are inevitably going to die. Like it’s an inevitable loss and not something that can be preventable. And that these people need more support instead of deeming them as “vulnerable.” That they are high risk and, therefore, they need higher support instead of just sort of casually painting it as if this is an inevitable loss. They almost go so far as to say that they’re sacrifices that these people should make in order for the benefit of everyone else. That people should be willing to give their lives for the economy. I think that is really a sick and twisted sort of mindset, you know? Painting these people as less than human and as not deserving of life really is what they’re saying.

RR: Moving forward, how would you like to see the government and society start responding to the COVID-19 pandemic?

BT: I think that there are so many things we’ve learned from watching other countries and the way that they’ve responded to the pandemic. And that there has not still been a concentrated effort nationally to do contact tracing, to actually use the methods that have been shown in other countries to reduce the spread and risk of coronavirus in communities. Secondly, there has been no significant financial support for the majority of people in this country: For working-class people, for unemployed, for poor people. Like, corporations got billions of dollars. A second bill 55 has been up for discussion in Congress and they’re not even going to vote on it until they come back from a two week recess. So while our congressmen are on vacation or whatever, you know, sitting at home, life saving money that can support people financially today is being held from the majority of the population. So I think there’s an endless number of ways that people can be supported more directly by the government now that we have yet to see and that should be done in the future in a meaningful way.

RR: During the pandemic, society has been able to accommodate the general public with accommodations, like work from home, that have been asked for previously by the disabled, chronically ill, immunocompromised, and neurodiverse communities, yet these communities were typically denied. Why do you think society has been able to accommodate the general public when before they denied these accommodations?

BT: I think it’s really clear that people who are not disabled and people who are neurotypical, as soon as it affects them, as soon as it affects the majority of the population, they can make these changes. Not only can they make these huge structural changes in how they operate their workplace or the classroom, but they were able to do remote learning or work from home in record time. And, you know, disability advocates have been advocating for this for decades – for these sorts of accommodations – so that we can work in a way that is actually accommodating us and is not destroying our health in the process.

The fact that these changes could be made so quickly means all the years that they made excuses about how it was against their policy or how it wasn’t possible with their resources, all of the sort of thinly veiled excuses they gave as a reason to not give these accommodations, those were all lies. It’s clearly possible, and it was possible in such a mass effort in such a short amount of time that it’s really offensive to those of us who those things would benefit. And the fact that they did this, I hope, is more leverage for people who need those accommodations to say, “You have made these accommodations in the pandemic so we know that you can make them now and in the future.” And that people don’t go back to denying those to people who need them.

RR: In addition to the pandemic, the United States has experienced uprisings across the country in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police. Uprisings in physical spaces are not always accessible to all folx. Have you been involved at all with the uprisings over the past few months and, if so, what has that looked like for you?

BT: So far, there have been a lot of protests in Chicago, and I was able to attend one protest that was organized by the Chicago chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement. I would say that, for me personally with what’s in my reach, I think that I am able to go protests. And because it’s within my reach, I make certain considerations. I feel especially as a white person I need to show my support, and not just through protests but through other means as well. I was able to go protest in part because other Autistic people online sort of shared how they coped with going to protests. I wore earplugs, I made sure to bring plenty of supplies which is necessary for anyone protesting – water, snacks, first aid kit – making sure you’re prepared. Wearing comfortable clothes – clothing that wasn’t gonna exacerbate any sort of sensory overwhelm. And then I didn’t carry a sign because I knew it would make me more fatigued and I was fine you know, participating by using my voice and just being there. Also, I had my partner there with me, who is able to support me in case I have a meltdown or something were to happen. So I think for me personally, I go to music concerts and things and I risk having a meltdown and I’ve had meltdowns at shows because of the overwhelm. But if I’m willing to do that for something that I enjoy like going to shows, I’m also willing to put myself out there to go protests.