The Labels We Bear: Addressing Limits and Finding Empowerment with the Label of Autism

Originally posted on DotCom Therapy 2017

The word?label?stems from a Germanic term similar to that of ribbon, or to be more precise, a narrow strip. Although the connotations have changed and usage has expanded, labeling something or someone continues to restrict that entity to a narrow strip of understanding.

That is, of course, if we let it.

Heidi Lieb-Williams, a creative entrepreneur living in Alaska, was labeled a lot of things as a child, teenager, and young adult. As labels do, they came from a place of misunderstanding from teachers, peers, and Heidi herself:

Weird, slow, stupid, developmentally delayed. Failure.

For the first thirty-five years of Heidi’s life, she tried to fight the labels thrown her way and figure out?the right label. She laments that those around her "couldn’t find a box to put [her] in” as she didn’t fit any specific label that professionally or informally tried to diagnose her.

When teachers established that she couldn’t understand the content of the classes, she was professionally labeled: Cognitively impaired.

Bearing?that?label and being restricted to?that?diagnosis frustrated Heidi. She knew she wasn’t dumb and she knew she was capable, but she recalls specific moments where, even though she followed the societal rules given to her, she was not able to fit in. Things that were so easy for others, making friends, learning, simple tasks, multi-tasking, were all great challenges for Heidi.

Heidi worked to figure out what she was doing wrong, and finally, when Heidi was thirty-five, she was given the label that truly began to define her: Autistic.

For Heidi, this was the label?she?needed; the label of Autism "helps [her] understand the holes in [her] understanding” and it helps her focus and expand on her abilities rather than narrow herself based on her disabilities.

Wearing her new label proudly, Heidi shifted all the things she?couldn’t?do into all the things she?could?do, with the list still growing:

She is creative, so she started a business to sell beautiful, hand-made, one-of-a-kind items. She is focused and deeply passionate, so she writes scripts and acts.

She is a project person, so she takes on one task at a time to complete with intention.

Heidi recognizes that her label is the help she needed because she can see beyond the restrictions, but she also recognizes and works to change the limitations placed on her?because?of her label. When people hear the word Autism, they narrow the abilities of that person, thus narrowing their understanding and their ability to accept.

With her business,?Puzzled With Purpose, Heidi hopes others will do away with their narrow and restrictive understanding of those with Autism. Her company is not only a platform on which she stands to share her own experience with Autism, but it is also a way for her to advocate for the Autistic community and remind others that with that label comes a contribution of so many unique skills and talents.

Heidi wants to change people’s perceptions and actively works towards more acceptance and love. She speaks publicly about Autism to allow others to learn more about the diagnosis. She promotes her business and continues to craft quality items to share with others her talents and tremendous abilities. She is in the process of writing a children’s book about Autism to further expand the label and promote acceptance and understanding.

For Heidi, the Germanic connotation of?label?is just a simple misinterpretation. Instead of being synonymous with a narrow strip, we should all work to allow a label to become an ongoing, fluid ribbon of personality and character and talent, and diversity. In this sense, we have the power to expand our labels and empower ourselves and our community through acceptance and tolerance.

And, in the meantime, perhaps we can just work to refocus all labels to truly capture?abilities, not disabilities.

Discarding labels that set us back and owning labels that lift us up is the first step and the one in which Heidi is proud to be labeled: focused, creative, determined, and passionate.?Autistic.?

An updated bio (from wfwp)

Heidi Lieb-Williams is currently the Chair of Alaska’s Governor’s Council for Disabilities and Special Education and GCDSE Executive committee. She serves as a member of the Intellectual/Developmental Disability & Mental Health (IDD-MH) Advisory Council, and the Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP). She sits on the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD) Leadership Circle and is the 2020 NACDD Betty Williams Champion of Equality Award recipient. She helped craft the 2019 Autism Proclamation for Alaska and the 2020 Anchorage Autism Proclamation. She has been a lifelong advocate for individuals with disabilities, especially working to empower other self-advocates with autism. Heidi was a strong advocate in the passage of the Supported Decision-Making Agreement Act in Alaska, spoke on Alaska’s capitol steps with the Key Campaign, advocated as an Autism Speaks Advocacy Ambassador on capitol hill day to our U.S. Senators and House of Representatives, and is currently involved in helping change laws in Alaska concerning people with disabilities, bringing her important lived experience as both an individual with disabilities and a parent of children with disabilities.

Ms. Lieb-Williams is a mom of a son and a daughter and a Grammie to grandsons almost 6 and 4 years old and a 6-month-old granddaughter. Heidi owns her own business, Puzzled with Purpose--Autistically Inspired Creations, which helps other Autistic individuals work on crafting, sewing, job, entrepreneurial, communication, social, and advocacy skills and her creations are in 19 different countries that she is aware of. She is a national autistic speaker/advocate who has presented at Ocalicon Autism Conference, Alaska State Special Education Conference, the Stone Soup Parent Conference, Full Lives Conference for DSP’s, Alaska Autism Society Conference, Disability Pride celebrations, and numerous other events including radio and television appearances. She has developed special needs and drama ministries within churches as well as spoken at church retreats and is currently working on an Autism children’s book, a disability devotional book, and creating autism films and disability documentaries. She is an artist who paints, draws, quilts, sews, and knits who founded Shining Abilities Craft Fair featuring artists with disabilities.

She was honored to be voted the 2018 Miss Amazing People’s Choice Award, crowned 2019 Alaska State Fair Duchess, 2020/2021 National Heart of America Elite Miss Alaska, and is currently the 2022 Elite Ms. National Heart of America. She successfully advocated the creation of ‘Possibility Day’ for the Alaska State Fair special needs community. Heidi is also the recipient of the 2018 Arc of Anchorage Community Award, 2019 Alaska State Fair Community Service Medal, and now the recipient of the 2022 HerStory Award through the Women’s Federation for World Peace.

Ms. Leib-Williams continually champions opportunities to help others including building up new leaders and advocates to make a difference on their journey, being exactly who they are and growing to who they can become offering their gifts and talents to share with others.