In our February meeting on Neurodiversity & Trauma, some attendees shared personal information, that later, they did not feel comfortable with this being public. Out of concern for their feelings, we will not be posting our recording of that meeting.
We feel that our Square Peg Society meetings contain lots of information that is relevant to our autistic adults and their families. We want to share this information as broadly as possible with people who may not be able to attend a meeting in the middle of the workday. For this reason, we record our meetings, if our speaker permits us to do so, for later posting on our YouTube channel. Recording also creates the opportunity for us to engage people who might be new to Square Peg Society.
Our meetings, and the recordings of them, are public platforms, and we would like to be completely clear about this to our audience. However, we appreciate that each autistic person and their families are in different places in their autistic journeys. We would love for everyone to be able to openly speak about their neurodivergency, with confidence in their own value and strengths, and without fear of being stigmatized, or “othered” in their communities and workplaces. Nevertheless, we know that many of you have been traumatized by past experiences and do not trust that you will be received with this degree of acceptance. So, at the start of each meeting, we will let attendees know if we will be recording that meeting. We will not share any contact info, without permission, of anyone attending a meeting. Though we would love to see your faces, and hear your comments at our meetings, we absolutely acknowledge that it is your choice as to whether or not you have your camera on, how you identify yourself, and whether you use the chat function, rather than your microphone.
By contrast, none of our online conversation groups – our autistic adults’ and our autistic women’s conversation groups, our parents’ social & support group, and our movie night chat group are recorded. These groups are intended to provide a protected space for people to share thoughts and experiences, to relax, “unmask”, and to have fun! None of these events are recorded, and the conversations that take place are meant to be held in trust and limited to the people attending the group.
I hope that this clarifies our recording policy, and provides an opportunity for you to reflect on how you engage with online events – ours and others! For further thinking on privacy, see this article: What does Privacy Mean to You?
