Mel Baggs

Mel Baggs (born Amanda Melissa Baggs; August 15, 1980 – April 11, 2020) was an American non-binary writer and disability rights advocate with a focus on developmental disability self-advocacy. They are most well-known for their blog posts and YouTube videos about autism, although they wrote about a variety of disability experiences and disliked being thought of as an "autism blog[ger]". Baggs described themselves as "cognitively disabled, physically disabled, chronically ill, developmentally disabled, and psychiatrically disabled". As an adult, they did not speak and used a communication device.