Whatever happened to the AFF declaration on minority status?

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Sorry I can't help you with any technical aspects. Possibly we could have a yahoo chat group amongst people interested in helping to draft such a document. I think you made a good start in 2008. We need to strike a positive note but not hide negative aspects. I find some of the comments made by Templin Grandin in the youtubes of her speeches very inspiring.

The comments we have contributed so far have been of a general nature. I also would like to see specifics. In particular the right to challenge job descriptions which call for someone with "team work skills" - an autisitic person who can prove they can do the job without such a high level of teamwork interaction such have a fair chance at getting the job. We should be supported in publicly declaring that we are autistic. People should respect us the way we are. Our right to take a break from social interactions should be respected. We should be allowed to take a tea break or lunch break alone instead of being forced to build relationships with peers and interact socially during our own breaks. No-one should label us as anti-social just because we have different social needs. No-one should label us as egotistical just because we show depth, passion and insight on our focus subjects. We should not be subjected to pressures to dress or decorate our homes according to commercialised social expectations. Instead others can learn from our down to earth and hard working ways.

Learning the rules of society is our educational right, however our own choices should be affirmed, not corrected, even if we remain out of step with the majority.

In particular we should have the full rights to choose our lives, including not marrying, or marrying without false and pretentious traditions or ceremonies or wedding rings should we choose this.

We should win the right to come out of the closet and mingle in our own communities as gays have done. Perceptions of autistics should be based on facts not media stereotypes. The facts about our condition need to come from individual autistics as we are a broad spectrum. Professionals need to update their knowledge. People running autism awareness seminars should invite autisitics in preference to inviting professionals, or in addition to inviting professionals - self advocacy should be encouraged wherever possible and we should receive the training to present all the medical/psychological and social facts to professional circles and community groups ourselves.

Autistic women should receive more support in expressing our personal tastes and interests and I am sick of conformist women wrinkling up their noses when i say i have a degree in maths. We should be protected from bitchiness. We should not be pressured to participate in girlie chat and shopping binges. Our dress choices should be praised as more liberated, less consumeristic and more "green". There should be no pressure to dumb down at work to fit the female social circle or the male expectation. There should be no adverse consequences for women declaring that we have the "extreme male brain". All ridiculous stereotypes about "unfeminine" women should be challenged and overturned. Autisitic women should be supported, by the women's movement and lesbians, as a group of women who are legitimately and proudly out of step with narrow female stereotypes.

"Co-morbidities" such as dyspraxia should be understood and catered for. Twice I have attempted to buy specially made comfortable dress shoes from stockists of these products and I have faced dismissive comments from shop assistants insisting the shoes are for older women and are unfashionable - these comments from the people who are supposed to be making money out of selling me these shoes! This just goes to show the additional pressures faced by women on the spectrum. In any case why does my dyspraxia have to be called a "co-morbidity", a "disorder", why am I seen to have an "abnormality" and to be "very superior" in maths? I am 55 and was only officially diagnosed last month and autism is the only kind of normal I have known and lived with for 55 years. We should demand the right to have our characteristics re-named by professionals using non-judgemental language.

I'm a pretty competent webmaster, it takes being in close contact with one's hosting provider but as a serious geek generally speaking I'm up to the task. It occurs to me that this may be best done by PM, but I'd be happy to help point you towards good petition sites or formats for this type of cause online, I have a pretty good head for legalese as Thelibrarian pointed out.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Am waiting to hear what others have to say

I am sure that the United Nations listens to documents drafted by obscure internet websites all the time.And I am sure as soon as they wrap up all the problems in Syria they will visit this website and consider a petition of this matter of minority status for autism.
and im sure they will park anywhere they want outside of Alexes office building because the diplomatic plates make them imune from parking tickets

Every minority group started somewhere. Between us we've got the passion and conviction to make things happen. This is an idea whose time has come.

cberg, aren't you mistaking the UN for the NSA?

Vermontsavant, if you think that the tens of thousands of people working at the UN all deal exclusively with Syria, then you're also mistaken. Read my earlier posts, please. I tried to clarify who we might need to talk to - in person, and ongoing.

Yesterday, I came across some information that Autism Speaks gave $600,000 to the WHO. Guess who they listen to?

Our best angle is to work with the UN human rights bodies - that Autism Speaks isn't targeting and that aren't (easily) swayed by money - and yes, minority status is a good "in" with them.

i did not say the UN only deals with syria.they were just a obvious example to use

I exchanged a few PMs with eucalyptus and we may have come up with something that is more realistic and more practical in the immediate term, namely writing a handbook for autism activists (whether on the spectrum or not, but with a focus on self-advocacy) who would like to get involved at the UN by attending conferences, submitting input on countries up for review in the human rights treaty bodies, and the like. This could have all sort of chapters about issues we might want to see addressed repeatedly on such occasions and could be very useful, as activists in various countries might use it as a guide on how to provide input to the UN. We can put this up as a PDF on the website of my NGO, keep updating it as need be, circulate it and link to it.

(Here's why this is the better alternative (in case my previous posts weren't clear enough): In my opinion we have two major challenges that we need to overcome before a declaration or similar document can be effective. First, any such document would need to be supported by a great number of autism (self-advocacy) organizations. Private citizens don't really have any weight at the UN, but civil society does. Civil society, in their understanding, means however NGOs and CSOs. My intention with setting up an NGO in Geneva is on the one hand to claim a space that isn't currently occupied (i.e. no autism-related NGO is active in Geneva, as far as I can tell) and on the other hand to offer a focal point for just such a coalition of self-advocacy NGOs and CSOs, be it existing ones that associate with the Geneva-NGO or local chapters of my NGO. Such a coalition of organizations would then have the backing to be taken seriously at the UN if it were to propose a "declaration" of sorts (particularly if we can also link up with other disability and/or minority organizations). The second major challenge is however to find a country that is willing to support such a declaration and introduce it in the Human Rights Council or even the General Assembly (like Autism Speaks cooperates with Qatar and Bangladesh). This will require significant research, but I may have some leads.

One challenge in writing a declaration is that it is so difficult to describe what autism actually is and the fact that it's not the same for everyone on the spectrum. Even after reading WP for months I find it hard to say even one sentence about it that someone else here would not contradict. One reason for this may be that our experiences are just so different, whether people are married or alone, diagnosed as children or adults, male or female, etc. Writing, for example, the education section of such a document would be fairly difficult because educational systems are so different from one country to the other and I for one don't have any clue what schools do today to accommodate students on the spectrum (nothing in my day). That's why UN resolutions will generally just say something along the lines of "adequate support should be provided". Any attempt at being more specific in a UN declaration might get frustrated by the UN realities. The UN's slow pace and general level of detachment is however fairly conducive to someone on the spectrum, as long as they don't expect any immediate results.

That's why I thought of a handbook/guide for activists instead, and eucalyptus seems to agree. What about you, cberg? What do others think? Who would be interested in getting involved in this?

I just think having a larger body of representation than only autistics for projects like UN panels would be good. Keeping us in the majority of the representatives would keep us in the spotlight, but perhaps my point on advocacy by proxy could include mental health professionals with the stated purpose of qualifying our statements in terms of NT convention. The UN, by & large is uninterested in surveliance but their internet presence still isn't a small one. I'd be very surprised if there weren't any UN employees with accounts here, thus I would also be very surprised if their analytics resources hadn't already pointed at us as likely applicants for minority status.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

REALITY CHECK.

there are almost 7 billion people in the world and as much as the rights and fair treatment of autistics is very important to me.there are many horrible problems in this world of great complexity.Autism is not a priority of the U.N and even the worst and most severe cases of autism are as imediatley pressing as wars,famine and extreme poverty and global climate change.

and no i doubt the UN has spies on WP unless a particular diplomat is autistic or has a child that is and would have visited WP anyway