The Future (and the Past) of Autism Advocacy, Or Why the ASA's Magazine, The Advocate, Wouldn't Publish This Piece
Ari Ne'eman
Autistic Self-Advocacy Network
(Published in Disability Studies Quarterly, Vol 30, No 1 (2010))
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In recent years, a growing number of autistic people have begun to demand a more active role in the public policy, research, service-delivery and media discussions that impact our lives. As the national conversation about autism has increased in tone and fervor, we who are the targets of this discussion have not been consulted. To those who believe in the motto of the disability rights movement — "Nothing About Us, Without Us!" — this situation has to change. Sadly, the traditional autism community has been driven by a set of priorities different from our own. Led almost exclusively by those not on the autism spectrum, it has made harmful decisions without our input. In response, this new autistic community has behaved very differently, a fact that now manifest itself in many ways. From a growing number of self-advocate run autistic social and support groups popping up across the country to larger autistic-run and mostly autistic-attended conferences like Autreat and Autscape, self-advocacy is on the rise. In some respects, new online technologies have assisted the development of this community, as nonverbal communication and geographic distance become less relevant in the world of the Internet. In other respects, however, the rise of the autistic community has been the natural result of increased awareness and diagnosis, leading to more and more autistic adults who are ready to come together to ask, "Where do we go from here?"
Continue reading: http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/1059/1244
23 Feb 2010, 3:58 pm
