The Autistic Community's Gatherings: Autreat & Autscape

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The Autistic Community's Annual Gatherings: Autreat & Autscape
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Every year, the autistic community holds two main gatherings: Autreat in the United States and Autscape in the United Kingdom. Both gatherings are organized by groups of autistic volunteers, who organize these gatherings for the benefit of the autistic community.

Both Autreat and Autscape are attended by people from all over the autism spectrum, including autistics who speak and autistics who do not speak; autistics who communicate fluently and autistics who have limited communication; autistics who live independently and autistics who need intensive support with daily living; autistics who have jobs and autistics who live on disability benefits; autistics who are able to present as "socially acceptable" and autistics who require support to help them manage their behavior. Both gatherings are attended by people from many different countries, such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

Every Autreat and every Autscape is based around a theme, such as Celebrating Autistic Culture, Living Life the Autly Way, Building the Autistic Community etc.
Both gatherings offer presentations on topics such as Autistic Social Networking, Information Technology and the Autistic Culture, Neurodiversity and the Autistic Community, Being Autistic Together, Autism and Relationships, Sharing Our Worlds, Autism and Emotions, Advocacy for the Autistic Self-Advocate Community, Educating and Empowering Non-autistic Allies, Transforming Public Perceptions of Autism, Collaborating for Action, Informing People About Your Diagnosis, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Self Employment, Artistic Autistics, Vacations for Autistic People, etc.

In addition, both Autreat and Autscape offer some leisure activities and plenty of time to socialize with other autistics. Some of us attend them less for the presentations and more for the leisure and for the atmosphere.

Autreat is the older of these two gatherings, with the first Autreat taking place in upstate New York in 1996 and continuing to take place every year since then, in various locations around New York and Pennsylvania.
Inspired by Autreat, the first Autscape took place in Somerset in 2005 and has been taking place every year since then, in various locations around England.

Autreat 2010 will take place from June 28 to July 2 in Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Autscape 2010 will take place from 10th of August to 13th of August in England.

Autreat's website: http://www.autreat.com/
Autreat's information mailing list: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/autreatinfo/

Autscape's website: http://www.autscape.org/ (includes links to Autscape's mailing lists).

I have tought about attending autreat for years, and this year i might really do it. Maybe for one day. Has anyone here ever been to one? is anyone planning on going this year? I would love feedback from people who have experienced it.

I've been to Autreat 2007 and to Autreat 2008. It was a very good experience and I recommend it to everybody. I'm too lazy for going this year (I crossed the Atlantic for Autreat 2007 and for Autreat 2008. I'm too tired this year to cross it again).

If you have specific questions, go ahead and ask them on this thread. In addition, you are invited to join Autreat's information mailing list, on which you can chat with various people who attend Autreat every year: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/autreatinfo/

I am curious. Do any of you know how many presenters are at a typical Autreat?

At Autreat 2009, there were 9 presenters. At Autreat 2008, there were 10 presenters. At Autreat 2007, there were 19 presenters, because some presentations had about 4 presenters each. At Autreat 2006, there were 9 presenters, plus a panel of presenters from 'Speaking For Ourselves'. At Autreat 2005, there were 11 presenters.
The information is taken from the 'Autreat Past Workshops' page:
http://www.autreat.com/past-workshops.htm

I am hoping this first time experience of autscape will open doors to me. First I need to make friends onlime on this site.

Are you going this year?

Yes.