High Needs Autistic Advocates.

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From my own interpretation, this has nothing to do with any diagnosed autistic's IQ or achievements.

This is something to do with support needs, related and relative to community and accessibility.
LFA doesn't necessarily mean high support -- HFA doesn't necessarily mean low support.


If high support means '24-hour supervision and assistance in every adaptive daily living skills' yet doesn't need to take meds, is healthy and from a stable and safe environment...

No psychiatric issues or behavioral aggressions, even if it's so developmentally delayed, all they need is a carer -- not something complex.

No different from a well cared person with intellectual disability living their lives within their existence and capacity, really.

While they need help, don't need to be advocated by a group consisting of someone else other than those who are already providing them to begin with...
Because they already have access and community.


... What about those, regardless of achievement and abilities whether as a consequence of accomodations or lack of thereof, who are in need of therapy, in need of safe space or community, requires several hospital visits, and has no safety nets that the former has?

One doesn't need to have an IQ below 70 to have serious mental illness.
One doesn't need to be LFA to be born or trapped in a system that they didn't chose to be in or are largely inaccessible for them to have accomodations.

Identity, disorder, functioning levels -- it's irrelevant.

If anything, anyone privileged enough to be able to access doesn't need help from this form of advocacy, except as a way point of access and support for others who are in need of this particular advocacy.


So most advocates are not beneficiaries themselves like how self-advocacy does.
Potentially, everyone can be an advocate for high needs autism, benefiting high needs autistics.

But I don't think the dynamic of this advocacy doesn't have to be like those advocacies of 'profound autism' towards 'profound autistics' for obvious reasons.

While low support needs autism advocacy is more to do with fighting stigmas and dehumanization yet becoming sideways into labels and terms, 'profound autism' advocacy is more about preventing and curing autism yet consequently perpetuating stigmas implying that autistics are unwanted...

I think high support needs advocacy has more choices.
They're not fighting for identities and labels, they're not here to tell the world they're unwanted either when that's the part of their own problems.

We at HNAA aim to give voice and assist higher needs autistic people in advocating themselves. We are tired of people speaking over us. Our goal is to promote awareness of Level 2s/3s and their experiences and desires. And help put an end to the excessive amount of ableism and abuse we experience as Level 2/3s. But this movement isn't just about Level 2s/3s it also wants to stop people from trying to say autism isn't a disability or opting it as some new fangled identity. We want to promote the understanding and support of all autistics, so they can live better happier lives. The best way we can think of to do that is to give voices to those who struggle to communicate. the basic idea is to have a central structure of higher needs autistic people then have an outer structure of allies who help advocate for us. But just because you aren't level 2/3 doesn't mean you are excluded from discussion either. Our goal is to give those who struggle to be heard a platform to speak. To raise awareness and combat misinformation. To spread awareness of what life is really like as a higher needs autistic individual. Right now we are small but the hope is we can grow into a large organization that helps higher needs autistic people be heard around the globe. But as high needs autistic people we are very limited, Which is where the allies come in. It's your job to help advocate for our ideas and help get them out there. This does not mean speaking for us But amplifying our voices. and Helping us advocate for ourselves when we don't have the energy too. The goal is to ultimately bring people together everyone affected by autism by raising those who are less able up to a place where they can meet people on even ground. To promote unity. Our vision is to have a place where all people affected by autism whether you are a Level 2/3 a Level 1 a caregiver a professional can exist in harmony without division.

our reddit
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This is great thing to do, and is very necessary.

In the UK, there is an emphasis in the health service on co-production and getting ideas from people with lived experience. The problem is that, when it comes to Autism, such groups are populated by higher functioning Autistics. This is because, like you said, other Autistics cannot self-advocate like this. As a result, these Autism co-productions don’t encapsulate the full range of Autistic experience.

I think it’s great, too, to raise awareness of Autism as a disability. Again, in the U.K, I have heard the health service promote Autism as just a difference. But this narrative concerns me in terms of securing funding to meet Autistic people’s needs.

And as I said earlier I completely agree Level 2's are an ignored group. It would not surprise me if the vast majority of level 2's are misdiagnosed as level 1's or level 3's. Being a 65-year-old autistic I know what is like to be part of an ignored group.

We at HNAA aim to give voice and assist higher needs autistic people in advocating themselves. We are tired of people speaking over us. Our goal is to promote awareness of Level 2s/3s and their experiences and desires. And help put an end to the excessive amount of ableism and abuse we experience as Level 2/3s. But this movement isn't just about Level 2s/3s it also wants to stop people from trying to say autism isn't a disability or opting it as some new fangled identity. We want to promote the understanding and support of all autistics, so they can live better happier lives. The best way we can think of to do that is to give voices to those who struggle to communicate. the basic idea is to have a central structure of higher needs autistic people then have an outer structure of allies who help advocate for us. But just because you aren't level 2/3 doesn't mean you are excluded from discussion either. Our goal is to give those who struggle to be heard a platform to speak. To raise awareness and combat misinformation. To spread awareness of what life is really like as a higher needs autistic individual. Right now we are small but the hope is we can grow into a large organization that helps higher needs autistic people be heard around the globe. But as high needs autistic people we are very limited, Which is where the allies come in. It's your job to help advocate for our ideas and help get them out there. This does not mean speaking for us But amplifying our voices. and Helping us advocate for ourselves when we don't have the energy too. The goal is to ultimately bring people together everyone affected by autism by raising those who are less able up to a place where they can meet people on even ground. To promote unity. Our vision is to have a place where all people affected by autism whether you are a Level 2/3 a Level 1 a caregiver a professional can exist in harmony without division.

our reddit
our discord

You seem to miss understand what HFA means, it just means you don’t have an IQ>70 that’s all it means as such what you are saying makes no sense but even if it did mean what you did think it means as a stand in for stereotypical Asperger’s syndrome it still wouldn’t make sense aspies are in no way harder to support they are easier to support. They aren’t more elusive to support either. All though if you have a developmental disability that everyone notices on sight it’s a lot more noticeable and more likely to be picked up on. I also don’t see how this is remotely relevant as stated our purpose is to spread awareness to the issues level 2/3 people face. Level 1s aren’t our concern there are dozens of organizations that are level 1s advocating for themselves but are Zero for more severely autistic people. In what way are support levels confusing or discouraging towards level 1s. Also by definition of HFa being so horribly defined levels are more relevant to HfA than normal autism cause of how damaging it could be to label a severely autistic person high functioning because people aren’t going to be prepared to meet their support needs. Like no most of what you say is just wrong?

If a self advocate starts advocating for another case other than themselves, it's no longer self advocacy.

And those who cannot actually advocate for themselves cannot be a self-advocate.

Fair point re: Level 1 folk, my issue is Level 2/3 folk can't self-advocate.

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There's to advocate and it's about their family and how that changes them because of the difference in one family member; good or bad as a collective and not simply singling out the different one out...

And then there's to advocate that autistics aren't worth fighting and they should be eliminated because they desired a 'normal child and normal family'.


You know the history of these things, yes?

Yes I know the history, and I also know that when (in future) it becomes possible to do prenatal testing or gene selection then autism will cease to exist as people will opt to terminate an embryo carrying "faulty" genes.

Fair point re: Level 1 folk, my issue is Level 2/3 folk can't self-advocate.

Not sure the relevance of abortion or future prenatal testing in advocating for those already here. Unless its in the context of anti abortion which is a wider separate subject.