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November 2009

Reverse Van Winkle

An essay by Mark Stairwalt. For all that I’m still learning something new every week about what’s been happening with autism in society over the last decade or so, that fact itself provides me with a perspective that is likely unique from that of just about anyone else writing on the subject. Until a few months ago when I went out looking again, my picture of this world I’m writing about now was frozen in time, hardly updated at all since about 1999.

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November 27, 2009

Bringing Neurodiversity into the Classroom

An essay by Stephanie Allen Crist. A little boy steps off the bus, confused by his unexpected surroundings. This year—the year he starts kindergarten—the bus stops at the backdoor of a new school, instead of the front entrance of his neighborhood school, after a much longer bus ride. Maybe he knows he’s being ushered into this new school through the backdoor, maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he even knows the classroom he enters is segregated from his peers.

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November 17, 2009

Stirring Up Action: The Winds of Disability

An essay by Elesia Ashkenazy. Media plays a colossal role in shaping public perception. Unfortunately, disability in the media is often centered around fear and pity, or treated with benevolence and do-goodery. Well-intentioned or not, such messages are adverse, ruinous, and useless in raising and shaping effective and positive mass consciousness.

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November 11, 2009

Comments at November 10, 2009 IACC Meeting

The use of the term, and concept of “severity,” is questionable for several reasons. First, “severity” is often contextual, over both time and other things like situation and location. What is being looked at when using the “severity” criterion is how “observable” the autistic characteristic is. Whether or not a characteristic is observable and to what degree does not necessarily correlate with other aspects of the person. Again, the focus needs to be on improving the quality of life and not on reducing autistic traits.

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November 10, 2009

New York Times Article

A report on the proposed changes to the diagnostic criteria for autism and the deletion of the Asperger’s Syndrome diagnostic category included an interview with ASAN President…

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November 3, 2009

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