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Category Archives: Changing Perceptions

ASAN works to change public perceptions of autism and to dispel old myths and stereotypes that have led to discrimination and abuse. Other categories of articles, along with past entries sorted by date and tag, can be accessed via the sitemap.

Congress Must Stop Scapegoating People With Mental Health Disabilities

| Ianthe Dempsey
The House has voted to pass HR 1112, a bill that would close the “Charleston Loophole”, which currently enables some people who have failed criminal background checks to purchase guns. While we would like to applaud this effort to enforce existing common-sense gun laws, an unrelated amendment introduced by...

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Remarks from Julia Bascom at the DC DDOM Vigil

| Ianthe Dempsey
Thank you all for coming here today and bearing witness with us to all of the lives taken from us before their time. A theme we heard strongly at last year’s vigils, and that we have continued to hear since, is that these murders and atrocities are a reflection...

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ASAN Statement on Gun Violence Prevention Following Parkland Mass Shooting

| Ianthe Dempsey
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) joins the nation in mourning the loss of the seventeen men, women, and children who were murdered on February 14, 2017 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As in all mass shootings, these deaths were tragic, senseless, and preventable. We...

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ASAN Condemns White House Autism Proclamation

| JuliaBascom
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network strongly condemns the President’s regressive World Autism Awareness Day proclamation, and the announcement that the White House will be participating in Autism Speaks’ “Light It Up Blue” campaign. After a decade of progress in which public conversations about autism have increasingly shifted away from...

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Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, LGBT Groups Release Statement on Needs of Trans Autistic People

| Sam Crane
Today, the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and the National Center for Transgender Equality released a joint statement about the needs of transgender and gender non-conforming autistic people and launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #AutisticTransPride to highlight transgender autistic voices and leadership. Earlier...

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A voice for all: Why I’m fighting to help Autistic students access the form of communication that works best for them.

| Sam Crane
This March, I filed a complaint with the Department of Justice on behalf of five non-speaking autistic students in Arlington, VA who use letter-boards to communicate (or, as one of these students has dubbed them, the “Arlington Five”). These students are only a few of the many non-speaking autistic...

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Remarks from DDOM Founder Zoe Gross at the DC Vigil

| Ianthe Dempsey
I believe everyone should be loved. I believe everyone should be safe. I believe all our lives have value. I believe murder is wrong. I believe the dead should be mourned. I believe we should say their names. Every year I sit down to write and I think that...

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ASAN and Disability Leaders Meet with NEA on Offensive Remarks

| admin
This morning, representatives from the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the Association of University Centers on Disability and the National Center for Learning Disabilities spoke with Lily Eskelsen Garcia, President of the National Education Association, about comments made by her at the October...

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ASAN Statement on Sesame Workshop’s “See Amazing” Initiative

| Ianthe Dempsey
On October 21st, 2015, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network issued the following statement regarding Sesame Workshop’s “Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children” initiative: ASAN is proud to be a partner in Sesame Workshop’s “Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children” initiative. Over the past...

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ASAN Statement on New Jersey Assisted Suicide Bill Hearing

| admin
Despite leading disability rights organizations’ long history of opposition to legalization of assisted suicide, the New Jersey Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee held a hearing yesterday on the state’s proposed assisted suicide bill without inviting any representatives of the disability community as witnesses. People with disabilities,...

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