2010

Reflections on Autistics Speaking Day

An essay by Ari Ne’eman. With a puzzle piece, a ribbon, a donation, or a Facebook or Twitter app, an average citizen does their duty, checks the autism box on their charitable instincts and moves on, never having to talk to, experience, work, live, learn with or otherwise acknowledge those Autistics they pass by every day.

Read More »

CNN Newsroom Interview

ASAN President Ari Ne’eman appeared as a guest on CNN Newsroom to discuss his appointment to the National Council on Disability. Read the transcript by clicking…

Read More »

Salt Lake Tribune Article

ASAN’s Dora Raymaker discussed the importance of relationships and the mutual effort needed for understanding of differences and respectful communication.

Read More »

Wired.com Interview

ASAN President Ari Ne’eman gave an exclusive interview to Wired.com editor Steve Silberman about the shift in the national dialogue on autism toward issues of civil rights,…

Read More »

Big Trucks and the Work that Needs Doing

An essay by Mark Stairwalt. Years ago, before the coming of the cell phone, I was the driver of a Freightliner FLD 120, an imposing, long-nosed boat of a semi tractor that crisscrossed the United States and parts of Canada with a 53-foot trailer in tow. Never mind that as a driver of a commercial vehicle one ends up memorizing the locations of countless truckstops, customers, scale houses, steep grades, and unlikely parking spots; what was truly impressive back then was that drivers would end up cataloging the locations of every accessible payphone along every route in every state we frequented.

Read More »

Joint Letter on Cross-Disability Representation in Designating Medically Underserved Populations

People with Disabilities Are Medically Underserved: We need to assure adequate numbers of primary care providers are trained to treat the population of people with disabilities; people with disabilities from across the disability community have access to adequate primary care; and funding is available for research and programs to end the health disparities people with disabilities face.

Read More »

A true story and a little lesson about functioning level

An essay by Larry Arnold. Functioning levels are a discourse of intellectual impairments not physical ones, created out of older distinctions, wrapped up in Greek words to look respectable, words like “imbecile” “moron” “idiot” — “low grades” and “high grades” the categories of the institutions used to sort out who could do useful work in the laundry and who could not.

Read More »

Comments at April 30, 2010 IACC Meeting

Those researchers who work in close consultation with, and call on the expertise of, those of us living on the autism spectrum, in areas of development, interpretation, implementation, and evaluation, are the researchers who will be most likely to make advances that will directly impact the lives of autistic people in a positive way.

Read More »

Secretary Sebelius Appoints ASAN President Ari Ne’eman to IACC

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network applauds HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ appointment of ASAN President Ari Ne’eman to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a Federal advisory committee that coordinates all efforts within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concerning autism.

Read More »