Join us for this year’s virtual gala on Thursday, October 30th, featuring an evening of panels, celebration, and community. This year’s theme is The State of Autistic Advocacy: Then, Now, and Beyond — celebrating and learning from our past work, evaluating the current state of the movement, and looking forward with hope and determination.
This will be our sixth virtual gala, and we’re so excited that having it online means more people can join in — we hope you’ll be among them! Everyone’s welcome. We’re thrilled to share the gala with disability community members and allies from across the country and around the world, who traditionally wouldn’t be able to attend in-person. We ask that our gala attendees donate if they are able to do so, but donations are never required to attend.
Everyone’s welcome. Let’s celebrate self-advocacy for all and keep working to make our community better for all of us.
For more information about gala sponsorship opportunities, contact Skyler Love at [email protected].
Schedule
Grab a 2025 ASAN Gala program here!
Panels
Historical Approaches for Self Advocates – 3:00 to 4:30 PM ET
Our self advocacy movement does not exist on its own. It is a living creation put together piece by piece through the work of advocates throughout history. This panel will examine our past, how we got here, and how we can continue to build on the movements that got us here. We will discuss hard learned lessons and how we can apply them to avoid future road blocks to build a future that has a place for all of us.
Building Community Power – 5:00 to 6:30 PM ET
Unprecedented times call for unprecedented solutions! This panel will spend time speaking with grassroots advocates about the power of building community and what needs to be done to build collective power. Approaches include grassroots advocacy, mutual aid, and direct action.
Award Ceremony
7:00 PM ET
At this year’s Awards Ceremony, we will be honoring several awardees for their tireless work in advocacy, community building, and so much more. We’ll also hear remarks from ASAN’s Executive Director Colin Killick!
Giveaway
We’ll also be raffling off two year-long ASAN memberships at the Trivia Teammates tier, which includes a membership welcome pack, a member-exclusive newsletter, digital phone and computer wallpapers, an ASAN logo sticker, an ASAN mug, a $5 gift card to the ASAN shop, a physical copy of one of ASAN’s books (Knowing Why, Navigating College, Empowering Leadership, Welcome to the Autistic Community, or Loud Hands), an ASAN pen, an ASAN lapel pin, an ASAN tangle, and a T-shirt!