ASAN July Update

Dear friend,

July is Disability Pride Month, and even in the hardest months, we are proud of how disabled people continue to fight back against attacks on our community. Read on to see what we’ve been working on and how you can get involved.

Autistic people need to be included in every part of autism research! The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) is one of the ways the US government makes choices about autism research. The IACC has delayed their next meeting. The meeting was supposed to happen today, July 31st. The meeting will now happen at the end of August. We do not know the new date of the meeting yet. Public comments are now due on August 20th. The IACC wrote a plan about autism. The plan is over 300 pages long. The IACC wants public comments for the August meeting to be about that plan. ASAN will share more information about the plan soon. We will share more information about the plan so you can tell the IACC what you think of the plan in your public comments. Right now, you can learn more about the IACC and public comments ahead of the next meeting with our IACCtion Center!

This summer, ASAN made a big move recently to a new donation platform that will allow us to put more of our time and your generous gifts towards the work that matters — creating tools and resources, and advocating for better policy for our autistic communities. But there’s been one snag: a technical issue deleted a bunch of our members from our monthly membership program, and we need your help to find everyone! The support of our monthly members makes our work possible. From our Cat Comrades all the way up to our Whale Well-Wishers, our members’ generosity each month gives ASAN a stable base to build our advocacy work on. If you have been an ASAN member in the past, or have thought about joining before, now is a great time to become a member! Everyone who signs up to become a member during July and August gets a free entry into a raffle to win one of ASAN’s vintage shirt designs. The raffle winner will be chosen on Tuesday, September 1st. If you are a current ASAN member, but did not get charged for July, you may be one of our missing members! Sign up for your membership again here. If you have any questions about membership or this transfer, please contact [email protected].

Join us on August 13 from 4:00-5:30pm ET for Parents & Autistic Self-Advocates: What We Wish Parents Knew, a two-part webinar. Hear two panels explore the same topic from different lived experiences and see where we share, disagree, and build on each other. In these webinars, we’ll talk about different perspectives on raising autistic kids, what helps autistic people thrive at home, at school, and in our communities, and lessons, advice, and experiences that can help families better support autistic people. The first webinar, from 4:00-4:40pm ET, will feature a panel of parents — including autistic parents — of autistic people sharing what they wish other parents knew. The second webinar, from 4:50-5:30pm ET, will feature a panel of autistic self-advocates — including autistic parents — sharing what they wish parents knew about raising autistic kids.

This month we were excited to share a blog post from Sam Sharpe, PhD from Fighting Eating Disorders in Underrepresented Populations (FEDUP): A Trans+ & Intersex Collective. You can read Autism and Eating Disorders: 3 Common Overlooked Challenges here.

As we move through this month, we recognize and honor the holidays, celebrations, and important events that hold meaning for our community and beyond.

• Tisha B’Av
• Shivah Asar B’Tammuz
• Tu B’Av
• Martyrdom of the Bab
• Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola

We know there are more holidays that we didn’t know to list here. Whether this month brings moments of joy, reflection, remembrance, or connection for you, we wish you peace and fulfillment. We hope this month brings opportunities for growth, kindness, and support.

Disability Pride Month gives us a chance to remember the ways our community has fought and won. More than that, it reminds us that we have a responsibility to each other and to future disabled people to make things better now. Whatever your advocacy looks like, we’re grateful to be able to do this work alongside you.

With warm wishes,
The Team at ASAN

ASAN signed onto comments from the National Coalition on Accessible Voting supporting mail-in voting. As a part of the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities (CCD), we signed onto comments about federal financial assistance comments. We also strongly opposed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Equal Access Rule Revisions as part of the CCD. This NPRM would undermine HUD’s 2012 and 2016 Equal Access Rules, which ensure equal access to HUD programs for LGBTQ+ people. ASAN signed onto a letter from the Alliance for Justice (AFJ) objecting to the proposed rules from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which would largely restrict nonprofits’ ability to do advocacy and work about elections. As part of the CCD and the Disability and Aging Collaborative (DAC), ASAN opposed Proposed Rule “Medicaid Managed Care State Directed Payments and Medicaid Fee-for-Service Targeted Medicaid Practitioner Payments”. This rule would cut funding and limit access to HCBS. ASAN endorsed the Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA). Alongside The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and other organizations, we opposed the Voter ID Act’s inclusion in Stop Insider Trading Act. We opposed the changes to the Public Charge Rule, which will hurt many immigrants with disabilities. As part of the CCD, we urged the IACC to extend the comment period for their Strategic Plan to 90 days. ASAN opposed Medicaid Work Requirements — and you can too! ASAN endorsed a resolution from Representative Dingell and Representative Scanlon celebrating the anniversary of Olmstead v. L.C, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act’s integration mandate.

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