Dr. Tony Attwood Provides Inadequate Reply: After ASAN called on him to disassociate himself from hate groups, Dr. Attwood replied with only a form letter, sent to numerous recipients, which wholly failed to address his associations with Maxine Aston and FAAAS and the ongoing harm to Autistics and others with disabilities resulting from these associations.
Where do rights come from? We go out to the world and we tell them in so many ways that it is time for our rights to be realized. We talk about inclusion, we talk about integration, we talk about access, but when we are asked why, our answers are typically phrased in the language of either cost-benefit or desperate need. The one turns our civil rights struggle into a conversation on policy technicalities; the other evokes the very charity-oriented model of disability support that we have been trying to escape.
Like other people with disabilities, many autistic people who are victims of abusive relationships are particularly vulnerable and may have great difficulty escaping from a life-threatening situation. If, because of the bigoted stereotype that the autistic partner is always to blame for family problems, an abused autistic’s cries for help go unanswered, this could result in her death at the hands of her abuser.
An article in Salon.com describes the prominent role of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in advancing the Autistic culture and seeking to improve quality of life and…
Self-Advocate Mourned: Alyric, a well-respected blogger in the Autistic community, has passed away. Her strong stand for justice and honesty, her kindness and encouragement, and her contributions to our community will be greatly missed.
The decision to use the word Autistic is a deliberate and political one – whilst it can be acknowledged that person first language has had an impact upon the way people who experience disability are viewed it has also performed the role (in people’s minds) of extracting that which can not be extracted from a person…
On Friday, April 17th, 2009 ASAN President Ari Ne’eman delivered the keynote address at the National Federation of the Blind’s Disability Law Symposium. You can listen to…
Debunking Myths: There are many popular myths about Autistic people that have little basis in reality. This article lists several common myths, followed by an explanation of the actual facts.
An essay by Susan Etlinger. J. and I made the decision to raise Isaac in the city early on. Both kids of the suburbs, we loved the idea of being able to walk anywhere from our front door, or hop on the bus at a moment’s notice. We loved the diversity, the parks, the energy of city life, the variety of things to do. But I can’t help feeling a little melancholy that the sounds that soothed me as a child–the hum of wildlife going about its daily business–are not available to him.
ASAN’s Scott Michael Robertson was among several autistic adults featured in Second Look: Adults With Autism: Autism Affects Every Person Differently, a 17-minute video produced by…
The filming of a national public service announcement about autism jointly produced by the Dan Marino Foundation and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network was reported on WTVF-TV in Nashville,…
ASAN’s Paula C. Durbin-Westby delivered a talk “Autism, Literature, and Popular Culture: The Curious Coincidence of Autism Metaphors Across Diverse Genres” to the Honors Program…
