Ari Ne'eman, Dora Raymaker Present Self-Advocate Views

While being interviewed for a Salon.com article, ASAN President Ari Ne'eman and Change.org blogger Dora Raymaker both indicated that more access to services and accommodations in society would greatly benefit the autistic population. Dora Raymaker gave the example of how much easier it is for her to communicate through text chat instead of telephone conversations, explaining that an instant-message conversation allows her to work around her speech disability. Ari Ne'eman explained that cure-oriented research has taken funding away from vitally needed services and that a focus on causation tends to imply that autistic people are less valuable members of society.

As discussed by Sharon on the Family Voyage blog, the article has some flaws, of which the most glaring is a completely groundless assertion that autistic rights advocates in the United States are engaged in court battles to stop treatment programs from receiving government money. No such court cases exist. To the contrary, ASAN and other pro-neurodiversity groups have lobbied vigorously to expand the range of services and therapies made available through government programs and insurance mandates, while also pointing out that the focus of such programs should be on teaching useful skills rather than suppressing harmless differences. Michelle Dawson explains on her blog that the article misrepresented her intervention in a Canadian case several years ago.

The article also would have benefited from a discussion of the social model of disability. Although the author does mention that some families believe "safeguarding a child's dignity and teaching him to navigate a neurotypical world… don't have to be mutually exclusive," the article gives the misleading impression that this is a minority view among autistic culture proponents, when in fact the non-exclusiveness of respect for autistic differences and enabling autistics to interact effectively with others is central to the neurodiversity philosophy.

Overall, though, I am glad to see that self-advocates now are being interviewed for articles about autism much more often than in previous years, rather than being left out of the discussion altogether. The media seem to be moving in the right direction.

Our Community Remembers

The recent death of Alyric, who was an impassioned blogger and a strong voice for justice, was a great loss to the autistic community. I first encountered Alyric's writings on autistic civil rights and feminism in 2005, when I came across her blog A Touch of Alyricism. (Her family members have kindly allowed the blog to remain online as a resource for the community.) I thought it was a lovely and original name for a blog, and so well matched to the creative and insightful nature of its author.

Over the years, Alyric posted many thoughtful, in-depth essays addressing matters of importance to the autistic community. She wrote about junk science and the marketing of bogus cures, the ABA controversy, and the false and harmful 'autism epidemic' rhetoric. She is generally credited with having been the first to publicly post an exposé of the hate groups that arose from Maxine Aston's promotion of the fictitious Cassandra Disorder. Her writings were always well researched and often included many references. She will be greatly missed.

Here are several links to other memorial blog entries:

In Memory of Alyric
In Memoriam
RIP Alyric
Alyric

Tony Attwood and Isabelle Hénault, the World Is Watching

Clinical psychologists Tony Attwood and Isabelle Hénault have been very successful in book sales, speaking tours, and other presentations regarding autism. Unfortunately, they also are very closely associated with both Maxine Aston, inventor of the bogus Cassandra disorder, and the infamous Massachusetts hate group FAAAS, which has repeatedly claimed that autistics are violent by nature and abuse their family members. Both Attwood and Hénault are members of FAAAS' professional advisory board and presented at FAAAS conferences for several years beginning in 2000.


Conference photo, a.k.a. Tony Attwood's Hall of Shame

(l-r: Karen Rodman of FAAAS, Hénault, Attwood, Aston)


In March, both Attwood and Hénault gave presentations at a conference in Sydney, Australia, sponsored by a group called ASPIA, which claims to be a support group for people involved in relationships with autistics. Sound familiar? Yup, it's another hate group peddling the same old garbage. I posted a blog entry last month illustrating the hypocrisy, bigotry, and total lack of ethics in such groups and how they destroy relationships. Nonetheless, Attwood and Hénault have continued to appear at these events, no doubt because their association with the Cassandra cult has been very lucrative over the years. The Cassandra groups have provided them with buyers for their books, conference fee money, and increased name recognition. In return, the presence of credentialed psychologists at these events has given the Cassandra cultists an appearance of legitimacy, which has helped them to suck in new converts. Seems like a win-win situation—except for bothersome little details like integrity, decency, and the human rights of autistics and people with disabilities.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has posted an online petition calling on Tony Attwood and Isabelle Hénault to renounce their Aston/FAAAS/ASPIA connections and to make a public apology to the autistic community, as well as to the cross-disability community regarding FAAAS' insinuations that all people with neurological disabilities are likely to be abusive. This is not the first time members of our community have raised the issue with Attwood and Hénault. Several concerned people have tried to discuss it with them in private. However, their usual mode of response has been to make nice soothing sounds, wait for the pesky autistics to go away, and then go right back to consorting with Aston and FAAAS. Not surprising, given Tony Attwood's history of minstrel show attitudes toward autistics. Now that it is all out in the open, we'll see if they respond in a more meaningful way.

I have stated before on this blog that minority communities, such as the autistic community, have both the right and the responsibility to police themselves and to ensure that those who seek to exploit their people under the guise of providing services are not allowed to do so. As we have seen with other civil rights movements, minority groups who struggle against intolerance can exert significant economic power by refusing to patronize vendors who knowingly spread intolerance. When professionals claim to have expertise in meeting the needs of the community's members, but are in fact spreading harmful stereotypes for financial gain, the community would be well within its rights to say to them: You're fired. Whether that happens with Attwood and Hénault will depend on their willingness, now that their unsavory associations have become widely known, to change their ways and make a genuine apology for the harm caused by their associations.

More Positive Autism Awareness: No Myths PSA

The Florida-based Dan Marino Foundation and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network sponsored the No Myths public service announcement (PSA), which was filmed by Kent Creative in the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. Inside this full-scale replica of the ancient Greek temple, myths about autism are laid to rest by an autistic cast consisting of Ari Ne'eman, Dena Gassner, Ben Liske, and Jacob Pratt.





A captioned version of No Myths is available at http://www.overstream.net/view.php?oid=udtvrbt0rlao

More information can be found at http://www.nomyths.org/ about the film and its production. That site states, "The purpose of the PSA is to tell society that, with the right supports, people with autism can do anything anybody else can do, even if it isn't in the same way." Many thanks to all involved in the making of this excellent PSA, which does a very effective job of dispelling autism myths and stereotypes!

World Autism Awareness Day: "Promoting positive perceptions about autism"

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gets it. He understands, as shown by his World Autism Awareness Day statement, that the autism issues we really need to be aware of are issues of social perceptions and human rights. The statement is so refreshingly positive that I've reprinted it in its entirety below:


To Enable Children and Persons with Autism to Lead Full and Meaningful Lives is Not a Far-Off Dream

By designating 2 April as World Autism Awareness Day, the United Nations General Assembly has helped to galvanize international efforts to promote greater understanding about autism. This year's observance is being marked with lectures, briefings, screenings, musical performances, video conferences, art installations and other activities carried out by the UN family and a full constellation of partners.

I welcome this growing international chorus of voices calling for action to enable children and persons with autism to lead full and meaningful lives. This is not a far-off dream; it is a reality that can be attained by promoting positive perceptions about autism as well as a greater social understanding of this growing challenge.

I have seen what caring people who work tirelessly for this goal can achieve. Last year, the United Nations hosted a rock concert by Rudely Interrupted, whose members have various disabilities, including on the autism spectrum. They brought the audience to its feet with warm, communicative songs and showed, through the sheer joy of their performance, how much people with disabilities can offer the world.

The words of lead singer Rory Burnside were especially inspiring. "My advice", he said, "to kids who have some form of disability is: don't let it stop you. Use it as your strength; don't use it as your weakness. One red light can lead to a whole bunch of green lights, with a few orange lights thrown in. And the red lights are just a bit of a test. There are definitely more green and orange".

On World Autism Awareness Day, let us capture and share this spirit, and let us intensify global efforts to ensure that children and persons with autism everywhere can benefit from the supportive environment they need to reach their full potential and contribute to society.


Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General, for raising a voice of sanity and decency that is much needed in today's world.