Taking to the Streets

People who don't understand that autism prevalence has remained stable often ask how there can't be an epidemic when they have seen large numbers of autistic children only in recent years. Where were all the autistic people before now?

Of course, before the diagnostic criteria were broadened, most were not identified as autistic and were looked upon as part of the general population. Others were rarely or never seen in public because they were kept hidden away at home by their families or were sent to institutions.

As reported by Hard Won Wisdom, it appears that at least one older autistic person is taking part in the ADAPT protests in Atlanta, Georgia, which began on Sunday, challenging the state's failure to close down institutions and to provide community services and supports instead. A protester who calls herself "Spitfire" and who was thought to be autistic as a girl in the 1950s talked about how ADAPT had saved her from a nursing home. She described her participation in numerous protest actions since then.

In Columbus, Ohio, members of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network also held a protest this past Sunday, holding signs and handing out leaflets at an Autism Speaks walk to inform the participants about Autism Speaks' hateful advertising, exclusion of self-advocates from leadership positions, eugenic aims, and minimal services for families. You can find articles about the protest on the ASAN Central Ohio blog and also on the ASAN Southwest Ohio blog. And here's a video of the protest:





I expect that in the near future, as we see more autistic people coming out of the closet and onto the streets to demand equal rights, there won't be so many questions about where the older autistics are.

Supporting Allies

This morning, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network released a joint letter from over 60 disability rights organizations calling on sponsors, donors, and supporters of Autism Speaks to end their support for the organization because of Autism Speaks' hateful attitudes and exploitative practices. ASAN also issued a press release and set up a petition site where individuals can endorse the letter.

The disability rights advocates who are supporting ASAN and the autistic community in this effort are not receiving any financial benefit whatsoever from doing so. Rather, they are standing in solidarity with our community because it is the right thing to do. In the interest of reciprocating, and to advance the rights of people with disabilities everywhere, I suggest that the members of our community read the list of signatories to the joint letter and provide assistance to their advocacy efforts. In particular, ADAPT has an event planned in Georgia beginning this Sunday. If at all possible, go there and help out! Details below:


COMMUNITY ADVISORY

Community Choice is a Civil Right: Disability Rights Direct Action Arrives in Atlanta

Who: 400 ADAPT activists from Georgia and across the United States
What: ADAPT Fall National Action 2009
When: October 11-14
Where: ATLANTA, GEORGIA!

Links: www.adapt.org and http://www.disabilitylink.org/docs/adapt.html

Direct action is about to strike the hometown of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. As the nation continues to struggle with health care reform, ADAPT grassroots disability rights and senior activists continue to advocate for the end of the institutional bias in Medicaid and a revolution in community choice.

Over 62,000 Georgians with disabilities live in nursing homes and institutions. The 1999 Olmstead Supreme Court case, fought by Georgians, guarantees that no one has to live in a nursing facility or institution against their will---it is a civil rights violation. Now, ten years past Olmstead, Georgia remains out of compliance and thousands of Georgians with disabilities lack adequate access to community supports, like millions across the nation. The percentage of Georgians with disabilities under age 65 who live in nursing homes is on the rise. When the system doesn’t work, it’s time for the people to take action.

Neither of Georgia’s Senators officially support the Community Choice Act or Community First Option. Adequate funding for Georgia disability programs is currently in danger. Federal institutional bias affects every single state. Through Atlanta, we will expose to the nation how nursing homes and institutions steal the lives of people with disabilities and seniors.

We are kicking off on Sunday, October 11, with an afternoon Community Choice March through Atlanta. We will follow up with three days of direct action. Stay up to the minute with Twitter updates and action alerts starting Sunday. Follow Nationaladapt on Twitter or go to www.adapt.org and hit the ADAPT Twitter button to check out our tweets.

ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom.

John McCain Has Disability Activists Arrested

On Monday afternoon, September 15th, police arrested several people from the disability advocacy organization ADAPT at the Arlington campaign office of Republican presidential candidate John McCain when they protested the campaign's refusal to look at the ADAPT platform for affordable, accessible housing. The day's events are described on the ADAPT website:


After setting up a tent city at HUD headquarters just after 4 a.m., ADAPT sent 100 activists to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices in Washington, D.C., and another hundred to a Sen. John McCain campaign office in Arlington, VA. All three entities were presented with the ADAPT platform for affordable, accessible housing.

"The DNC was cordial, and they accepted our housing platform, as well as our invitation to visit 'DUH City,' which is HUD spelled backwards," said octogenarian Barb Toomer, ADAPT organizer from Utah. "The career HUD staff that met with ADAPT told our people they had no authority to make decisions and had to wait for the administration or administrative appointees to make any decisions, so the meeting felt like a waste of time. Sen. John McCain's campaign staff not only refused to even look at our housing platform, they had eleven of us arrested by police who caused injuries to at least one arrestee."

ADAPT's housing platform points to America's longstanding and still growing crisis in the availability of affordable, accessible integrated housing. Many people with disabilities live on benefits that are only 18% of the median income, a full 25% below the poverty level, and an amount that is less than the national average rent for a studio/efficiency apartment.


Local Arlington reporter Bruce Leshan of WUSA Channel 9 reported on the arrests in a story entitled Disabled Activists Arrested At Arlington McCain HQ. He wrote:


Sen. McCain opposes a Senate bill designed to change a system that disabled advocates say pushes them to spend the rest of their lives in an institution...

"We don't want no houses like he has. Seven houses. We don't need anything fancy. We're asking for an apartment," said protestor Cassie James.

The activists say Medicaid WILL pay for their care in a nursing home. But WON'T pay for them to have a health aide at home. "All we want to do is level the playing field so people will have a choice," said activist Rick Knight.

Sen. McCain says government living assistance for the disabled should NOT mean "perpetual confinement to an institution." But he also says the bill supported by the activists is too expensive. "The Community Choice Act is not a piece of legislation that I support," Sen. McCain told a Denver forum.

Bobby Coward says that's not good enough. He's a Persian Gulf war vet left a quadriplegic by a car accident. "If I don't get an attendant, I can't get out of the house, so I'm laying in bed."


Shame on you, John McCain, for playing up your claim to fame as a wounded war hero, while not even bothering to look at the needs of injured veterans and others with disabilities for housing assistance and services!


Update, Sept. 20: Here's a powerful new video that illustrates the McCain/Palin ticket's attitudes toward people with disabilities.