This has been a very busy news week already, and it's only Thursday. Who knows what may come on Friday?
Some highlights of this week:
1. The autistic community collectively celebrated Autistic Pride Day throughout the world on Wednesday (June 18). For those not familiar, Autistic Pride Day is an annual celebration of neurodiversity established by the autistic self-advocacy community in 2005. An article in New Scientist Magazine from that year describes how the day originated from an autistic organization called Aspies for Freedom. The day chosen for the event was the birthday of AFF's youngest member.
For my personal celebration of Autistic Pride Day this year I proudly wore my Autreat 2007 t-shirt ("Living Life The Autly Way") throughout my day-to-day activities. Perhaps more importantly, I reflected deeply on how far we've come in achieving understanding, acceptance, and support of autistic people in the past year, and how immense our challenges lie in the journey ahead of us.
In just the last year, we have:
* Successfully countered a rather heinous and horrid stigmization of autistic persons and other folks in the NYU Child Study Center's failed "Ransom Note" ad campaign
* Read with dismay of a teenage autistic blogger threatened with a lawsuit of copyright violation for simply parodying Autism Speaks' website. (Autism Speaks eventually dropped the lawsuit threats.)
* Pledged solidarity and compassionate support internationally for an autistic kindergartener voted out of class in Florida by his teacher and peers.
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2. The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the ADA Amendments Act (which had also passed the Labor Committee by a vote of 43-1). This ground-breaking legislation seeks to affirm the civil right protections of people with disabilities and clarify existing definitions of disability described under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network's president, Ari Ne'eman, joined several other advocates from the business community and disability rights organizations in announcing the formation of the Employer & Disability Alliance, a collaborate effort between disability and civil rights advocates and business associations. The alliance will promote the act's benefits for the millions of Americans with disabilities.
I am very optimistic that the act will pass Congress with bipartisan support over the upcoming months. It is an essential step toward restoring protections for people with disabilities that have been increasingly reduced by misguided judicial decisions.
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And unfortunately, this week has also seen one major lowlight:
A special education class in Roseville, California (that includes two autistic students) was entirely left out of their elementary school's yearbook. Parents of the autistic students have claimed the act was discriminatory, while the school is insistening it wasn't intentional.
Intentional or not, the school's principal and its district superintendant owe those students and their parents an immediate and sincere apology.
That's all for now.
-Scott
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11 comments:
How many non-verbal autistics in diapers were celebrating autistic pride day? Why don't you try being honest and change the name to Aspie pride day?
How about neurodiversity trying to do something constructive to help autistic people find jobs, girlfriends, function better and live better in society for a change?
Jonathan, why don't you join us and become part of the *solution* instead of part of the problem? It's a lot easier to whine than to fight for what's right, but it sure doesn't get you much.
John, if your ALA works its wonders on Sam, he's gonna eventually learn how to read, and then what are you going to be able to say to him about all the hateful crap you've written, when he reads it? Surely, as a caring father, you *want* him to develop the capacity to read, don't you?
Phil,
When Sam learns how to read, he'll probably hunt you down in Massachusetts and knock your teeth out for being such a liar.
do you guys think its right that autism/aspergers is treated as a disability by government.
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Yeah right! They deserve the principal and the district superintendent's immediate and sincere apology. I'm so glad that you have a celebration for them. I had two cousins with this case but unfortunately they had both passed away. They were brothers. The older one died when he was 14 years old and the other one died when he's 18. Before the younger one died, my aunt gave birth to a boy and he turned out to be a healthy and normal kid. I really salute parents like my aunt. She have done everything and never gave them up.electronic cigar
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