Post your comments on Not With Standing in Canada.

Edited by author 12-15-2003 02:27 AM
hysteria confirms the stereotypes.

reality check:
. there are some autistic people who will need ongoing support and intervention all their lives.
. there are some autistic people who do not learn from their environments, but with intervention can learn.

instead of writing rabid, inflamatory screeds, autistics who can communicate in forms understood by nt people can and should be proactive. there is a good way to do that. do what you can to demonstrate how consideration and meeting us half way improves our quality of life, reduces anxiety and depression and therefore diminishes the drain on the public purse. people understand money. people only change if the change has a perceived benefit to them. that is true for nt people and true for autistics too. if we could demonstrate the ways in which environmental modifications that suit us are good for all people (and many of them are) then we have some chance of getting appropriate support. agonized shrieks have their place. that is within a support forum. advocacy requires calm, considered dialogue (even if we choose the forum for that to suit us) with facts, figures and potential solutions. we have to do it, because nobody else can. they do not understand the depth of the issues and they can only provide autism support from a perspective they understand - damaged babies. i think we also have to consider that nt parents have learned to parent nt children. they do not know how to deal with cuckoos, and all too often, they get inappropriate advice and bugger all support. i had one nt child and she was HARD work. the autistic and brindle were easier because there was a deep connection. the issues are similar from nt perspective. we cannot build bridges and provide credible information if we make enemies.

reality check:
- there are some neurotypical people who will need ongoing support and intervention all their lives
- there are some neurotypical people who cannot learn to read, write, and who cannot learn from their environments, and intervention can help

Now then, are we to consider ALL neurotypical people as unable to learn anything and to need intervention all their lives because of the above reality? This is exactly what autism societies seems to think we should do for autistics, and that reasoning is the biggest problem.

Edited by author 12-15-2003 05:13 PM
yet another reality check:

All people need ongoing support all our lives, that is why humans have evolved as an interdependent species. Some people, myself included, need support that is not as readily available as the standard-issue support that neurotypicals are provided as a matter of course. Some of that support -- not intervention -- extends to learning. After all, the world already supports neurotypical learning styles for the most part. None of this is relevant to the main issue of the article, however.

There is nothing rabid about Dawson's article. As Carolyn Gage states, "DON'T attribute your lack of sympathy to my attitude. This is a standard defense of bigots. Racists are always sure that there are right ways to be African American and wrong ways. Sexists believe that harassment and discrimination only happen to women with bad attitudes. Ableists are always convinced that there is something in the attitude or the behavior of the disabled person which is causing their own irritation or aversion towards us. Nothing unmasks your ableism more than this point of view toward me. I have to fight my way through a toxic, apathetic, and even sadistic world every day. I am assertive to militant about my needs, and I haven't got the energy to coddle ableist people. [...] I need an ally, not a rescuer. If you can't feel empathy for an embattled warrior, it's your ableism and not my attitude. Period." ("So You Know A Dyke With CFIDS", published both in the book _Restricted Access_ and on the web)

There is a lot of truth in that. The issue here is discrimination against autistic people, people treating us and speaking about us as if we are subhuman or a plague. The issue is not that some autistic people need assistance with certain things, and the issue is *certainly* not that people who need certain kinds of assistance are less deserving of rights. None of these issues change just because someone is justifiably angry at being treated and characterized in ways that nobody should be. The emotion of the message in no way diminishes its content, or the fact that it refers to real things.

Is it "burning bridges" to state that we get no respect, that we are described as a plague, demeaned, and given no rights? Michelle Dawson is stating the truth. The truth that we are valuable human beings who do not deserve to be treated like this holds, no matter what our abilities are, *and no matter what our emotions about it are*. Certainly anger is not the only response, but it is a valid one, and calling it "rabid" doesn't help matters. Too often, as Gage clearly knows, we are expected to be acquiescent and super-nice in situations that would have almost any neurotypical outraged.

Don't make this a "Look at the poor low-functioning people who *need* to be treated like crap" issue. None of us need that, no matter what we can or can't do. I'm one of "those people" who needs daily support and was once characterized as "low functioning", and *I* don't like being represented this way. I don't like my friends being represented this way, no matter what their abilities or lack thereof.

Don't make this a "You're just too angry, you've got the wrong attitude" issue, because a restriction of our emotional response to horrible things is a huge part of the horrible things in themselves -- that we are not allowed to respond like most neurotypicals would to having people like us considered a plague of parasites on the economy and our parents, and other such ideas. Certainly if you want to be super-polite, I'm sure that approach *could* get something done, but it's definitely not for everyone and we shouldn't be expected to be nice all the time.

This is a human rights issue. These are ideas that need to be spoken, not silenced under "...but you're not being *nice*" or "...you're too high functioning to understand." Both of those are ways of skirting the real problems here.

There is no doubt that ignorance is always present in large doses when medicine and research is on the cutting edge. We go with past experience which is not a very good guide but all that we can rely upon as we forge forward. Autism will get more media coverage. more research dollars will get dedicated to this area and eventually people will develop better ways of dealing with people who are affected. It is already quite clear that autism is a grab bag and that individuals are affected to different degrees by this condition. Change a society's outlook on something takes time and money. Ask the schizphrenics, as those afflicted with AIDS, ask women. The first case of child abuse was prosecuted under laws which applied to domestic animals. There were laws to protect animals but not children. This was less than 100 years ago. We forget that our evolution is not old. We do not know our history and we do not understand how our society functions. This is a great loss and this is why we are led by the nose by our leaders. Information is power and this power will eventually change the situation of autistic individuals. Do not despair.

Diane...

>Do not despair.

Thank you :)

Greetings from Melbourne, Australia.

I was first diagnosed with AS (Asperger's Syndrome) back in 1991, even though a GP my family used to see back in the days when I was a pre-schooler told my parents back then that he thought I could be autistic; well, eventually over time he was right, and years later when I got diagnosed as having it, I was referred to a agency we have in Melbourne that deals with adult autism "cases".

I can definitely relate all of Michelle Dawson's analyses of the official position taken by Autism Society Canada and blindly favoured by the current Canadian government to my own situation all too well. For years I too have had to endure the same harsh realities of ABA and the same nasty negative stereotype about us Aspies and other autistics as being supposedly "weak, lacking intelligence, and therefore need to be brought into line". Sometimes I can't even leave my own home to do anything meaningful like shopping or some form of recreation in my own home area without the threat of certain non-autistic louts or hate-crims yelling verbal abuse at me from their cars.

I am deeply shocked when I hear now that most governments and the laws these governments pass actually encourage this type of prejudice and fearful attitude against people with autism/AS. That is why so many progressive Canadians and progressive Aussies etc want these negative attitudes about autistics changed now!

After hearing Autism Society Canada and several Canadian government officials involved in ASC's very discriminatory hidden agenda caricature and condemn us, it's no wonder so many Aspies and other Autistics (especially those in even the most affluent/well-off of neighbourhoods and family homes) still live in lonely closets of guilt and fear or even take their own lives.

Michelle, I congratulate you for the courage you have shown to speak out and stick up for all autistics and to show the rest of the world that autistics are not a "plague" or a supposed "epidemic" or "threatening social disease" as the narrow conservative "cure-and-control" agenda crowd behind the Canadian government's new anti-autistics policy would want the public to believe about us. You are to be well and truly commended. You are a very brave person to be doing what you're doing to expose the Pharisees behind the anti-autistics agenda for who they really are - self-righteous, stuck-up control-freaks.

Let's all ring some real Liberty-Bells and light some real Democracy-Candles next Christmas Day!

Love and Cheers Everyone,
Steven Wood (autismbass@yahoo.com.au)

I am happy to learn that we have a global movement claiming the right to be what we consider normal. I think it is such a waste that the so called normal people always try to reduce us to something that whith the right treatment might be almost normal. I thank God every day I am not an anxious hypocrite who always shuffle the responsability somewhere els - as most so called normals. As many of us have realised we have an enormous potential that is very seldom used in society. It is a petty and a waste of money and more importantly a waste of life quality. I consider most of my difficulties to live in the society due to the bad treatment I have recieved during my whole life rather than due to the fact that I have a autistic personality. I which you all good luck in your fight for our right to be respected and counted with.

Steven and brava, thanks for your messages. :)

http://users.kymp.net/mode0095/ASI/conference.htm

Autism conference in Finland, basically organised by autistics.

Edited by author 03-21-2005 03:43 AM
I'm placing this here, since it is about the standing of autistics in our respective countries (especially, but not restricted to, Canada).

I have a meeting today to determine whether my services will be continued.

I go to these meetings and I am the most qualified person in them, atleast regarding autism issues and service provision; and yet I always end up feeling as if I'm the least listened to person in the room.

So I sent the head office of the Autism Foundation an e-mail, for the purposes of finding out how many staff there are appropriately qualified (i.e., have appropriately leveled and certificated specialist training in autism issues).

Ten to one odds that my services get cancelled and I get labelled as a difficult case.

I will keep the board posted.

I am now officially scared shitless.

------------start---------------
I should be grateful for some information which might be useful for the time when I start choosing my PhD topic, hopefully at the University of Birmingham. I am currently a postgraduate student there, following a Master of Education degree (60ov) in Applied Educational Psychology, with a specialism in the applied educational psychology of autistic spectrum difficulties in adult life. This course qualifies me in the assessment and diagnosis of various developmental conditions and educational difficulties, as well as the types of concomitant mental health problems that can occur for autistic adults. I am currently a holder of BA-status with the University (as a postgraduate psychologist, admitted on the basis of equivalent studies: 120ov, of which 61ov is in applied psychology with education, including most - if not all - the subjects required for laillistettu status, even though I am an educational professional), and a pending intermediate award of Postgraduate Certificate in Special Education (PgCertSpEd; 20ov) in applied educational psychology. During these studies, I have qualified in psychoeducational assessment and diagnosis, as well as planning and implementing/evaluating interventions (ranging from counselling to behavioural and environmental management programmes). My training at PgCertSpEd level is from one of the award schemes detailed in the links below.

How many staff in the Autismisäätiö organisation actually have AUTISM-specific training?

By autism-specific training, I mean the following:
http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/programmes...d/autism-adults.htm
http://www.webautism.bham.ac.uk/

If so, I would be interested to know where it was conducted, which institution validated the course and which institution awarded any formal certification. Also of interest would be information about the steering committee responsible for designing the courses, and the criteria to which the training has been designed.

Syllabi for various parts would be useful, also.

Yours faithfully,

David N. Andrews
BA-status, PgCertSpEd (pending)
Applied Educational Psychologist and Autismisäätiö client.
---------------end------------------

Let us know if you get a response Dave.

I am writing from a Private School in Mississauga. We specialize in Special Education and working with Special Needs children. We are offering an afterschool program for children working on such things are Music, Gym, Safety and Social Skills. The cost is 4 classes for $80.00 and the class length is 1.5 hrs. Parents do not need to stay for these classes.

We are also offering other after school and weekend relief programs. If any one is interested please contact me at emm1285@yahoo.ca

Hope to hear from you soon

Please post further comments on Not With Standing in Canada to the following discussion board:
http://www.quicktopic.com/27/H/vJvhV4fDnBgw7