A Primer on Autism

Autistic Rights are Human Rights.

Like other marginalized people, every day autistic people (see Sinclair 1999 for explanation of identity first language) experience discrimination, dehumanization, exclusion, and ridicule. We are denied the essentials we need to survive, subjected to abuse without hope of recourse, disempowered from active participation in our own lives, and blocked from education, employment, and inclusion in the very matters which affect us most.

Autistic rights are human rights, and the issues faced by autistic people are those faced by all severely marginalized populations.

Autistic Rights are Disability Rights.

Like other people with disabilities, every day autistic people experience barriers to accessing the opportunities our non-disabled peers take for granted. We are barred from community, even in the administration of programs that are designed for (but never with) us, for reasons as simple as being denied access to a communication device, and as complex as refusal to acknowledge our potential. We are forced to let others control our lives either because we are not given the tools for our own empowerment, or because we are never taught that empowerment is possible in the first place. We live without adequate food, shelter, and safety, and many of us die young. We are reacted to with misunderstanding, disgust, and hostility, and told that we would be better off dead by people who have stated our extinction as their explicit goal. In a culture that views disability as synonymous with disease, we have to struggle not just to remove physical and social barriers, but also to change the very culture in which we live to recognize disability as a socio-ecological issue.

Autistic rights are disability rights, and the motto of the disability movement is also ours: Nothing About Us Without Us.

Autistic Rights are Autistic Rights.

Our cause is:

1. Ethical Treatment in Science and Research
   Autism research should benefit autistic people. Autism research must be cognitively and culturally accessible to research participants in order to have validity. Autism research must be conducted ethically. Autism research must be properly reviewed before it is presumed to be "fact." Autistic research participants must not be "rewarded" for their willingness to help in scientific investigation by being called derogatory, humiliating names in scientific reporting.
2. Equal Opportunities in Education
   Educational systems must provide reasonable accommodations for autistic students at all levels. Students in primary and secondary school must be given the tools to develop the awareness and advocacy skills they will need as adults in college, the workplace, or the community. Special programs to enable access to a college education need to be developed and supported. Never make the mistake of assuming that difficulty communicating and difficulty thinking are always paired.
3. Equal Opportunities in Employment
   Reasonable accommodations for autistic employees must be made. Workplace discrimination, ill treatment, sub-minimum wage pay, and terror of being fired for simply being autistic must end. Vocational programs must become better educated about autism so they can provide more appropriate services.
4. Acceptable Living Conditions and Access to Support
   Waiting lists for residential placement must be shortened. Individuals who need assistance with activities of daily living must get the support they need to survive. Social services must start looking at how to prevent crisis, rather than merely reacting to crisis after it arrives. Abuse by caregivers must end, and abusers must be punished. Materials for Person Centered Planning and self-determination must be presented in a manner which is cognitively and culturally accessible. Community outreach must occur to find and help those autistic individuals who have "slipped through the cracks" and may be homeless, starving, wrongfully institutionalized, or too terrified to ask for help.
5. Fair Treatment in the Media
   The relentlessly demeaning, dehumanizing, and offensive language used by the popular media when referring to autistic individuals must end. The deeper message of self advocates must not be ignored or stripped out by reporters who want to sensationalize or demonize autism. Snake oil sales, crank science, and crackpot theories must be exposed not glorified.
6. Inclusion in Policy About Autism
   Most importantly, autistic individuals must be included in matters which affect them. Autistic representatives must be placed on scientific review boards and consulted in research design. We must be included in policy concerning education services, employment services, and social and residential services. We must have a place on the board of any organization that creates, manages, or provides services to us. We must be polled (in a manner which is cognitively and culturally accessible!) about the effectiveness of the services we receive. Organized self-advocacy organizations by and for autistic people or people with developmental disabilities must be engaged directly by policy makers and supported by the public.

Autistic Rights is Disability Rights is Human Rights.

While autism makes us different, autistic rights is really about those things we all need, autistic or not, disabled or not, minority or not: food and shelter, respect and love, and empowerment to live our own lives in freedom, happiness, and health.