Events and Activities
- The ANI annually hosts Autreat, a retreat-style conference developed to allow autistic individuals to meet, socialize and learn advocacy skills in an "autism friendly" environment. It was founded in 1996.
- In 2005 Aspies for Freedom founded Autistic Pride Day. Every year on June 18 events are held across the globe.
- In 2008, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) succeeded in halting two ad campaigns it stated were demeaning to autistics. The first ads were a series published by the NYU Child Study Center that appeared in the form of ransom notes. One read, "We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning", and was signed, "Autism". The second ads were published by PETA and featured a bowl of milk with the left over bits of cereal forming a frowning face. The text read, “Got autism?” and was meant to advertise what PETA claims is a link between autism and the casein in milk. Phone calls, letters and petitions organized by ASAN resulted in the removal of these ads.
- Advocates have implemented several experimental programs for alternative education for individuals on the spectrum. For instance, the School of ASPIE (Autistic Strength, Purpose and Independence in Education) in Boiceville, NY aims to help autistics cope with a non-autistic world, but stresses that it is acceptable and expected that they "act autistic".
Read more about this topic: Autism Rights Movement
Famous quotes containing the words events and/or activities:
“Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)
“That is the real pivot of all bourgeois consciousness in all countries: fear and hate of the instinctive, intuitional, procreative body in man or woman. But of course this fear and hate had to take on a righteous appearance, so it became moral, said that the instincts, intuitions and all the activities of the procreative body were evil, and promised a reward for their suppression. That is the great clue to bourgeois psychology: the reward business.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)