Discrimination against Autistic persons - UN Human Rights

Discrimination against Autistic persons Wednesday, 1 April 2015, 3:28 pm Press Release: United Nations Human Rights Commissioner

Discrimination against Autistic persons, the rule rather than the exception – UN rights experts

GENEVA (30 March 2015) – Two United Nations human rights experts today called for an end to discrimination against Autistic persons and a celebration of diversity. Speaking ahead of World Autism Awareness Day, the Special Rapporteurs on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas Aguilar, and on the right to health, Dainius Pūras, noted that about one per cent of the world’s population -some 70 million people- is estimated to be on the Autism Spectrum worldwide.

“As part of human diversity, Autistic persons should be embraced, celebrated and respected. However, discrimination against Autistic children and adults is more the rule rather than the exception.

In many countries, Autistic persons lack access to services which would support, on an equal basis with others, their right to health, education, employment, and living in the community. When available, services are too often far from human rights friendly or evidence-based.

Autistic persons are particularly exposed to professional approaches and medical practices which are unacceptable from a human rights point of view. Such practices – justified many times as treatment or protection measures – violate their basic rights, undermine their dignity, and go against scientific evidence.

Autistic children and adults face the proliferation of medicalized approaches relying on the over-prescription of psychotropic medications, their placement in psychiatric hospitals and long-term care institutions, the use of physical or chemical restraint, electro-impulsive therapy, etc. This may be particularly harmful and lead to the deterioration of their condition. All too often, such practices amount to ill-treatment or torture.

The Autism Spectrum should be understood from a broader perspective, including in research. We call for caution about enthusiastic attempts to find the causes of Autism and ways to ‘cure’ Autism through sophisticated but not necessarily ethical research. Autism as a condition is a critical challenge for modern health systems, in which we need to ensure that the practice and science of medicine is never again used to cause the suffering of people.

More investment is needed in services and research into removing societal barriers and misconceptions about Autism. Autistics persons should be recognized as the main experts on Autism and on their own needs, and funding should be allocated to peer-support projects run by and for Autistic persons.

It is about providing individuals and families with the necessary skills and support to have choice and control over their lives. It is also about equal opportunities, access to inclusive education and mainstream employment to achieve equality and rights enjoyment by Autistic persons. It is about promoting their independence and respecting their dignity.

Autistic persons should be respected, accepted and valued in our societies, and this can only be achieved by respecting, protecting and fulfilling their basic rights and freedoms.”

Let’s all turn fear into Acceptance.

At this time of year there is much talk of fear and being scared.  People seem to go out of their way to enjoy being scared by monsters from witches to vampires to zombies, but the rest of the year we Autistics are the ones who are feared.  Watching scary movies and going to haunted houses are done for the fun of it, but the fear of us is not.  No one gets any enjoyment from that sort of fear, neither us nor you, especially us.  Autistics are not monsters; we too are people and deserve to be treated as such. 

Time and time again the media has helped to add to the fear of Autistics by siding with murderous parents, misrepresenting Autism, leaving out Autistic perspectives/voices, etc.  With every new study and article that does not embrace the gifts of Autism, but only dwells on its negatives, in full Technicolor, more fiendish falsehoods are added to the arsenal of hate. 

We are not monsters.

Fear breeds more fear, confusion, and misunderstanding.  Since the dawn of humankind man has feared what he truly does not understand. 

Don’t you think that it is time to set aside your fear and hatred, jettison your ignorance, and take the time to understand us on our terms?  Push back the dark veil of dread and let the full Spectrum enter the world.  We have much to share, verbal or nonverbal, and deserve to be given the chance to do so.  From understanding comes Acceptance and Acceptance will make a better world.  Let’s all turn fear into Acceptance.  We are not monsters, let us show you today.

Happy Halloween from the Autism Acceptance Digest!

Autism Acceptance Attacked, but NOT Defeated!

As you know in November of 2011 my board voted unanimously to call April in Northern Virginia Autism Acceptance Month at my suggestion, awareness is not enough. 

For our first celebration in April 2012 I made a sign for my front yard that stated “April is Autism Acceptance Month”, I decorated it with flowers, waterproofed it, taped it to an old yard sign and placed it in a flowerbed facing the street, every year since then it has spent the whole of April cheerily sharing my message with passersby that was until last evening. 

I was headed out to church when I noticed it lying on the front walk sans yard sign, I assumed that it had somehow come unstuck, the best case scenario I could dream up knowing full well I had made sure to tape it securely with duct tape to the yard sign.  After closer investigation I discovered that it had been cut off the yard sign and then tossed onto our front walk.  The covering had been slashed.  Fortunately the sign within had not been damaged.  I was angered and close to having a meltdown.  I quickly gathered it up and ran back into my house, I was fuming.  I showed it to my mother who was surprised that the sign had been attacked, but fortunately my mother knew the right thing to say to keep me from fully melting down, so off to church I went.

While I was at church she had been looking at the sign and noticed that the lettering had started to fade due to two Aprils worth of sunlight, she therefore suggested that I should touch up the letters and make it better than it was.  I in turn told her that I had concluded during church that the individual who had committed the act did not know what Acceptance was and that I would put my sign up again, showing the world that Acceptance cannot be so easily defeated.  It is now freshly re-erected.

I am Autistic and Proud and no one can take that away from me!