Autism Vox

A New Kind of Autism Advocacy

by Kristina Chew, PhD on October 13th, 2006

It is exactly two weeks before Autism and Advocacy: A Conference of Witness and Hope will take place on October 27th, Friday, at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York City. Registrations have been coming in steadily—-I have gotten into the habit of handing out flyers wherever I go and Jim has been spreading the word via email, phone, and good old-fashioned word of mouth. And many thanks to our friends ‘round the blogosphere for mentioning the conference.

A special thanks to all who have sent us photos and artwork that we will be assembling together to show at the conference (without names or other means of identification), to portray the varieties of human experience as we all know it. We would be more than glad to receive more photos and artwork if you would like to send these in and have not yet done so—you can contact Jim at jafisher AT fordham DOT edu or Kristina at autismland AT gmail DOT com for more information.

Kassiane Sibley will be speaking in the panel entitled “The Varieties of Autism Advocacy,” but most of the speakers at the conference do not have autism—many are parents of autistic children or teachers who work with autistic children, and individuals with disabilities. “Advocacy” is the main theme of the conference and I am taking this word to mean not only how can we advocate for more understanding about autism. The conference is also about how we—we who are not autistic—-can change ourselves; how we can begin to change the world to make it the best it can be for kids like Charlie. Too often it seems, autism advocacy ends up meaning something like “advocating against autism and persons who have autism”—advocating for a cure against what is seen as a devastating, tragic disorder that ruins lives and destroys hope.

For Jim and me, Charlie has been, and is, the beginning of hope. And advocating for Charlie and for autism—redefining autism advocacy as decidedly for autism, for autistic persons, for Charlie—-is what the conference is all about.

I hope to see you there—and for those who cannot actually be in NYC, I know you will be there with us.

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POSTED IN: Adulthood, Autism Advocacy Conference, Disability Rights