AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Sunday, August 20, 2006 ----- BODY:

Well, it's about time I had an autism post, this being one of the main subjects of this blog (see the tagline above). So let me introduce you all to Estee Klar, the founder and director of the Autism Acceptance Project (or TAAProject). Based in Canada, this initiative is essentially a kind of consciousness awareness outfit which, to quote its mission statement, seeks to work "towards achieving acceptance and tolerance of autistic people in society". It aims to do this primarily via sponsoring conferences, exhibitions and public lectures on the subject of, essentially, why autism, even in its most severe form, is not the devastating tragedy that it is commonly made out to be.

The TAAProject is currently putting together a set of such lectures and art exhibitions under the title of 'The Joy of Autism', to be held in Toronto. The art exhibition will be in the Lonsdale Gallery from October 5 to November 5, while the lectures will run from October 10 to 12 and then on the 16th, and will be in the Al Green Theatre. For more details go to the home page, which I've linked to above. I've had a look at the listings and the speakers at the lectures (the most important part of the shindig in my opinion) will include some of the big names in autism rights activism, such as Montreal University researcher Michelle Dawson, head of ANI Jim Sinclair, and American psychologist Morton Ann Gernsbacher. It promises to be an absolutely fascinating set of talks, and I only wish I was able to go to Canada for it. Anyone who is in a position to go to Toronto this autumn should definitely make a beeline there for early-to-mid October. Tickets are being sold on the TAAProject home page.

Such initiatives are hugely important in my view, as the autistic pride movement (much better phrase I think than the much vaguer 'autism rights movement') has largely been confined up till now to the certainly very autistic practice of individuals propagandising on the web from their home PCs. There has been very little actual activism, although a few initiatives have taken place. Certainly, the movement has had something of an impact, with several articles discussing the ideas it is putting forward. However, even a million blogs are not going to change the world, and real-world initiatives such as the Joy of Autism event are hugely important. Consciousness-raising is only one aspect of this though, and if there is one point on which I would critique it, is that it is not terribly political. Beyond the idea that autistics are not suffering from a devastating disease and should be accepted by society, it is weak analytically. Having said that, at this point in time, making it as broad as possible is undoubtedly the best way forward.

Nonetheless, it is not enough in itself. Some on the blogosphere have been talking about the need for more activism on the ground, and my view is that for this to be effective activism, we need organisation on quite a large scale. We need in short to revert to traditional activist methods - the democratically controlled mass organisation, the demos, the pickets and protests, the public stalls and leafleting in public places, and all the rest of it. Unoriginal it may be, but history has shown that these methods work. This will be a challenge for would-be autistic activists, many of whom have issues with sensory stimuli and socialising which would make such things difficult. Nonetheless, I'm an optimist, and believe that if it is possible to structure large conferences in ways that do not cause autistics to suffer overload, then it should be possible to apply the same principles to any other activity.

Finally, please read this article by Ms Klee on her website, which I think does a great job of summing up the issues and the autistic pride perspective.

I'm particularly interested, if there are any of my fellow SWP members reading this, on getting their comments on these issues. Our party has not as far as I'm aware, had any substantial debate on disability rights and disability pride, of which autism pride is a subset. So I'm very interested in comments from that angle. Any takers?

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: abfh COMMENT-DATE:3:29 PM COMMENT-BODY:Thaks for reminding me that I should write a post about the TAAProject lectures and exhibition, too. This initiative is indeed a big step forward for the cause, and it needs to be publicized as widely as possible.

I'd also like to remind readers that even if they cannot attend, they should consider sending a donation to help TAAProject fund future events. Even small amounts can add up to make a difference. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Sharon McDaid COMMENT-DATE:8:16 PM COMMENT-BODY:Hi Red Aspie

I like the blog; had a good read through the other day.

Have you any thoughts on the local (NI) autism organisations like PAPA (terrible name I know) and the NAS.
Do you think they could be used in an effort to re-educate people in this region? (I'm near Belfast.) -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:26 PM COMMENT-BODY:Hi Sharon. Not sure how useful such organisations are really, and I don't know much about PAPA. The thing is that such organisations are charities, and what I'm arguing is a political argument for the demedicalising of autism, and for the concept of 'neurodiversity'. Whether the NAS and other broad organisations are the best places to be or whether we need some kind of separate, much more directly political 'autistic pride' organisation is probably a very long debate in itself. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:5:19 PM COMMENT-BODY:Oh sorry you had to register! I thought my blog allowed anonymous comments. I'll fix that immediately.

I'm a little worried about sticking my email address on the website to be honest, as I suspect I'll get loads of spam.

Where are you based? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:8:18 PM COMMENT-BODY:Yes, quite possibly. I'm not so keen myself to be honest. If you have an email address maybe I can email you?

I'm actually considering installing haloscan on this thing at some point actually. You don't need to log on or anything for that. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:12 PM COMMENT-BODY:An autism rights groups in Birmingham would be an idea worth considering. I intend to move to London in a couple of months, provided all goes to plan, and I'll hopefully be able to do something similar in London. --------