ASAN April Update

Dear friends,

It’s been a hard month for all of us. Stigmatizing autism “awareness” campaigns can make April a difficult time for autistic people in any year. This year, our community is also facing a global pandemic. This overwhelming combination is leaving many of us struggling — but we are also fighting back. ASAN is working hard to make sure that all people with disabilities get what we need, and to change the way our society talks about autism. Here’s how:  

• Fighting discrimination - After the department of Health & Human Services released guidance prohibiting discriminatory rationing of medical care, we worked in coalition with other disability organizations to create a guide for states, hospitals, and health care providers. Our coalition also created a tool that advocates can use to fight discriminatory practices in their own states. 
  
  
• Documenting the pandemic’s impact on our community - Coronavirus is spreading through congregate settings (like group homes, nursing homes, and other institutions) at an alarming rate, putting our community members at risk. We created the COVID-19 case tracker to collect the available information on how COVID-19 is affecting people with disabilities in institutions.
  
  
• New COVID-19 resources - People with disabilities need accurate, accessible information about COVID-19. We’re partnering with other disability organizations to create cognitively accessible resources, including this plain language animated video we developed with Rooted in Rights, and this COVID-19 toolkit from Green Mountain Self-Advocates.
  
  
• Changing the conversation around autism - Our new Welcome to the Autistic Community site and book has autistic people take the lead in teaching others about autism, and lets autistic people who are new to the community know they’re not alone. 

 

As we reach the start of a new month, let’s take this time to take care of ourselves and our communities. We aren’t out of the woods yet, and there’s more work to be done to safeguard our community — but we’ll get through this, together.

Best wishes,

Zoe Gross

Director of Operations

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

P.S. We’d also like to wish a happy beginning of Ramadan to our Muslim followers! If you’re interested in possibly purchasing our Flappy Eid merch as a gift for the autistic Muslims in your life, click here to check out our store.