ASAN Spring Update

Dear friends,

Before I talk about what ASAN has been up to this month, I wanted to address what’s currently going on in the U.S. After many recent murders of Black people by police — including the murders of  George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed and far too many more — protests this weekend were met with escalating police violence. All of us in the disability community have a duty to stand against police violence, overpolicing, and systematic racism — not only because these systems directly impact so many disabled people of color, but because we hope to one day live in a just society. ASAN is committed to working in coalition with anti-racism organizations to end police violence.

 

If you want to support the fight against police violence, this article provides some useful places to start. Go here for more information on policy solutions to police violence and how you can get involved in advocacy in your local community. You can read our statement on how disability rights intersect with the rights of all marginalized people here. 

This month, ASAN has been fighting for the rights of people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people with disabilities are struggling with visitor restrictions in hospitals and doctors’ offices, since many of us need a support person when we are seeking medical care. So ASAN joined organizational partners to release a letter and guidelines calling on hospitals and health care providers to allow supporters to accompany patients with disabilities. 

We’re working hard to protect our right to equal care, but many of our community members’ home and community based services are once again at risk of being cut. We can fight this in the next COVID-19 relief package, but we need your help! Today, we launched our weekly COVID-19 Call-Ins. There’s still time to get in a call, or sign up to call next week. And if phone calls are your superpower, there’s more you can do: sign up to be a proxy caller and help people with disabilities across the U.S. get involved.

Once you’ve made your calls, don’t forget that you can help your community by taking the Census. There’s still time to #GetCounted! Read up on why the census matters to people with disabilities here.

Finally, this month ASAN and 30 supporting organizations released a joint statement on the universal civil & human rights of people with high support needs. After every civil rights victory for people with disabilities, we see a backlash claiming that some people are “too disabled” to have the rights that our community has fought for. But our basic human rights are not meant to be selectively distributed. They are for everyone ⁠— no exceptions.

Wishing you a safe summer,

 

Julia Bascom

Executive Director

Autistic Self Advocacy Network