ASAN Autumn Update

Dear friends,

It’s officially autumn, and this season, it’s not just the leaves that are changing. Recently, the disability community has been excluded from a number of urgent conversations and decisions that impact us – and that changes now. 

 

This month, ASAN provided comments to the International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing. Conversations about nascent gene editing technology often involve speculation about what kinds of lives are worth living. Disturbingly, these discussions have often left out the perspectives of the disability community. We already know that our lives are worth living – so we’re changing the conversation. While we stake our claim to our community’s future, we are also escalating our fight to change the present. Far too many schools still use restraint and seclusion on students with disabilities, leading to injuries, trauma, and segregation. ASAN has joined a lawsuit aimed at ending restraint and seclusion in a local school district. Find out more about the lawsuit in our press release here.

 

When people with disabilities have access to information, we are empowered to join – and lead! – conversations about policies that impact our lives. This month, ASAN joined forces with Green Mountain Self Advocates and the Self Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center to present a webinar on plain language and Easy Read materials. Take a look at the captioned webinar, and other resources, here.

 

Finally, we want to invite you to join us on Wednesday, November 13th for our annual gala. The gala is our yearly celebration of self-advocacy, self-advocates, and changemakers. We’ll be hearing from some of today’s preeminent voices in disability advocacy as we celebrate the accomplishments of the past year. We hope you’ll be there to celebrate with us.

Sincerely,

Zoe Gross
Director of Operations
Autistic Self Advocacy Network