Dear friends,
When you think about some of your favorite subjects, what comes to mind? Our members love lots of things, from cats to books to trains and beyond. We’re so proud to be part of a community that cares about so many different types of things.
One thing we know all of you care about is supporting policy advocacy for all autistic people - and there’s lots of ways that we’re doing that with your help [[link removed]]!
Supporting Home- and Community-Based Services
We are consistently at work promoting self-determination and the right for disabled people to live in our own homes. Last year, we worked with Congressional offices to draft the HCBS Access Act, which would make HCBS a mandatory spending category. We’ve also continuously made content and held events around HCBS, including our Community Living Summit [[link removed]], several toolkits [[link removed]] , and are presently fighting to include HCBS in the reconciliation package [[link removed]].
Fighting for inclusion in education and employment
Our report Benchmarks to Inclusion [[link removed]] discusses what autistic college students say matters to them regarding success in college, and what makes a college a good fit for them. We continue the fight to support competitive, integrated employment [[link removed]], which includes disabled people being paid at or above the minimum wage. Every year, we also host ACI, our Autism Campus Inclusion [[link removed]] leadership summit for autistic college student leaders.
Promoting equal access to healthcare for all disabled people
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we consistently are fighting to ensure that disabled people have equitable access to vaccines [[link removed]] (and information about them [[link removed]] ), treatment [[link removed]], and access to home and community based services [[link removed]]. In a time where multiple providers have had to shut down their HCBS program branches or cut staff due to cost, this work is critical to keeping our community members safe and out of institutions.
This work is made possible thanks to your generous donations [[link removed]]. The folks in our membership program [[link removed]] make a regular donation to ASAN, and get perks in exchange, such as a giftcard to the ASAN shop or a copy of one of our books! Plus, gain access to exclusive members-only designs for merch!
Whether you make one-time donations, are a regular member, or gift a membership to someone else, you can rest assured that your money is going towards tireless work for all of our community members. If you are unable to donate and contribute by sharing our resources or taking action in other ways instead, we thank you as well.
Wishing you a pleasant start to spring,
The Team at ASAN
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
PO Box 66122
Washington, DC 20035
United States
If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .
