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ASAN October Newsletter
A lake surrounded by red trees [[link removed]]
Dear friend,
What’s scarier than ghosts and ghouls? Discriminatory health care policies! This October, we’ve been hard at work fighting for everyone to safely access health care without fear of discrimination, harassment, or persecution – plus preparing a grassroots push to #StopTheShock, getting ready to host our annual gala, and more. Here’s what we’ve been up to.
Our policy team has been hard at work providing feedback on the proposed 1557 rule [[link removed]] . This rule will be crucial to codify antidiscrimination protections and ensure that our community has accessible, equitable health care. In addition to submitting our own comments, we signed on to letters from the Disability and Aging Collective, the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities, [[link removed]] the Partnership to Improve Patient Care [[link removed]] , the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute [[link removed]] , and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. [[link removed]] We also met with DC-based LGBTQ+ healthcare clinic Whitman Walker to ensure our response centers the most marginalized in our community.
We have also been organizing opposition to EAGLES, a “threat assessment” bill that some people on the Hill are trying to pass at the last second. Threat assessment [[link removed]] is where a team of a police officer and a few teachers decide whether a student is a threat to the school based on often-anecdotal evidence. It has been used to remove kids from the classroom without regard to their rights, and it discriminates against students of color and students with disabilities. We drafted a letter to be sent by the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Education Task Force, and will be meeting with Congressional offices in partnership with the Task Force and other allies in order to discuss our concerns about this bill.
October marks a month when the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) meets, so we released our new toolkit on how you can make your voice heard. The deadline for submitting comments for this meeting has passed, but you can learn how to submit comments in the future, and learn more about IACC, here! [[link removed]]
Election day is coming up soon! Learn how to vote by mail with our resource “How to Vote by Mail! [[link removed]] ,” which gives an overview of how voting by mail works and answers lots of the questions you might have about voting by mail. This guide applies broadly to every state, no matter where you live! Plus, the 50 state guide will give you everything you need to know about your state’s requirements and deadlines for mail-in voting. We also hosted two webinars on preparing to vote. If you missed them, you can learn how to combat barriers to voting for you and your community [[link removed]] and why voting matters [[link removed]] ! Check out all our voting resources here [[link removed]] , make a plan to vote, and make your voice heard in the midterm elections November 8th.
We passed a very special membership milestone this month: we now have 1,000 recurring donors in our membership program [[link removed]] ! When we launched our revamped membership program in July of 2020, we had no idea what the future looked like or how many of you would support us along the way with your membership dues. Our membership rewards are a way for us to let you know how much your support means to us. By supporting ASAN, you make our work possible — and together, we can keep making change for years to come!
Join us [[link removed]] for a special virtual edition of our annual celebration and fundraising event every Tuesday in November! Gala tickets [[link removed]] are on a sliding scale this year, so you can pay whatever you are comfortable with. Register now to reserve your spot [[link removed]] , and let everyone know you’ll be coming by RSVPing on Facebook [[link removed]] ! We kick off tomorrow at 7pm Eastern Time with a #StopTheShock night of action.
This is no trick — advocating with you is a treat! Wishing you the best in this spooky season,
The Team at ASAN
Disability rights and justice are intersectional, and our work should be too. Here are some smaller, but no less important, things the policy team did behind-the-scenes this month, laying the groundwork for further advocacy:
We joined a coalition letter demanding Customs and Border Patrol to limit the amount of time pregnant/postpartum/nursing people spend in custody to the absolute minimum. If this were to happen, we could then continue to fight towards limiting the harm that comes from Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement interacting with immigrants with disabilities.
We signed onto a Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination letter asking the Department of Justice to reinstate their Olmstead guidance on employment and the integration mandate.
We urged the implementation of certain provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), especially a ban on quality-adjusted life years or QALYs, a discriminatory tool that tries to quantify disabled quality of life that can unfairly target people on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.
Members-only:
🎃 Pets of ASAN do Halloween 🎃
Dear ASAN member,
The best part of Halloween are the costumes - and the only thing better than that is pets in costumes! Here are some of the ASAN pets’ plans for the season:
A fluffy cream and grey cat on a chair in a green dinosaur costume with spikes running down her back [[link removed]]
Evie will be going as a dinosaur!
The same Cream and grey cat in a different green dinosaur costume, this one less shiny. She is looking at the camera in this picture. [[link removed]]
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - Evie was also a dinosaur last year!
A tan dog with floppy ears with one paw up on a fancy orange chair. Around his neck is a black and orange bow tie. He is looking at the camera mournfully. [[link removed]]
Leo is looking sharp in his formalwear. He’s also in costume most days, since while you may think he’s a dog, he’s actually a gargoyle whose favorite food is cardboard.
Galaxy has a shark costume!
A fluffy grey cat with yellow eyes in a blue and white shark costume. She is looking murderously off camera. [[link removed]]A fluffy grey cat with yellow eyes staring murderously at the camera. There is a blue shark costume visible behind her head. [[link removed]]
However, she’s not the biggest fan of wearing her costume - so she won’t! It’s her choice, and it’s important to respect that.
A black cat sitting on a white arm trying to type on a computer. [[link removed]]A black cat with his eyes closed laying on a laptop keyboard. [[link removed]]
Franklin and Starfire are spooky all year round as black cats! The myth of black cats being unlucky dates back to ancient Greece, but these two aren’t unlucky - except if you want to work on your laptop! Just like black cats, it’s important to never judge a book by its cover - or a person by whatever stereotypes are out there!
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Autistic Self Advocacy Network Comments on Section 1557 [[link removed]]
autisticadvocacy.org/2022/09/asan-statement-on-final-public-charge-rule/ [autisticadvocacy.org/2022/09/asan-statement-on-final-public-charge-rule/]
Autism Research and the IACC: Your voice matters! [[link removed]]
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Join us for our Virtual Gala! [[link removed]]
youtu.be/XdAFqgHd-ro [youtu.be/XdAFqgHd-ro]
Don't forget to vote! [[link removed]]
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
PO Box 66122
Washington, DC 20035
United States
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