The autism news this month is a doozy; there are several different unrelated Sad Things making the rounds. First, though, some miscellaneous non-sad news:
- Leah Kelley interviews Lei Wiley-Mydske about the Ed Wiley Autism Acceptance Lending Library
- Jim C. Hines on writing his autistic character in the Libriomancer books, Nicola Pallas
- M. Kelter on proprioception and the sense of self
- Real Social Skills on how to accept disability without putting pressure on yourself to like everything about it
- Corina Becker on autism and grief
- Alyssa Hillary on why Tumblr has an #actuallyautistic tag
In the wake of Ferguson, a lot of people have been reflecting on interactions between disabled people and law enforcement – particularly for disabled people of colour.
- A statement on police violence by Sins Invalid
- And one from the Washington Post by Harold Braswell
- Kerima Cevik explains why training autistic people on how to deal with law enforcement, and vice versa, isn’t working
- S.E. Smith on disabled people judged incompetent to appear in court, who are held for years without trial
Kelli Stapleton, an “autism parent” blogger who attempted a murder-suicide of her 14-year-old autistic daughter last year, recently pled guilty to first-degree child abuse. This has renewed the debate online about how to discuss this and similar cases.
- Landon Bryce talks about problems with the autism parent community
- Shannon des Roches Rosa talks about changing these conversations
- Meanwhile, since my last news post, four more people were murdered for being autistic; three by their parents, and one by law enforcement.
Meanwhile, a new study reveals what disability advocates have been saying for years – that a lack of sex education puts disabled people at risk in multiple respects, including a heartbreakingly high rate of sexual victimization.
- Michelle Diament sums up these results
- S.E. Smith has a more detailed explanation of the problems with sex education for disabled people
- Autistic Fandom Things reminds us that, in addition to its other problems, a great deal of “rape prevention” advice is inaccessible or inappropriate for disabled people
Other sad things:
- Real Social Skills on a basic underlying problem with all ABA techniques
- A Labor Day reminder about sheltered workshops
- Germany recently unveiled a memorial for the tens of thousands of disabled people killed during the Holocaust
That’s it for this post; now go have some chocolate, if you made it to the end, and cheer yourself up!!