Stuff about race and #freeneli:
- A young black autistic man named Neli Latson has been held in solitary confinement for several years after hostile encounters with police officers
- The case gained more widespread publicity when ASAN got involved, calling for Neli’s release
- Ruth Marcus explains why Neli’s advocates have had trouble moving him to a more appropriate environment
- More on this from N.I. Nicholson and Kerima Cevik
- Timotheus Gordon on being black and autistic
Stuff involving the Vatican and Autism Speaks:
- Pope Francis talked to a bunch of children/teens with autism and their families, in order to raise awareness about autism and autism stigmas within the Catholic Church
- Unfortunately, Autism Speaks was also there.
- Jess from A Diary of a Mom and M Kelter point out problems with Suzanne Wright’s Autism Speaks speech at the Vatican
- John Elder Robinson also gives a measured and constructive critique of Autism Speaks’ latest Twitter campaign, #MSSNG.
Misc:
- Lisa D. on how autism culture has changed over time
- Emily Morson on “joint attention” and how many researchers define it wrong
- We Are Like Your Child on splinter skills
- A Q&A with M Kelter about social skills and positivity
- Julia Bascom on why presuming competence applies to everyone
- Holly Hibner reviews a book on social skills for autistic teenagers – giving a good example of how social skills education can do more harm than good.
- Aspergia Jones on the older generation of autism mums
Sad Things:
- Lisa D. on what it’s like to maintain an autism memorial
- Amanda Forest Vivian on autistic people abusing other autistic people
- Samantha Crane on how ASAN got directly involved in the Issy Stapleton case (This is happy, but the Issy Stapleton case is sad.)
- Carly Fleischmann, an autistic teenager famous for learning to type while nonverbal, posted to Facebook and Twitter early this month saying “needdc fdocttor helphgfi”. Her father posted an hour later saying everything was fine. The autism community in general is not sure what’s going on.