Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia

From all of us at Autism CRC, we wish you a very safe and happy holiday season.  As 2015 comes to a close, we have reviewed the year in numbers:

• 43 research projects are underway across our three research programs in diagnosis, education and adulthood.  
• 8 projects are currently being finalised and we look forward to updating you on the results of these projects early next year.
• Our 51 Participants, together with other collaborators, across Australia and internationally are working together to transform the lives of people on the autism spectrum.
• ...

Some of these children may never have had autism in the first place, despite being diagnosed with it

THE state’s largest specialist childcare facility for autistic children is at the centre of a police and Child Protection Service investigation into allegations of assault involving two young children.

Two female staff at the Huntfield Heights AEIOU Foundation Centre are on extended leave while the investigations are under way.

The police probe is being conducted by the family violence investigation branch in the South Coast CIB, and detectives are working closely with Flinders Medical Centre’s Child Protection Service.

A Senate committee has found a royal commission is needed into the abuse of people with disabilities, after a parliamentary inquiry heard "shocking" and "cruel" examples of violence and neglect around Australia. 

The report, by the Senate's community affairs committee, found that while there are no clear national statistics on the prevalence of violence against people with disability, there is "overwhelming anecdotal evidence". 

Amy Smith​

• Read more about Conversations about autism need to include people like me

In the USA, another report shows autism rates of 2.24% or 1 in 45: see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr0…

Presentation by Monique Blakemore to CEDAW, United Nations 30th October 2015 

Autistic women are a marginalised sector of the worlds largest minority group, the disabled community. There is an estimated 51,870,000 autistic women worldwide, a similar population to England.

Autistic women are subjected to systemic disadvantage in most areas of their lives. Autistic women experience exclusion socially, in education, in their personal lives, in the judicial system and in access to healthcare. Autistic leadership, exemplified by organizations such as Autism Women Matter, the Scottish Women’s Autism Network (SWAN) and Alliance Autiste, is necessary to challenge stigma and discrimination. 

Real, effective, and meaningful participation of autistic people, regardless of gender, is encapsulated in the phrase ‘nothing about us without us’ and is the aim of the autistic rights movement. Representation of autistic people by groups and individuals is frequently unfunded and unsupported. Unfortunately, ‘tokenism’, which is the illusion of consultation, is over-representative of the autistic advocacy experience. Autistic voices can be crowded out by those of professionals and parent caregivers that love and support us, but may see autism through their own experience. 

A range of initiatives are needed to address autism in Australia, the cost of which to the budget has been put at at least $20 billion a year.

We are researchers from the University of Cambridge who are working in partnership with women with an autism spectrum condition (ASC) to understand how autism affects the experience of motherhood.
 

SALLY GLAETZER

KEELAN Law likes reading National Geographic, watching Mr Bean and creating spreadsheets on the computer. He likes his cappuccinos half-strength and extra frothy. Most of all, he loves ice-skating.

The 19-year-old has severe autism. Until recently, he struggled to communicate his basic needs and desires, even to those closest to him.