Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia

The United Nations is again reviewing Australia's response to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4) submitted a report on Australia's response to the CRPD in relation to the rights of autistic Australians. The key points A4 made are:

Australia’s laws and its legal system:

do not protect the rights of persons with disabilities
protect, and possibly promote, disability discrimination against autistic citizen in disability services.

Australian News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt labels 16-year-old environmental activist ‘strange’ and ‘disturbed’

News Corp’s Andrew Bolt showed “absolute ignorance” when he mocked the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg in a column for the Herald Sun, an autism awareness advocate says.

The high-profile columnist for Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and Sky News commentator attacked the 16-year-old campaigner as “deeply disturbed”, “freakishly influential” and “strange” in the piece published on Wednesday.

Yuval Levental

Autism doesn’t have to define a person’s identity

The autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen published an article, “The Concept of Neurodiversity Is Dividing the Autism Community,” where he defends the neurodiversity perspective. There are several specific arguments in his article, but overall, he views autism as a biological difference, not a disability.

This article relates to people with disability generally; it is not specific to ASD.

Shannon Jenkins

Males and people with higher incomes are more likely to benefit from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) than other demographic groups are, according to a new report.

The article by BMC Public Health, a journal which looks at the community impact of health policy and practice, studied how social determinants of health at the individual level can contribute to deep-seated health inequalities when combined with complex policy-delivery systems.

It found the ability to exercise choice is distributed unequally through personalisation schemes like the NDIS.

Atypical eating behaviors may be a sign a child should be screened for autism, according to a new study from Penn State College of Medicine.

Research by Susan Mayes, professor of psychiatry, found that atypical eating behaviors were present in 70% of children with autism, which is 15 times more common than in neurotypical children.

Atypical eating behaviors may include severely limited food preferences, hypersensitivity to food textures or temperatures, and pocketing food without swallowing.

Henrietta Cook

An increasing number of students with autism are being excluded from mainstream classes according to new research which raises concerns about the segregation of children with disabilities.

The Monash University research found that between 2009 and 2015, the inclusion of autistic students in mainstream classes dropped from 18.8 per cent to just 3.3 per cent.

During this period, the proportion of students with autism in special schools increased from 37 to 52 per cent.

High profile study claims mice show “autism-like” behaviour. But does the evidence stack up?

Jon Brock

Two weeks ago, a paper published in the journal Cell claimed to provide evidence that microbes in the gut contribute to the development of autism. The researchers, led by Gil Sharon and Sarkis Mazmanian at the California Institute of Technology, found that mice with gut bacteria from autistic children exhibited more “autistic-like” behaviours than mice whose gut bacteria came from non-autistic children.

A4 and AFDO represented in UN Side Event

13 Jun 2019 -  Autism is a partially genetic, lifelong neurodevelopmental difference, yet there is limited research examining parenting in autistic mothers.

This side-event will discuss, from both an academic and an experiential point of view – including through 2 panellists who would be speaking both as researchers and as autistic mothers – the experiences of autistic mothers in areas related to parenthood: pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period, self-perception of parenting strengths and weaknesses, communication with professionals in relation to one's child, and the social experience of motherhood, including disclosing one’s diagnosis of autism in parenting contexts.

Helen Dickinson

More than 277,000 people have already benefited from the NDIS, but there’s room to improve.

In one of his first official public remarks since being re-elected, Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged that addressing failures in the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) would be a priority for the new government.

Stuart Robert has assumed the role of minister for the NDIS and will be charged with delivering on this important agenda.

So what does the new minister need to do to get the NDIS back on track?

AFDO is pleased to be participating again this year in the 12th Session of the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  CoSP will be held from 11th to 13th June 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

AFDO and A4 are co-sponsoring a side event, "Leave No Autistic Mother Behind: Autism and Motherhood – Experiences, Challenges and Positive Strategies",  on Thursday 13th June from 3pm – 4:15pm (New York time).