Thread by @ekverstania

Also, before I go there: if you're an autistic person who speaks, this is a reminder to please be alert to how some autism organisations will use you in their marketing to prevent criticism of their stance on nonspeakers.

They will say autistic instead of 'person with autism', because they know you like that. They will remove the puzzle pieces from their branding. They will have you do a guest blog post or video for them. They will even let you 'celebrate autism'. You will think they're listening.

Here's a suggestion: Write an open letter to the autism organisation which is supporting your cause and which is saying "neurodiversity" and "acceptance" now. Ask them whether they support the broad principles of the #BanABA movement. It's a simple question.

Ask them to list ten nonspeaking autistic people whose writing or movies they would recommend to people wanting to learn from nonspeakers (as opposed to just learning ABOUT nonspeakers).

This should be an OPEN letter, so that it elicits an OPEN, PUBLIC response.

Get your ducks in a row before you do this.

Are YOU listening to nonspeaking autistic people?

Do YOU understand why survivors are against it?

Team up with nonspeakers and with people who #ListenToNonspeakers.

There are groups in autism advocacy who don't get on with each other. That's OK. We don't need unity as much as we need to all be moving in the right general direction.

Block, mute, ghost or avoid people whose personalities, approaches or beliefs about the details annoy you.

It's not necessarily aggression. It's sometimes just good management of boundaries.

Another question: does the autism organisation you're working with intend to become a REPRESENTATIVE organisation? I'm not saying it necessary HAS to; I'm just suggesting that you ask.

What is a "representative organisation", in respect of disabilities?

Well, if your country has signed the #CRPD (most have), that question has an easy answer: it has a board of whom more than 50% of the members have the disability they focus on.
docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/F…

So, if they focus on serving the needs of all autistic people in their region (speaking, nonspeaking, people of colour, poor, multiply disabled, etc.), then more than 50% of the board needs to be representative of these groups.

In my country, one school for nonspeaking autistic children has started including disability rights training for the children in primary school. It's presented by an external intersectional disabled activist, not a staff member.

What other ways are there of working towards strong representative organisations?

Here we have another example of how ABA guys are starting to say "politically correct" things in an attempt to stay relevant.

https://twitter.com/autistinquisitr/status/1406383782844850177?s=19

And in this thread, ABAmongers leverage the growing awareness of apraxia in autism to flog their own (inappropriate) services—all while they STILL don't #ListenToNonspeakers.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1389681021734555659

The advocacy jargon is coming through thick and fast in traditional ableist therapy outfits. See this thread.

https://twitter.com/neutralmothjpg/status/1409907002629885954?s=19

Then there's the "I wouldn't want to change him for the world" veil disguising the "I just want to change everything about him" thing.

https://twitter.com/KateGladstone/status/1409613689062318085?s=19

As we work to #BanABA, we need to strategise how to create a shift towards anti-ableism within the autism industry, especially among professionals who currently either do straight-up ABA, or who employ ABA principles in their work.

This is an area of focus for @FDMorg: pulling ABAmongers out of ABA and helping them learn better ways.

We can't just focus on pushing changes in the law without working with the hearts and minds of the perpetrators. Because if we ban ABA without a preceding culture shift among many of its current adherents, we're going to introduce a whole new dynamic with new risks.

One thing that could happen is that the ABA industry morphs into a large UNDERGROUND cult, the way the CD/MMS community functions. ABA is already well accepted in the bleachcult.

Another thing that could happen is that hardcore ABA is replaced by microaggressive behaviour modification, where it's more difficult to point to the moments of abuse that might warrant reporting the perpetrator.

Plus, these people are usually alone with the children anyway.

People who choose to switch before the ban comes into effect, embarking on a path of learning from from autistic people, will pave the way for others to follow by modeling the change for them and making it uncool to stay stuck in old-school ways.

There is already a significant move in this direction, with many former abusers having crossed over, denouncing their old ways. We need to support the growth of this trend by asking, "What made you change?" and working with the answers.

Just be mindful of this, though, and know that it's not even always intentionally sneaky. People sometimes THINK they're 'getting it', when they're not.

It's a journey, and we need to be able to suss out where people are on that journey.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1395912298590609410?s=19

That also means checking ourselves. How intersectional are we? How anti-ableist are we really, those of us who want to drive this change?

As we gather autistic allies from around the world for the #BanABA movement, we may be at different stages of emergence from our own (internalised and lateral and hierarchical) ableism.

We must recognise this even if we can't wait until we've resolved it all before we move forward.

Anticipate turbulence. Anticipate messiness and disagreement. A movement is a loose association of people moving in the same general direction. It's not within the control of any one party.

Brace yourself even for having a massive falling out with someone or some organisation because you disagree with their modus operandi or their other pursuits, or you find them awful.

Move apart from them if you must, but keep your direction.

I've seen allies become friends, then something happens and it all turns sour, and from then on, the back-and-forth backstabbing and he-said-she-said and omg-here's-a-screenshot consumes an enormous amount of their energy and screentime.

As autistic people, it's understandable that some of us will be really extreme in these things. After all, unhelpful rumination and obsession are typical suboptimal states built into what we are. It can easily turn into endless unresolved battles that detract from progress.

This isn't a "call for unity" (remember when Autism Speaks tried that and wanted everyone to be united with THEM? 🤣).

It's not even a lament about the disunity among autistic activists.

If you don't get on with someone, work with other people. Or alone. Whatever.

Just keep moving.

A luta continua.