Thread by @JenniAgitator

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @CASP & @AutismSpeaks are cogs in the 22 billion dollar ABA industry wheel. Nonspeakers are some of their best clients. Accommodate nonspeakers & that’ll take a bite outta that 22 bil sweet cash. What’s their objection to nonspeakers being accommodated? Cash flow problems for ABA

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @autismspeaks and @CASProviders support the use of seclusion torture on nonspeakers who lose the ABA power struggle resultant from denying appropriate communication supports

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @autismspeaks @CASProviders & @NCSAutismOrg all say they are the ones who best represent high needs NDs and nonspeakers. Why do they oppose more supports for them? Why are they against bans of seclusion torture?

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg @autismspeaks never mentions the fact that 65% of incarcerated minors were students w/IEPs, many are neurodivergents. At the intersection of race & disability comes the school to prison pipeline. Fail to support NDs, and incarceration is how it often ends

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg Denial of accommodations for disabled students, especially disabled students of color, is the first step in the school to prison pipeline. @autismspeaks why are you killing bills that give more supports to neurodivergents in Virginia?

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg And just like that, after the bill was tabled, Amy Lutz from @NCSAutismOrg, another hate group, left a comment opposed to HB 2047. It’s clear she hadn’t read it, was just sticking w/all the talking points of the other haters. Their big beef is with letter boards and spellers

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg The divide in the community isn’t really an autistics v parents thing as orgs like @AutismSpeaks and @NCSAutismOrg claim. It’s a medical model of disability v social model of disability thing. This point is relevant to Facilitated Communication discussion. endseclusion.org/2021/05/18/wha…

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg Let me first post a video that shows facilitated communication or letter boards to which all the autism profiteers so object. RPM and facilitated communication are miraculous for some nonspeakers. I know 2 people who it’s changed them entirely

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg For some people, it’s the only communication modality they are able to use or they choose. For my nonspeaking son, he preferred American Sign Language over all others. His choice of communication modality was not supported. School decided he needed a PECS, which he hated

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg PECS is an ABA-based communication system. I realized after he was so miserable in ABA, and later found out PECS is taught via ABA, that’s why he rejected it. And later he rejected devices w/the same icons. I think they reminded him of PECS and he was stridently disinterested.

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg He now is able to use minimal speech to communicate, mixed with ASL, and a text device. He always 100% rejected the picture devices and PECS. The point is, because communication is a human right, the modality he chose should have also been his right.

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg This is where social model v medical model come into play. Medical model folks see disabled ppl as broken, needing to be fixed, forced to comply at all costs, (behaviorism) Hence, the concept of their choosing their own modality isn’t accepted as valid, because they aren’t valid

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg Medical model adherents want to make all choices for disabled people. And yes, there are many disabled people who have very high support needs and need help with some or almost all decisions, but offering them choices still matters, even if small choices.

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg Choosing a communication modality is a big choice. I taught my son ASL, despite what school did; he flourished and still uses a lot of ASL. We changed more to finger spelling when he started showing interest in a text device, to get used to the concept of spelling to communicate

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg High support needs disabled people are not broken. Social model adherents believe greatest barriers for disabled people are denial of personhood, supports, care, basic human rights. We are human beings. Our abilities/disabilities should have no impact on respect for personhood.

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg But it’s really not about RPM or FC because nothing in HB 1047 mentioned a thing about these communication modalities. These are people who seem terrified of respecting personhood of high support needs disabled people, or nonspeakers. They infantilize them.

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg I think for some, like @autismspeaks @NCSAutismorg @CASProviders it’s autism grift. For these admin associations, it’s about avoiding lawsuits. The more mandated supports, easier to sue for noncompliance. And for them, the kids come LAST. It’s about their needs, not the child’s

@notanautismmom @VaHouse @autismspeaks @CASProviders @casp @NCSAutismOrg They dehumanize autistic adults, undermine their concerns, dismiss their lived experience. Why? Bc they don’t see them as sentient human beings. I will end this rant w/Mel Boggs, a nonspeaker, who illustrated precisely why all people deserve personhood.