history of autistic rights movement

[hyke]

I think it would be nice if we had a thread or forum in which we can put and find all kinds of things about the history of the autistic rights movement.

Partly because I want to find out for my self.
Partly because I think it is good for us all to have knowledge about this.

I'll start.

[hyke]

ani.autistics.org/dont_mourn.html

[Ivar T]

Wonder if Jim might object to you pasting that while citing copyrights, I wonder especially because I translated the whole text into norwegian and put it here.

[hyke]

Thanks Ivar. I had lost the link and only the tekst on my pc.

[Ivar T]

I'm interested in the history of Autistics.org - according to the Way Back Machine it has been online since 1999.

Doing research...

[Ivar T]

Autistics.org 1999 - A Community Pledge

I affirm that we on the autistic spectrum-- Kanners and Aspergers, high functioning and low functioning, rich and poor, those of us with additional disabilities and those without, all of us of whatever age, race, creed, sex, sexual preference, or any other subgrouping-- are one community.

I pledge to work for the benefit of all of us within our community.

I refuse to advocate or support any position, program, or policy which favors one subgroup at the expense of another. This does not mean that policies and programs should not be created to meet the unique needs of our many subgroups. We have different needs that should be addressed in different ways. But no subgroup among us should be favored over another.

I believe that every one of us, regardless of our talents, skills, temperament, past experiences, or level of function, is intrinsically worthy of support to reach our fullest potential. I take as my guide for action this vision: that we are, each of us, precious and beautiful.

You then see the names and e-mail adresses of people who have signed, the first to have signed appears to be Laura Tisoncik - I remember that name from this quote:

"The difference between high-functioning and low-functioning is that high functioning means your deficits are ignored, and low functioning means your assets are ignored."

I bet I got it from a signature of someone at AFF, they might know more about Tisoncik.



This I found in the web archive at:

web.archive.org/web/20010722220947/ferret.autistics.org/

Over the three images of buttons it says:

The "Autistic Liberation Front" is an attitude, not an actual organization. Now you can wear this attitude on your sleeve... or collar, or hat, or backpack. The full-color buttons are 1 inch in diameter.

Now it is an "organization" at Second Life.

Lots of cool stuff at the 1999's version of Autistics.org.

[Ivar T]

Oh, Laura is that woman Amanda was interviewing on YouTube, you can see her here:

ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=240

[Ivar T]

Seems like Aspies For Freedom first got online at 2004 with this proboards forum:

web.archive.org/web/20040615062331/http://as4freedom.proboards32.com/

Wikipedia also tells alot about AFF's history:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspies_For_Freedom

[earthmonkey]

Darn it! Ivar beat me to the link (it was a quote in my sig BTW).

Yeah, I saw anbuend post that pledge in a post somewhere on WP.

THis is a great resource about the history of ANI:

web.syr.edu/~jisincla/History_of_ANI.html

[Ivar T]

Long text, but extremely interesting to me trying to establish something Norway.