
THE AUTISTIC ARCHIVE: NEW PROJECT DOCUMENTS 30 YEARS OF OUR COMMUNITY’S HISTORY
Interview with Ira Eidle with Anne Borden

The movement for autistic rights has been building momentum for decades, but we’re often so busy doing the work of advocacy and activism that we neglect to document our projects. One person who’s making sure our autistic history is not forgotten is Ira Eidle. … Read More >>>
Don’t Mourn For Us
Jim Sinclair
Parents often report that learning their child is autistic was the most traumatic thing that ever happened to them.
Non-autistic people see autism as a great tragedy, and parents experience continuing disappointment and grief at all stages of the child’s and family’s life cycle.
But this grief does not stem from the child’s autism in itself. It is grief over the loss of the normal child the parents had hoped and expected to have. Parents’ attitudes and expectations, and the discrepancies between what parents expect of children at a particular age and their own child’s actual development, cause more stress and anguish than the practical complexities of life with an autistic person.
[This article was published in the Autism Network International newsletter, Our Voice, Volume 1, Number 3, 1993. It is an outline of the presentation Jim gave at the 1993 International Conference on Autism in Toronto, and is addressed primarily to parents.]
AUTISM NETWORK INTERNATIONAL: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY AND ITS CULTURE
Jim Sinclair
The American Heritage(r) Dictionary of the English Language (2000) defines “community” in part as: A group of people having common interests,” “A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society,” “Similarity or identity” and “Sharing, participation, and fellowship.”
Its entries for “culture” include “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought,” “These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population,” and “The predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization.”
Autism: The Politics & Marketing of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) Timeline
Note: “Autism Awareness” campaigns by parent-led organizations, including their initiatives and networks, directly drive today’s booming Autism Market.
I’ve been working to build this database to this level on the site for some years now. I’m finally at the point I can start showing the timeline of overlapping categories like autism autism marketing, legislation, funding/grants, and so on. This is still work in progress. Please bear with me as I continue to build this timeline, and please use it for your advocacy work if it’s of help.
Search Autistic History By Year
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
The Autism Genome Project (AGP) Collection & History From NAAR To Autism Speaks To SFARI’s SPARK!
The Autism Cabal & The Rise Of Parent-Founded Autism Organizations In The United States
Eve Reiland
On InternationalBadassActivists.org the Autism Cabal refers to a group of privileged non-Autistic parents, philanthropists and US government officials that met and began to network together in the early 2000s.
The goal for these parents was to become the loudest voice heard on autism in the nation, influence the direction of autism research worldwide, and lobby legislation to get their ’autism solutions’ legitimized and funded – and that’s exactly what they did.

International Charter of Autists Human Rights & THE 10 POINTS OF Âû (The Autistic Union)
THE 10 POINTS OF Âû (The Autistic Union)
- I am Autistic. [or] I support those who are Autistic.
- I embrace my Autism as a very significant part of my identity.
- I embrace those who would sacrifice to protect all Autistic life.
- I embrace the belief that Autism does not need any “curing”.
- I embrace the self-advocacy goal of “Everything about us, with us”.
- I embrace the definition of Autism as a neuro-social difference.
- I embrace measures directed at protecting Autistics from attack.
- I embrace a person-centred approach to all Autism issues.
- I embrace rigorous scientific approaches to co-occurring conditions.
- I embrace Autistics leading their own welfare organisations.
