Campaigning and Lobbying
Our primary focus is to ensure that our rights upheld and that all autistic adults have equal access to everyday services by promoting the civil and human rights of autistic people and campaigning for the enforcement of legislation guaranteeing our rights
We are members of rights-based organisations and sit on diversity and equality panels
We inform, educate, advocate and challenge unfair systems, practices and policies which disadvantage autistic people and negatively impact on their wellbeing.
In recent years we have seen a lot of negative media around campaigning and activism. When we talk about activism now it is so often seen as a negative term and that terminology has been used as if it is something derogatory.
Organisations avoid talking about autistic rights as it may affect funders' decisions or if we talk about our rights as individuals we are often seen as troublemakers. It's not wrong to understand your rights and there is far more to campaigning and lobbying than just protesting with banners
Autistic people do not live in an autism bubble and therefore we cannot just concentrate on perfecting autism services; we need to see a much wider culture change to really make a difference. Many Autistic people face multiple forms of discrimination because they fit multiple protected characteristics and will often be a minority within a minority
Multiple forms of discrimination mean multiple barriers
Autistic people have rights too and there are many wonderful autistic advocates who are currently speaking up and campaigning to ensure the next generations of autistic people do not face the same discrimination that we did growing up.