The Awe Sea: Autistic people should... be Heard.

Reprinted from The Awe Sea.

Autistic people should be empowered to express their own views in their own “voices” and to have those voices and views respected

to ensure that

Autistic people should be full participants in the social, political, medical, educational, scientific, and other public discourses that affect them

so that

Autistic people should be able to make decisions about their care, education, relationships, daily lives and issues that are important to them.

For this to happen,

Autistic people should be given opportunities to explore and develop language through Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) beginning in early childhood,

and

Autistic people should have access to the communication technology they choose to make their “voices” heard and to have these communication needs accommodated,

and

Autistic people should be respected and engaged as equal members of the community,

that is,

Autistic people should be valued as members of We the People in whatever state or country or nation in which they live

just like everyone else

Autistic people should be loved, valued, engaged as who they are and not who others wish them to be

because at their core

Autistic people are people and should have their human and civil rights respected

and always, always

Autistic people should be treated as active agents in their own lives and not as passive objects of others’ decisions, scorn, ridicule, anger, torture abuse and ignorance.