Part 1: Interview with Ari Ne'eman, President of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network

Multi-Part Interview

Highlights from Part 1:

Script from 5.10min

How do we manage that tension?
You re either on board with us or you get the hell out. I dont think we should be saying this.
Sometimes as a community, I dont think ASAN has, but I think sometimes, as a community, we have done that, but this has been a mistake. By virtue of the fact that it makes us less inclusive, by virtue of the fact that a lot of people might have come to that perception if they were exposed to it in somewhat less obnoxious way.

5.44. But I also think that the fact that the Autistic Self Advocacy community is about multiple things and has to serve multiple roles. And obviously its more than just you. I would highlight 2 of these structures, two in particular, 2 broad categories.

One is advocacy, political, social goals social changes, public policy, changes we want to see in this world. That is a combative process, an ideology driven process and yes you are going to have to take certain perspective there

(6.18). We have decided we are going to take, as far as ASAN is concerned, civil rights perspective in our advocacy and thats how we are going to be orientated. Other groups want to do different type of advocacy, they need to find other mechanism, other group to do that.

But at the same time, you have another role for the autistic community too and that is Community. And there its not only possible, I think, It is necessary, its an ethical obligation to be more inclusive. To say, you may disagree with. You may feel like civil rights orientated autism perspective, services support education, neurodiversity perspectives, quality of life orientated perspective isnt something you don want to get behind. You may think, well everything is hopeless unless you find a cure, or you may think, well its really all caused by vaccines, you know, things we flat out disagree with, we think are flat out wrong.

7.30. But you should still find some level of home, some level of comfort in autistic culture, autistic community. I think we do need to do better. Having said that, I also think, at the same time, that shouldnt be an excuse to turn the community into nothing more than a battle ground for the advocacy disputes.

8.02. There is a need for certain requirements, not based on ideology, or ideological beliefs, but based on certain needs on how to keep the community safe, something that everybody can enjoy, for people to participate in community, they have to be willing not to try to exclude and not to try to attack and not to try to hurt other members of the community, and because of the social challenges so many of us face, because of the anger issues so many of us face, past history of trauma so many of us had, I think we do need to be careful on how we approach those kind of requirements We cant pretend they are not there, they are going to be present in every kind of setting. We have to manage that tension between creating a community that is safe and welcoming, where people can be at home, and creating a community that is inclusive of other people who intensively, intensively, disagree with the values we hold there.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• autism
• asan
• arineeman
• autcom
• autreat
• jimsinclair
• drooopy
• disability
• hierarchy

[PCDWestby]

This needs a transcript since obviously Ari said nothing that indicates that he "believes that autistic people that don't believe in certain positions that autistic leadership takes are nevertheless likely to continue to be excluded and this is just a reality they need to understand and accept." I have listened to it twice and don't hear him saying any such thing. Please post a written transcript.

[AutisticsSpeak]

If you would like a transcript, please feel free to make one. If you like, I'll add it as closed captioning.

[christschool]

@PCDWestby Still waiting on your transcript, one year later.

[christschool]

@PCDWestby I note your comment is now rendered as a Troll comment because you provided no tools or solutions to what you claimed was important. You have offered no transcript and its been a year. You are not to be taken seriously.

[AnElephantThatPaints]

It just does not always come easy. But it is not ASAN's fault.

[othmarschoeck]

look at the posts for this video-The comments with my screenname have parts of the transcript..

[ampersandsociety]

I mean the transcript, where is it?

[ampersandsociety]

That's great, but where is it?

[othmarschoeck]

i just submitted a transcript for the second half-it's in 3-4 different posts.

[othmarschoeck]

They're going to be present in every kind of setting, and we have to manage that tension between creating a community that's safe and welcoming that people can feel at home with, and creating a community that's inclusive even with people who intensely-intensely-disagree with the values we hold dear.

[othmarschoeck]

and not try and attack, and not try and hurt other members of the community.And because of the social challenges so many of us face, and because of the anger issues so many of us face, and the past history with trauma that so many of us have, I think we need to reallly be very careful on how we approach those kinds of requirements-but we can't pretend they're not there.