Autistic Self Advocates and Autism Parent Advocates Continued

The conversation continues. This latest installment I call, What Happens To Disabled Adults When Parent voices Are Considered The Only Ones Worth Listening To? Nothing good.

I could not get a single solitary service from either of these places. The CIL barely knew what autism was; they dealt mostly in physical disabilities and they were less than helpful in filling out forms or narrowing choices down for housing or anything -- things I desperately need help with. And the ARC?

Oh god, the ARC. Let me tell you what they said: “we usually deal with clients' parents.” I was there because I very suddenly had no parental or other net. But they wouldn't help me, even a little, because my parents were very much not in the picture. They told me that I was too smart for most of their stuff, but they wouldn't help even a little with anything else because they interface with parents rather than clients.

In those six months, I did not fall through the cracks -- I was shoved into the cracks. The paradigm that only parents can advocate for disabled people could very easily have killed me, between undertreated medical issues and a fundamental inability to get done the things that needed doing for basic survival.