Division, Again, but of a Different Sort

I wrote (perhaps way too much) about professional / parent / self-advocate differences recently and the previous week (it is a topic that interests me very much). There's another sort of divide though: the division between the "autism community" and the greater cross-disability community.

At the Megaconference, there were mostly vendor booths from 1) disability rights organizations such as Disability Rights Oregon and the State Independent Living Council, 2) disability-positive service or research organizations such as Oregon ARC and the OIDD, 3) assistive technology companies, selling everything from ergonomic keyboards to telephones to toys.

...and then there were the autism-related booths. All about snake oil, pity, and panic. A harsh reminder of what disability rights groups have rallied against.

There were 65 presentations given over the course of three days, on topics from community weaving to the ADA. Those which were not autism-specific included things like the joys of communication without speech, assistive technology, healthy lifestyles, empowerment, acceptance, and accessibility.

...while the autism-specific presentations were about remediation, normalization, and intervention (remember what Kunc had to say about that).

It's as though autism has been left behind in a pre-1960's, pre-civil rights era. Often I feel as though many people who work specifically with autism have no idea that we are part of a larger community--one that has fought and won some important civil rights battles, including initiating a cultural shift away from the attitudes that produce such demeaning treatment. What's up with that? And, way more importantly, how do we fix it?