“All this drama about Autism Awareness Day is too much. It’s a much hated day by many autistics. I hate it too. Just too patronising for words.”
Messages for Autism Awareness Month 2022
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Addressing chemical restraint in Western Cape schools
Some schools in the Western Cape are allegedly coercing parents into drugging their disabled children.
PROMPT© isn’t the same as prompting that helps for autistic apraxia
Prompting helps nonspeaking people develop motor skills for whole-body apraxia. The PROMPT© method is not a good fit.
Rise of the nonspeaking autistic revolution in South Africa
In February 2021, nonspeaking activist Zekwande Mathenjwa became a member of the newly-formed Special Interest Group (SIG) on Autism established by the Ethics Committee of the SASLHA, the national body for Speech, Language and Hearing professionals in South Africa.
Our focus areas for Africa and South Africa in 2021
Here are some of our provincial (Western Cape), national (South African) and continental (African) focus areas for 2021.
Nonspeaking autists’ experiences of ABA
ABA is a behaviour modification method for the ‘treatment’ of autism. It is used particularly with autistic children who struggle with communication and self-regulation. ABA is touted as being ‘evidence-based’, in spite of there being little evidence of support from the community ABA purports to serve. This article, written for a South African audience, includes perspectives of several non-speaking autistics on their ABA experiences.
African autistics brace for an onslaught of ableist abuse from PAABA
“This is heartbreaking,” wrote Kenyan autistic activist Karen Muriuki as PAABA officials began blocking autistic people from commenting on their standard of ethics during the launch of the organisation online. “Why silence autistic Africans who are advocating for disability and human rights? This a total violation of CRPD Articles 7, 15 and 16.”