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 Our son Marcus was born after a long and arduous but seemingly straightforward delivery. Birth is traumatic at the best of times, but the following day was pretty traumatic too. Around midnight I received a call from my wife tearfully telling me that Marcus had been having seizures, and had been rushed into the Newborn [...]

 
 The act requiring the new educational standards regime was passed through all its stages in Parliament in 24 hours just before Christmas 2008. It did not go to a select committee where the public, autism advocates, and those with lived experience, could make submissions. This was unfortunate as some of us could have pointed out the negative implications [...]

One Monday in mid-June of 1996 I took the train from Milan to Vicenza and found my way to the street address printed on the call-up card I had received just a few days earlier. A little surprised to discover that it was an ordinary looking residence, not the office or hospital building I expected, [...]

Caroline Quick and Andrew Dever are two articulate young adults, who, like many other emerging researchers, are seeking research funding for their work. They have recently left Allenvale Special School in Christchurch and Caroline is currently attending a two year life skills course at CPIT and Andrew is at Skillwise.  They are now conducting their own participatory focus group [...]

From Ari Ne’eman and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (see contact details below)

Excerpts from “Lives Edward Kennedy changed” by Jennifer Maloney from August 26 issue of Newsday

“Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s sweeping legislative record spans nearly five decades and includes monumental shifts in social policy that improved the lives of millions. A liberal lion who roared [...]

This newsletter from the Ministry of Health outlines what has been happening regarding the NZ ASD Guideline Implementation, which has been mentioned on other occasions on Humans. Sometimes it might seem that there is not much progress on the ground, but there has been a great deal of activity behind the scenes, which will hopefully mean improved supports and services eventually. [...]

The previous post mentioned Martin Sullivan’s keynote address to the Disability Studies Conference in Sydney. Although it only briefly mentions autism specifically, it is a rare academic assessment of disability issues locally, and the links between the Treaty of Waitangi and the NZ Disability Strategy.   
Keynote address to the Disability Studies Conference, Disability Studies Research Centre, University [...]

  
I attended a very interesting conference last month in Sydney, which, although initiated by Australians, was aimed at developing collaboration among those involved in disability studies in the so-called ‘Global South’. That includes the countries in the Asia/Pacific including Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Its purpose was to set a disability research agenda for our region [...]

  
Danish Thorkil Sonne has built up a successful company, Specialisterne, which employs people with autism in IT and product testing. He is coming to Sydney for the APAC09 conference in August but, unfortunately, contractual obligations prevent him from coming to New Zealand at this time. This article was published in the Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/better-faster-and-no-office-politics-the-company-with-the-autistic-specialists-1693057.html
Better, faster…and no office politics: the company with the [...]

The following article was written by Reesh Lyon, a journalism student at Wellington’s Whitireia Polytechnic, about Alan George a member of his quiz team. It is reproduced here with the permission of Alan, Reesh and the journalism course. The full article is at http://www.newswire.co.nz/2009/03/invisible-disability/

Mar 30th, 2009 | By Reesh Lyon | Category: Featured Article, Front Page [...]