Perfect World Cover

A Perfect World (A Father's Quest to Unriddle the Mysteries of Autism) by David Cohen

RANDOM HOUSE

David Cohen's remarkable book is both a journey and a story of home. After his three year-old son Eliot is diagnosed with autism, he travels the world to meet leading autism researchers, educators and clinicians. But the heart of the book is his moving meditation on family and what really makes a good life.

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‘Policy’ Archive

Will national standards fail autistic students?

 
 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 [...]

Posted in Advocacy, Asperger Syndrome, Autism, Bad practice, New Zealand, Policy, Schooling by Hilary Stace on November 27th 2009, 6 responses

“My life when I leave school”: Transformative research for school transitions

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 [...]

Posted in Advocacy, New Zealand, Policy, Schooling, Stories, Uncategorized by Hilary Stace on September 7th 2009, 1 response

US Disability Community Honours Ted Kennedy’s Legacy

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 [...]

Posted in Advocacy, Policy, Stories, Uncategorized by Hilary Stace on September 2nd 2009, no responses

NZ Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline Newsletter

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. [...]

Posted in Asperger Syndrome, Autism, New Zealand, Policy by Hilary Stace on August 10th 2009, 2 responses

“Thinking Disability Studies in the Antipodes in the 21st Century”

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 [...]

Posted in Advocacy, New Zealand, Policy by Hilary Stace on July 29th 2009, no responses

The Jobs Summit- An Aspie Analysis.

Hi everyone,
 Hope this blog finds everyone in ‘cyber space’ well.
I was very interested in the Prime Minister’s ’summit on employment’ last Friday. Those who know me won’t be very surprised by that (but they might be surprised to read that I didn’t watch the closing comments live- I was exploring another passion of mine- cricket- [...]

Posted in New Zealand, Policy by mattf on March 1st 2009, 4 responses

Education National Standards Amendment Act 2008 and implications for students with autism and their families

I was angered that a significant change to the Education Act was passed by Parliament through all its stages under urgency before Christmas. It increased fines for parents of students who were not attending school, and it made way for publicly notified standardised testing of primary school students (as in the No Child Left Behind policy of the United States). [...]

Recommendations to the Obama Transition Team

Ari Ne’eman, who runs the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in the US, has sent out their recommendations about autism to the Obama Transition Team. President-elect Obama has already promised to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and even had autism-specific policies in his election manifesto. These recommendations have been made at the request of the Transition Team, [...]

Posted in Advocacy, Asperger Syndrome, Autism, Policy, Schooling by Hilary Stace on January 8th 2009, 4 responses

Update on the NZ ASD Guideline from the Ministry of Health December 2008

Here is the latest official news on the Austism Spectrum Disorder Guideline from the Ministry of Health. Some of the formatting and visual information has been lost in translation but you can see the original pdf at  New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Guideline Updates
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/8594/$File/asd-newsletter-dec08.pdf
Two new tenders have also just been released as part of the implementation process. [...]

Posted in Autism, New Zealand, Policy by Hilary Stace on December 24th 2008, no responses

THE NZ ASD GUIDELINE: BRINGING LIVED EXPERIENCE INTO POLICY

[This is an abridged version of a paper I gave as part of a symposium on the NZ ASD Guideline at the Australasian ASSID conference in Melbourne on 26 November 2008. I would be interested in any feedback.] 
Introduction
The New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline is a whole of spectrum, whole of life, whole of government approach [...]

Posted in Advocacy, Autism, New Zealand, Policy by Hilary Stace on December 10th 2008, 4 responses