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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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- [...]

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). [...]

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, [...]

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. [...]

[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 [...]