We are concerned that the provincial governments motives in these changes are more aligned with privatizing healthcare, and not with helping Autistic people, and we remain critical of Ford’s past statements with regards to Autistic people. However, we do agree with A4A’s assessment that this is an opportunity for us to push for more sustainable and fair supports for Autistic people. A new plan and a new approach to support is desperately needed; one witch includes and centres Autistic people in every stage of the process.
by A4A, Ontario’s first autistic self-advocacy organization
The news of the past week in Ontario has been somewhat surreal for autistic people. Every morning we have opened our browsers to see a trail of articles featuring parents speaking out against the new government for scrapping the former government’s Ontario Autism Plan (OAP). Parent after parent were interviewed, sometimes accompanied by photos with their children (who were never interviewed) and a standard headline associating the policy changes with sadness and tragedy.
But as autistic self-advocates, we feel neither sad nor tragic about the changes. In truth, we feel a sense of relief now that the OAP is finally gone.
This might surprise some of you reading this. That may be because all you saw in most media was a narrow group of parents.
So, would you like to hear what we think?
Looking Forward to a Better Policy
We feel optimistic…
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