How It Works

NTs with Big Ideas: We decided to create this autism-related service/ make this autism-related documentary / write this autism-related policy brief.

Autistic Advocates: Was it developed in consultation with Autistic people? Can Autistic people use this service? Are Autistic opinions featured in this documentary/piece of writing?

NTs with Big Ideas: No, we chose to focus on non-Autistic parents and professionals.

Autistic Advocates: Why on earth would you exclude Autistic people from this thing which is about autism?

NTs with Big Ideas: Well, we had limited resources, so we could only focus on one stakeholder group. And we chose to focus on non-Autistic parents and professionals (is that two groups? Oops, I meant we could only focus on two groups) because — um…

because parents and professionals have all the spending power

because parents and professionals have the biggest lobbies

because if we consulted Autistic people, they would want us to provide a different kind of service than the kind we want to provide

because if we consulted Autistic people, they would want us to take out this ableist rhetoric which we want to use

because it never even occurred to us to ask Autistic people about this thing

… because we did.