Autistic people's Human Rights

    AUTISM RIGHTS

     Imagine yourself having been denied your fundamental human rights just because you're created differently, or because you don't exactly fit into what people consider normal. Do you think that would be fair?

         People with mental disorders are usually neglected, left out of the socioeconomic picture, and unfortunately most often than not denied access to the most basic five human rights: dignity, education, right to work, access to public services, and right to protection of the law.

        The National Autistic Society reported that half of the autistic individuals in Britain have been abused by someone they viewed as a friend. Moreover, a quarter of them disclosed that they got robbed by someone they deemed a friend (Community Care, 2014).

        Furthermore, according to statistics done in the UK, one in five autistic children has been rejected or excluded from school, and half of the children who go to school got bullied because of their lack of social skills (National Autistic Society, 2021).

        Another point would be unequal rights to employment. Some estimates in the UK approximate that eighty-five percent of autistic adults are unemployed even though they have the ability to work (Chen et al., 2014).

     
  In addition, the majority of autistic people don't have equal access to public services and healthcare. According to a cross-sectional study, fifty-five autistic guardians reported difficulty using public services, and one-third of autistic carers regarded insurance coverage as insufficient (Vohra et al., 2013).

        Finally, autistic individuals face a lot of discrimination in public and workplaces while the law stays silent. According to a review in 2017, 20 percent of young individuals with autism have been halted and interrogated by the police, and 5 percent were arrested (Rava et al., 2016). Part of the blame falls on the training programs as more than two-thirds of the police officers admitted having no expertise on how to deal with autistic people.

    

    To remedy the issue of unjust treatment of the autistic society, I suggest holding as many awareness campaigns as possible, participating in international conferences, promoting the notion of neurodiversity, and establishing private institutions for people with autism.

My Survey on autism:

        I conducted a survey on autism rights and the neurodiversity movement to see how many people are familiar with autism and autistic people's rights.
        In my small sample, on average (3.6), most people surveyed have some understanding of autism as the majority of them (83%) know someone dealing with autism, like a friend or a family member. Sixty percent of them think that autism is a disorder that must be treated while only thirty percent believe that autism doesn't have to be cured.

Figure 1: Familiarity with autism

Figure 2: Is autism a disorder that needs treatment?

Figure 3: Participants' Connections with autistic individuals

      

      My survey also included questions about the familiarity and acceptance of neurodiversity movements which refers to the idea that people have varying braid structures due to some developmental disorders. Neurodiversity views those variations as normal and should be accepted as normal attributes or features. Even though most participants tolerate abnormal behavior from autistic people, they never heard of the notion of neurodiversity. However many of them supported the idea and suggested promoting it on a larger scale as a measurement to ensure autistic people's rights.

Figure 4: People's familiarity with the neurodiversity movement.

Figure 5: People's tolerance to autistic abnormal behavior

        Another angle I speculated on was the frequency of discriminatory behaviors against autistic people. Eighty-five percent reported witnessing discrimination acts at least once, and more than half of the participants stated that the discrimination happened more than a few times.

Figure 6: Autism and discrimination

        Further, a very small minority (7.1%) think that autism rights are met, 40.5% of the participants think the opposite, while the others answered with "I don't know" or "Maybe". These results show that the public isn't fully aware of autism rights and issues, which makes raising awareness about autism a crucial step to gaining the deprived rights. Talking about solutions, most participants tend to agree that spreading autism recognition and awareness is an effective strategy to fulfill autistic people's human rights. Other recommended solutions are shown in figure 8.

Figure 7: Are autistic people's rights met?

Figure 8: Possible solutions for the breached autism rights.

        

        With almost 50000 autistic children turning 18 each year, the importance of calling for their rights is more critical than at any other time. Politicians should start thinking about autism more seriously and devise plans to offer them the life everyone ought to have.

If you want to participate, you can complete the survey below:

https://forms.gle/nipGxtNk5UQkFmXf8

References: 

Chen, J. L., Leader, G., Sung, C., & Leahy, M. (2014). Trends in employment for individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A review of the research literature. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2(2), 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-014-0041-6

Community Care. (2014, June 17). Survey reveals half of autistic adults 'abused by someone they regarded as a friend'. Community Care. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2014/06/16/survey-reveals-half-autistic-adults-abused-someone-regarded-friend/

National Autistic Society. (2021, November 9). School report 2021. National Autistic Society - Leading UK charity for Autistic people. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/school-report-2021

Rava, J., Shattuck, P., Rast, J., & Roux, A. (2016). The prevalence and correlates of involvement in the criminal justice system among youth on the autism spectrum. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(2), 340–346. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2958-3

Vohra, R., Madhavan, S., Sambamoorthi, U., & St Peter, C. (2013). Access to services, quality of care, and family impact for children with autism, other developmental disabilities, and other mental health conditions. Autism, 18(7), 815–826. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361313512902