This week’s Autism Success Story, brought to
you by Autism Care UK, specialist in autism support
services focuses on autism rights activist Jim Sinclair.
Who is Jim
Sinclair?
Jim Sinclair, himself autistic is a famous
autism rights activist. Sinclair first came into wider recognition in 1992, when along with fellow autistics Kathy Lissner
Grant and Donna Williams he formed Autism Network International.
Out of the trio, Jim was the only one who had an internet connection so he
became the original contributor. In the early to mid-1990’s autism conferences
rarely featured autistic public speakers, and were extremely unlikely to pay
them for their work. Jim Sinclair broke
the mould and was amongst the first to speak at conferences both at a national
and international level. Considering he did not speak until aged 12, this in
itself was a fantastic achievement.
Jim Sinclair is the author of Don’t Mourn for Us, an essay on autism
that got wide spread media coverage including The New York Times and New York
Magazine. Don’t Mourn for Us was presented
at the joint Autism Society of America and Autism Society Canada conference, Toronto
in July 1993. Although Jim had spoken at conferences before, they had usually
involved him being asked to describe an aspect of what it’s like to be autistic
followed by answering some questions from parents.
This time though, Jim had a message of his own
that he wanted present. He had previously submitted the same paper in 1992 to
the Autism Society of America conference. However, the then president of the
ASA took the unprecedented step of personally instructing the conference’s
planning committee not to accept the paper. Undeterred, Sinclair submitted the
paper for the international conference and the hosts accepted it. As Sinclair himself says “The paper directly challenging the
"autism as tragedy" paradigm upon which the conference--and its sponsoring
organizations--were based”.
Jim Sinclair is also featured in the book Somebody Somewhere written by fellow ANI
founder Donna Williams. You can read Don’t
Mourn for Us here.
1 comment:
Don't Mourn For Us was one of the first essays I found online right after my sons diagnosis. It bought me great comfort. Although I think my own grief was more related to fears for my sons future than losing a dream of what might have been, I still thought they were words worth contemplation, and still do.
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