My translation of "we give them a voice".. "We are patting our egocentric backs right before your very eyes and ears. We said we have a voice for aspies, but we will make it look like we actualy have info by useing pretty words and speaches for our agenda. We don't nessicarily need proof that we are indeed talking for them because we think, and want you to think to, that aspies have no future. We want you to think there is no hope but this cure.
I once went to a conference.
Not an autism conference.
A conference generally on alternatives to institutions for people with developmental disabilities.
Anyway.
There was this guy there, apparently a big-name parent-advocate. I don't recognize social hierarchy very well (which I consider positive) so I started challenging some things he was saying.
Anyway, he was talking about plans for what "parents and professionals" needed to do.
Now, I happen to know that in many states, people with developmental disabilities ourselves have taken the lead in these things, so I was pissed off about being left out.
And said so.
Said specifically, "What about us?"
He kept trying to ignore that I was talking, so I started repeating it and even added in some body language I'd learned from a shrink about how to appear dominant to a dog. (At which point magically I became visible. Amazing.) And held my keyboard up so everyone could hear it while I was repeating "what about us?"
He told me the following:
That parents are the heart of this movement.
That self-advocates collectively only had a voice because a guy named Gunnar Dybwad had given us one. (News to me. We have all had voices for a long time.)
And that basically we could only get in the way.
So, patting themselves on the back for giving us a voice, and attempting to make a power play and retain control over us.
NOT a good thing. Blech. (Nor is being faceblind and unable to recognize that the next day the guy trying to talk to you condescendingly in the breakfast line is the same jerk you met last night.)