Sorry guys, it's too late for this bill.  But not for the future.  This website is great at getting aspies out of the woodwork and together, to think about how to move forward.  The progress in organizing just in the last few years has been substantial.

But if the website is all we do, we'll never have an impact.

We need our own "Autism Advocacy" group that mirrors the structure of the curbie groups.  It should have:
1. A clear statement of position and mission.  This should encapsulate the group's belief of how society should view and approach autism.
2. Membership dues and nonprofit status.
3. Publicists, lobbyists and lawyers who are paid to advocate for the group's causes in the media and the congress.

Consider how this legislation got passed: The curbies are obviously well organized and well funded.  They have been knocking on senate doors trying to get this legislation passed.  The senators asked around to all the other autism groups they could see --- which were also all curbie groups --- and found that everyone thought it was a great idea.  So they passed the legislation unanimously.

Imagine how the legislation would have gone if AFF had been a "real" group.  AFF would have been consulted along with the curbie groups.  AFF would have indicated that is has reservations about the legislation.  Significant dissent and positive debate would have happened.  The result would have been a bill more in our favor.

So... let's form a real group.  Just because we aren't liked by the curbies does not mean we're permanentaly shut out of the political process.  The first step is a mission statement, which I see AFF already has --- could be made more consise, but it's fine for now.  I suppose the next step is to incorporate and start raising money.  Any takers?

Entirely agree with the previous poster. I have always felt that having a website, a bunch of forums and a few local groups and calling that an 'organisation' was frankly stretching the definition of the word to be honest.

What we need is a physically existing *membership* organisation, where members pay dues and have voting rights etc., with an elected leadership, sub-committees, annual conferences and all the rest of it. Structurally I think the best model, certainly in Britain, is the Stop the War Coalition which is undoubtedly the most successful organisation around today in terms of ability to mobilise large numbers of people. To make it effective it will need, as I said, to seek out allies from other potentially interested campaign groups and political forces like the Greens etc. Most politicos who are sympathetic will be on the left, I suspect, with the possible exception of Libertarians (and no I'm not just saying that cos I'm on the left). Mind you there was apparently a debate on the Nazi Stormtrooper website about whether or not to support Aspie rights, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I consent to working with scum like that, speaking personally.

Has it also passed in the House, now?

In order to have more offline action we need people to (surprise, surprise) take action offline. Until we get a critical mass of offline groups nothing further can be done. Read my post "the real autism epidemic" in news and media.

Anyone reading this thinking "someone else will do it" is missing the point.

I've been wanting to be part of a local group in tennessee, but it seems I'm either the only member there, or the only member there willing to state location.  

I don't think I'd be able to organize one myself, even though I've lived here a rather long time, I don't know much about this town, and doubt I could find a suitable location.  And the potential for controversy frightens me, I don't think I could handle it effectively, based on experience with some people I already know.  My verbal communication has never been much good for politics discussion.

Gareth - you are of course correct. My point is *what kind of action*. It seems to me that setting up little local groups here and there is acting on a far too small scale. Something much larger needs to be attempted. If I succeed in moving to London I will see if I can kickstart something of that nature (it kind of ties in with my idea of a APD march) but I can't do anything while in Derry.

I seriously doubt that we would be able to find enough autistics in one place to have one large offline group. And of course, being spread out allows us to influence things on a wider scale.

That's the problem with small local groups. I'm thinking of something like a city-wide organisation. Plus, the small number of autistics is precisely why we need to find potential numbers to get some real clout.

In any city of a million people, if autistics number 1 or 2 per 200 people, there must be thousands of autistics. Perhaps most of the adult ones have not been diagnosed or self-identified as autistic, perhaps many are too young to join a group that mum or dad don't approve of, and perhaps a sizeable proportion don't have the IQ to even know what activism is, and perhaps many are too busy with life in general or are too busy with special interests to be bothered with joining any group, and perhaps many just aren't "joiners", but there must be some potential for forming offline groups.

Unfortunately, the former would prevent the latter. People motivate each other; 5 people may go do some activism together even if none would have done anything themselves.

Darmani wrote

I'm not sure how much this applies to autistics, who can be more active and effective when working alone.

Be honest - what % of people here have taken action in the real world on their own accord?

I consider my entire life to be a form of protest.