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Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Autistic People as Voters

In The Politics of Autism, I write:  "Support from the general public will be an important political asset for autistic people. Another will be their sheer numbers, since a larger population of identified autistic adults will mean more autistic voters and activists"

At The Washington Post, Susan Senator writes of son's registration as a voter:
Then he signed at the bottom, in his sticklike print, and just like that, he became a voting citizen. I wanted to take a picture of him in Town Hall for the Facebook autism moms, but in my nervousness I’d left my phone in the car.
We walked back to the car through a brown, winter-weary garden lined with little American flags. I was surprised by my calm. Usually Nat’s achievements feel like such a big deal, another sparkly win for the forces of good.
Yet when I think about it, I’m kind of happy with how unremarkable the whole 10 minutes were and how friendly everyone was. Because maybe that’s how it should be, that we can take this incredibly important act for granted. Just another day at Town Hall. Except now a guy like Nat, so outwardly quiet, but with so much going on inside, can be heard, just like everyone else.