I once contacted the local leader of an educational organisation for autistic children and asked whether they could refer me to an autistic person to explain to my autistic brain why their method (which looked like abuse to me) is good for autistic people.
She didn’t know of anyone, and referred me to their international CEO.
So I asked the CEO whether they had an autistic person who could to explain to my autistic mind why their method (which looked like abuse to me) is good for autistic people.
The CEO replied that they have over 40 years experience in using this method.
I asked again.
She sent me to academic papers.
I asked again.
The CEO said she’d try to find the one autistic part-timer who works for the organisation and ask him.
After a while, she got back to me, and said that unfortunately, he could not do this.
Do you see the problem?
If you’re running an autism school or offering therapy, if you’re selling some ‘solution’ that’s supposed to work for autistic children, do you have to hunt for an autistic endorser when someone asks you, or do you regularly get input from a variety of autistic people and adapt what you do according to their guidance?
Oh, by the way, those people were abusing children, and they still are. We’re working to stop them. When the abusers are powerful and smile more than you do, and when society doesn’t care much about disabled people’s opinions, that can take a while.