InternAUT have held a presentation here, based the following paper. The paper below explains the goals and purposes of InternAUT quite clearly. The author is Susan MacRow-Hill; she can be reached at S.J.MacRow-Hill@eclipse.co.uk.

Introduction

Autism is often called the "hidden" disability because the many ways it affects people living with it remain misunderstood by the majority of the general public, exacerbating the ill effects. Many able people with Autism feel deliberately excluded by the community; especially by the mistaken portrayal of autistic people as always preferring to withdraw into "their own little world." Numerous people with Autism live within the general population unrecognised, their needs unmet and their full potential unrealised.

Autism is a spectrum disorder affecting people at all levels of cognitive functioning and may be found with a wide variety of other genetic, congenital and developmental disorders. We want to show that all people with Autism, whatever their other difficulties, or level of functioning, share aspects of the same problems and would benefit from the chance to communicate and learn from each other.

Using the revolution in information technology and virtual reality, we wish to develop an Internet based resource where people living with Autism can be encouraged to develop personally by interacting with each other via the computer. By participating in such an exchange people living with Autism can share information and develop skills in self-advocacy and social practice that can be of tangible benefit in their everyday lives. This forum, presently dubbed Cyberspace 2000 because we wish to have it up and running by the year 2000, will be made freely available to as many as wish to join.

Methods

We are planning an international informational event, designed to inform and alert the general public to the nature and intensity of problems that people living with Autism face in their everyday lives. The InternAUT project (IAP) is intended to tap into the current European Autism Week (1st week in December) and expand it into an International week of participation using the twin themes of communication and transport(ation).

An interim committee, consisting of a balance of people with Autism, family representatives and others taking a professional interest will co-ordinate the project world wide, apply for grants and attract funding, as well as organise the participants and media presentations.

The primary focus of IAP is to promote understanding of what it means to have Autism, and live with it on a day-to-day basis within a community that neither understands nor accommodates their specific, but often unique, individual combination of handicaps. An important aspect of this increased awareness will be the acceptance that people with Autism can gain by jointly participating in such events.

Encouraging the public participation in general transport, trains and buses, etc. plays an important part,symbolising the right of Autistic people right to travel free from fear of abuse , discrimination and threat of personal attack. Without access to public transport much of the present educational, vocational and medical support and provision is inaccessible to people with Autism in a meaningfully independent context.

We hope to use the publicity from such an international event to alert people to the possibility of using the Internet to link people living with Autism on a daily basis, and so break down the barriers that distance and isolation cause. These feelings of isolation, intimidation and exclusion have been aggravated by the current diagnostic emphasis on the abnormality and pervasive handicaps of Autism. While it is true that Autism does affect every aspect of the development of independent living skills, the most important aspect of this event will be to focus attention on the things that people with Autism can do and share with the community.

Definitions and imputed causes of Autism have been subject to almost constant revision, due to the dependence on subjective recognition of behavioural symptoms, rather than objective tests. We wish to refocus attention on the individual experiences of people with Autism. InternAUT will address the importance of treating specific impairments in communication, social and emotional experiences, and specific sensory perceptions, with an holistic approach. The single most important issue on our agenda is the acceptance of the individual right to exist without being pressured to conform to oppressive behavioural expectations, not also demanded of their non-autistic peers.

It is important to defend the right of people with Autism to be themselves, and develop according to their own natural developmental order. Indeed the current trend for "curing" Autism by subjecting both children and adults to aversive or intensive behavioural and psychopharmacological treatments can be said to abrogate their human rights just as much as it would if applied to people of different physiological or psychological behavioural development . It is our belief that any treatment should be undertaken solely for the benefit of the individual with Autism irrespective of other interests. No treatment can be justified by the reason that some members of the public would prefer that such Autistic behaviours did not exist.

People with Autism wish to have the facilities and support necessary to develop their full potential and achieve independent living, but not at the expense of their unique individuality as human beings. Developing the skills of self-advocacy is an important part of ensuring those human rights.

Cyberspace 2000 will aim to empower people with Autism by providing them with access to information, emotional support and the opportunity for social interaction with other people living with Autism. It is specifically designed to encourage participation by using any special aptitudes and abilities within the information technology medium. While the InternAUT project is aimed at focusing attention on the special difficulties that people with Autism face when attempting to participate within the local community, the Cyberspace 2000 project is intended to develop a means of incorporating people with Autism into a greater community of the autistic spectrum, whatever their level of social functioning.

These two projects will illustrate ways in which people living with Autism can mutually benefit each other with such support and, we hope, demonstrate the urgency with which the Declaration of the Rights of people with Autism needs to be incorporated into the various legislatures of the world, to protect their human rights.

Summary

This group proposes,

1) To raise the level of public understanding of the problems faced by people with Autism within the community by means of the InternAUT Project.

2) To empower people with Autism using the Cyberspace 2000 project and potentiate participation within the community, using computer access and technology to overcome communication, social and emotional difficulties in this developmental learning disorder.

3) To further the incorporation of the "Declaration of the Rights of People with Autism" into every legislative system such that people with Autism, whatever their level of functioning, may live:

a) independently, to their maximum capability,
b) with self-representation of their interests, or appropriate representative only if absolutely necessary,
c) accessible and appropriate provision serving their unique social, educational and vocational needs,
d) free from fear, threat or abusive treatment.

Author

S.J.MacRow-Hill
Biological Sciences, Washington Singer Building
University of Exeter,EXETER,Devon,England,EX20 2QS
Tel. 01392 264672
e-mail s.j.macrow-hill@exeter.ac.uk

Special thanks for their personal support and encouragement:

Patricia A. Amos,
Autism National Committee

Ann Bauer
abauer@pclink.com

Mr. Jared Blackburn
blackjar@aol.com

Martijn Dekker
Coordinator of the InternAUT project
Listowner of the a-day Internet discussion list
martijn@inlv.demon.nl

Debra Dickson
debra.dickson@snet.net

Professor Anne Donellan, Ph.D.
amdonnel@facstaff.wisc.edu

Mary Marshall Fowler
mmf1@ix.netcom.com

Ida Koelstra
tlang@freeway.apana.org.au

Katherine Moncol
taximom@mindspring.com

Jerry Newport
gnewport@medicine.medsch.ucla.edu

Laura Parmley
savant@midcoast.com

Ilona V. Posohova
ilona@ilona.sita.kiev.ua

Justin R. Smith
jsmith@mcs.drexel.edu

Professor Dick Sobsey
dick.sobsey@ualberta.ca

Paul Trehin
ptrehin@vnet.ibm.com

Lindsay Weekes
lindsay@c032.aone.net.au

Peter Zwack
sqa@osiris.phy.uqam.ca

The Autism National Committee,AUTCOM, has endorsed our project, and we should therefore like to include the following statement by them on their goals and objectives.

Appendix.

The Autism National Committee (AUTCOM) was founded in 1990 to protect and advance the human rights and civil rights of all persons with autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and related differences of communication and behavior. In the face of social policies of devaluation, which are expressed in the practices of segregation, medicalization, and aversive conditioning, we assert that all individuals are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Committee further believes that the principles of social justice can only be upheld through organizational methods which reflect those principles. Just as we envision communities based on the cultivation and support rather than the control of their members, the Committee encourages its individual members and organizational partners toward self-direction and self-empowerment. We welcome the participation of all family members, people with autism/PDD, caring professionals, and other friends who wish to implement, not debate, these principles.

The Committee publishes a newsletter as well as a variety of pamphlets and information packets; holds an annual National Conference; provides information, referrals, and networking connections; encourages and reports on respectful research; and maintains an active presence in Washington, D.C. Membership dues are $20 per year.

The AUTCOM Homepage can be found at: http://www.autcom.org/