I had a meeting today with the director of my university's Multicultural Center. It was tiring. It was good. Good things happened.
I'm pretty optimistic about the administration giving the Neurodiversity Committee the funding it asked for, since it wasn't all that much, and of ten or so committees that asked for stuff after the 20,000 Voices Open Space Conference and the follow-up, our requests were the smallest. (Order of magnitude less than what the most expensive group asked for, at least. Not even joking, there were people asking for a full-time staff person.) And even if we don't get anything directly from administration? The head of the multicultural center expressed a commitment to doing one of the things we wanted (making neurodiversity part of diversity week) on his own, basically as a "the head of the multicultural center can do that" thing.
For the 2013 one this fall, they will have to run it pretty much without me, since I'll be in China, but they know they have my email and that I am pretty good about answering stuff, and that I am more than willing to. They know some of the stuff I was thinking about too...
Like, as far as "why is this important?" I mentioned that understanding other cultures is a good thing and that Autistic culture is a thing. I also talked about how being ready for more Autistic people who know they are autistic and for some who don't speak (remember, more and more Autistic people with significant support needs and/or who don't speak are in mainstream classes doing the same work and will be qualified for college if they want it) before they come (as much as possible, anyways, it's already started) is important. It's similar to building the ramp before the wheelchair user gets there, in a way- make it already accessible so that the person who needs it doesn't have to navigate an inaccessible system in order to get access.
For the 2014 Diversity Week, I'll be more directly involved since I will be back on campus and that makes a big difference for my ability to affect and participate in things that happen on campus.
So yeah. Long story short, my college is going to be getting more neurodiversity-friendly and that's got to be a good thing.
I'm pretty optimistic about the administration giving the Neurodiversity Committee the funding it asked for, since it wasn't all that much, and of ten or so committees that asked for stuff after the 20,000 Voices Open Space Conference and the follow-up, our requests were the smallest. (Order of magnitude less than what the most expensive group asked for, at least. Not even joking, there were people asking for a full-time staff person.) And even if we don't get anything directly from administration? The head of the multicultural center expressed a commitment to doing one of the things we wanted (making neurodiversity part of diversity week) on his own, basically as a "the head of the multicultural center can do that" thing.
For the 2013 one this fall, they will have to run it pretty much without me, since I'll be in China, but they know they have my email and that I am pretty good about answering stuff, and that I am more than willing to. They know some of the stuff I was thinking about too...
Like, as far as "why is this important?" I mentioned that understanding other cultures is a good thing and that Autistic culture is a thing. I also talked about how being ready for more Autistic people who know they are autistic and for some who don't speak (remember, more and more Autistic people with significant support needs and/or who don't speak are in mainstream classes doing the same work and will be qualified for college if they want it) before they come (as much as possible, anyways, it's already started) is important. It's similar to building the ramp before the wheelchair user gets there, in a way- make it already accessible so that the person who needs it doesn't have to navigate an inaccessible system in order to get access.
For the 2014 Diversity Week, I'll be more directly involved since I will be back on campus and that makes a big difference for my ability to affect and participate in things that happen on campus.
So yeah. Long story short, my college is going to be getting more neurodiversity-friendly and that's got to be a good thing.
YAY! Congratulations - huge accomplishment. Will you be online while in China? I would hate to go a whole year without you.
ReplyDeleteMixed- I will, in general, have internet access, and I've been told that for some odd reason, blogger.com is not blocked (I'll be writing) but blogspot.com is (reading is another question.) They also recently unblocked Facebook.
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