aghogday wrote:
ProudAspie wrote:
aghogday wrote:
In another thread not too long ago, a letter was presented here by an organization inviting people to work as autism advocates with a requirement of a college degree to participate.
A young girl wanted to, but was sadly disappointed that she might not be able to achieve her goal to advocate without a college degree. Not an issue specifically related to skills, but one related to differences in educational attainment
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt172233.htmlSo you would be happy if your Doctor had not passed his/her degree and your lawyer had not passed the Bar?
My point here was that a standard was set for advocation of autism, that the young girl thought would be required to advocate anywhere for autism. When in fact, no college degree, is required for an individual to advocate for autism; in that specific job announcement apparently it was.
The analogy here is if non-impaired communication was a requirment of autism advocacy, there would be very few autistic people advocating for themselves, in the autistic community, or in the general community. Some literally can't, but they can still do it with communication devices, if given the training and the opportunity to use those communication devices.
It certainly doesn't require a college degree or non-impaired communication to advocate for Autism.
I suspect that we are talking at cross purposes.
To me, advocacy is a part of the political process to secure scarce resources and legislative change that will benefit Aspies. In order for it to be effective, such advocacy requires a professional approach, therefore, a degree is not an unreasonable requirement.
I suspect that your version of advocacy is "people advocating for themselves" which clearly does not require a degree.
I definitely see what you are saying here as an essential part of advocacy for Autism, and other disabilities, but it is a minor part of advocacy as a whole. Autism advocacy has numerous opportunities that don't require a degree, other than just self advocacy or the legislative process. I will agree that good social communication skills are a normal requirement in any legislative process and it is likely that a college degree might be required for those that engage in actual political lobbying efforts.
The advocacy that Ci provides for the disabled is an important aspect of advocacy for the disabled, that requires no college degree; this very well could be the type of advocacy that the young girl wanted to be part of in life, discouraged that one needed a college degree to do it. This topic of discussion on Advocacy hasn't been defined in the narrow legislative area by the OP, so I think I make a reasonable point here.
23 Aug 2011, 9:17 pm
