The whole world is Neurodiverse… We are launching an inclusive Manifesto for all
This video is taken from footage of the Labour Party Autism and Neurodiversity Manifesto Steering Group meeting at Labour Party Conference 2018.
The video explains the case for its call for ‘neurological status’ to become a protected characteristic under the UK’s Equality Act 2010.
Submitted May, 2019
Neurodivergent Labour was launched on 9 February 2019 and will have its founding Annual General Meeting later this year. It continues the work of the Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto Steering Group, which formed in 2016 with the support of John McDonnell MP for the purpose of drafting a Manifesto on this issue for the Labour Party.
For more than two years, the Steering Group consulted widely on the content of the Manifesto and received input from many autistic (and otherwise neurodivergent) people, from trade unions and other relevant organisations. We are confident that the resulting Manifesto represents a set of radical policies with the potential to transform the lives of autistic people for the better.
You can read the Manifesto on our website here: https://neurodiversitymanifesto.com/2018/09/18/labour-party-autism-neurodiversity-manifesto-final-draft-version-2018/
This submission is based on those elements of the Manifesto concerned with access to justice.
The Current Situation
There is a level of bullying and hate-crime against autistic people that should shame our society.
This has increased with the demonisation of people who are disabled and/or different in pursuit of the Tories’ austerity agenda.
The built environment is often distressing and inaccessible, with an intense and increasing assault on our senses.
While some autistic people and their families have received useful support from the police, there have been several reported cases of police brutality against autistic people.
We invite you to consider the cases of:
– Michael Gilchrist, tasered for 72 seconds by a police office
– Faruk Ali, subjected to an unprovoked violent attack by a police officer in Luton
Autistic people can find the justice system very difficult to navigate, and are often wrongly, harshly or unfairly judged.
We invite you to look at the case of:
Too many people are in custody who would be better off receiving support.
Equality law requires us to prove that we are disabled – in terms of things that we cannot do – in order to claim legal protection against discrimination and gain support.
Policy Recommendations
Apply the principle of Universal Design to make the built environment (including, for example, court buildings) less distressing and more accessible.
Apply a strategy to tackle bullying and hate crime, including compiling accurate statistics; and recognising in law that that ‘hate crime’ can be aimed at neurodivergent people.
Review the workings of the justice system to ensure that it is accessible to people of all neurologies.
Provide neurodiversity training for all justice staff.
Ensure that non-harmful unusual behaviours are not criminalised; and that people receive support rather than punishment if an intolerable environment causes disruptive behaviour.
Provide support and rehabilitation for autistic offenders.
Restore Legal Aid.
Make ‘neurological condition’ an additional protected characteristic under the Equality Act, with the same legal protections as disability.
Strengthen the Public Sector Equality Duty and extend it to the private sector.
Submitted to the APPGA, May 2019
Neurodivergent Labour was launched on 9 February 2019 and will have its founding Annual General Meeting later this year. It continues the work of the Labour Party Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto Steering Group, which formed in 2016 with the support of John McDonnell MP for the purpose of drafting a Manifesto on this issue for the Labour Party.
For more than two years, the Steering Group consulted widely on the content of the Manifesto and received input from many autistic (and otherwise neurodivergent) people; from trade unions and from other relevant organisations. We are confident that the resulting Manifesto represents a set of radical policies with the potential to transform the lives of autistic people for the better.
You can read the Manifesto on our website here: https://neurodiversitymanifesto.com/2018/09/18/labour-party-autism-neurodiversity-manifesto-final-draft-version-2018/
This submission is based on those elements of the Manifesto concerned with employment.
Many environments and essential spheres of life are hostile to autistic people, including workplaces.
Autistic workers (and work-seekers) can also be hampered by barriers in wider society, including: the desperate lack of diagnostic (identification) services; cuts to welfare benefits; benefit sanctions; punitive ‘work capability tests’; shortage of appropriate social care; under-resourcing of schools and lack of autism-appropriate education.
Figures suggest that only 16% of autistic working-age adults are in full-time employment; a further 9% are in part-time employment. This is not because only a fraction of autistic people can work: it is because workplaces are hostile environments for us. Even if a mere 10% more autistic people were allowed access to the workforce, then the economy could be boosted by £593.25 million per year.
Barriers and discrimination in employment include: recruitment, interviews and assessments; the sensory environment at work; social pressures; lack of control over working conditions; and insecure employment.
The law, and the Tory Government’s Autism Strategy, place no obligation on employers to make workplaces and working practices equal and accessible to neurodiverse workforces.
Policy recommendations
We advocate that the government implement the following policies specifically to address discrimination and disadvantage at work:
6
A response to the March 2019 Thinking Autism article: ‘What is wrong with The Labour Party’s “Autism Neurodiversity Manifesto” and autism identity politics?’ https://thinkingautism.org.uk/labour-party-neurodiversity-manifesto-identity-politics/
By Janine Booth on behalf of the Neurodivergent Labour Manifesto group
One of the most striking things about the Thinking Autism article is something that it does not include. It contains no disagreement with any of our Manifesto’s policies. None at all. Instead, it attacks our principles and picks at our wording.
We are more than happy to defend our principles, and do so below, but let us first remind readers of our Manifesto’s policies:
“Diagnosis/identification and support
Diagnostic/identification service available to all, without delays, which recognises neurodivergent conditions in girls and women as well as in boys and men. Assessment as to whether the individual has other, related conditions.
Adequate support following diagnosis, for example coaching from other neurodivergent people.
• Independent living, services and welfare
Stop and reverse cuts; expand services.
Resource local government to provide services.
Use statutory guidance to ensure that local authorities carry out the requirements of the Autism Act through decision-making forums that include representatives of autistic people.
Scrap Work Capability Assessments; adequate benefits for all who need them.
Equal and adequate health and social care: restore the NHS; reverse privatisation.
Provide appropriate, publicly-controlled and accountable care close to home, family and/or other support networks.
Provide necessary social housing and support to enable independent living. Secure tenancies and protection for private renters.
Consideration of neurodiversity in domestic violence services.
Neurodiversity training for all public service staff.
Provision for autism service dogs with the same status and rights as other assistance dogs.
• Education
Well-funded, publicly-run and accountable schools.
Smaller class sizes.
Varied teaching and assessment methods, recognising diversity in people’s learning style and pace.
Neurodiversity training for all teachers and teaching assistants as part of core training.
Provision for neurodivergent students in all schools, colleges and universities.
No cuts in support through Education and Health Care Plans.
Consideration of neurodiversity in early years and SureStart.
Education about neurodiversity in the curriculum, including support with social interaction.
Take the stress out of studying. Take measures to support the mental health of teenagers (including neurodivergent teenagers).
• Work
Place a legal requirement on employers to make workplaces and working conditions more equal and accessible and less hostile, including through adopting a neurodiversity policy and training for all staff.
Job applications and interviews to be accessible, non-discriminatory, and include support – for example, alternatives to written applications for dyslexic applicants.
Replace Work Capability Assessments with Workplace Accessibility Assessments.
Pursue a full employment policy, with the right to an appropriate, secure job for all who can work.
Remove the cap on Access to Work.
Restore Remploy as an employer of disabled people.
Ensure that anti-discrimination law covers volunteers as well as employees.
Support for self-employed neurodivergent people, recognising that commercial and reporting requirements may be difficult to meet.
• Prejudice and discrimination
Apply the principle of Universal Design to make the built environment less distressing and more accessible.
Apply a strategy to tackle bullying and hate crime, including compiling accurate statistics, and recognising in law that that ‘hate crime’ can be aimed at neurodivergent people.
Ensure that all treatments and therapies aimed at autistic and other neurodivergent people are properly regulated. Legislate against quack ‘cures’ such as MMS (bleach) which harm autistic and other neurodivergent people.
Investigate the concerns of autistic people about interventions such as Applied Behaviour Analysis and similar ‘treatments’ that aim to ‘make autistic people indistinguishable from their peers’ and which many consider to be abusive.
• The justice system
A review of the workings of the justice system to ensure that it is accessible to people of all neurologies.
Neurodiversity training for all justice staff.
Ensuring that non-harmful unusual behaviours are not criminalised, and that people receive support rather than punishment if an intolerable environment causes disruptive behaviour.
Support and rehabilitation for offenders with ADHD and/or other neurodivergent conditions.
Restore Legal Aid.
Strengthen the law:
– ‘Neurological status/condition/divergence’ to be an additional protected characteristic under the Equality Act, with the same legal protections as disability.
– Strengthen the Public Sector Equality Duty and extend it to the private sector.
– Develop the Autism Act; to include eg. obligations on employers.
• Lack of understanding
Education and training about neurodiversity at all levels: for political decision-makers; employers; administrators of justice; education staff; public service providers; (prospective) parents; etc.
A campaign to raise public awareness of neurodiversity and neurodivergent conditions, including through GPs’ surgeries and promotional materials.
More resources for research, in areas guided by the needs and concerns of neurodivergent people, including research into historical mistreatment of neurodivergent people.
Ensure that when the government is considering new policies (eg. citizens’ income), it considers the impact on all of our neurodiverse population.”
We believe that this set of policies constitutes a ground-breaking programme of social reform that can radically improve the lives of autistic and other neurodivergent people. We have received huge support from those people, their families and allies, for our proposals.
Thinking Autism’s article does not state that it agrees with these policies or disagrees with them, which is somewhat remiss in an article that presents itself as a critique of the Manifesto. You would expect a lengthy article claiming to explain ‘what’s wrong with’ a manifesto to at least discuss its policies, wouldn’t you?
So we ask Thinking Autism (TA):
Do you agree with our policies? If not, which do you disagree with and why? If yes, why undermine a platform which would deliver such significant improvements to the lives of people you claim to care about?
It seems from the article that Thinking Autism dismisses our set of radical, life-improving policies because it does not approve of the liberatory principles on which they are based, seeing these as a threat to its pathologising approach to neurological variance.
We will now examine each of its criticisms.
The social model of disability
TA argues that ‘The presumption that disability is caused by societal barriers to equal participation does not reflect reality’. However, the social model does not make that presumption. Rather, it defines disability as barriers created by society, and uses the word ‘impairment’ to describe problems or shortfalls caused by the medical condition itself.
TA argues that the social model of disability is undermined by the ‘fact’ that ‘our current society has done a great deal to remove many barriers’. This does not undermine the social model at all. In fact, the greater accommodations made for disabled people have come mostly during the four decades since the development of the social model. It has been precisely the progressive adoption of the social model that has encouraged the approach of identifying barriers in order to remove them.
TA’s article misunderstands the ‘medical model’, presenting it as meaning any kind of medical consideration. The ‘medical model’ is a term used by supporters of the social model to refer to an approach which sees disabled people’s difficulties as arising entirely from their individual pathology, from their medical condition. Thus, TA’s accusation that ‘By dismissing the medical model of disability entirely, the health, well-being and disability of a significant number of people is being dismissed as well’ is entirely inaccurate.
Health problems in autistic people
TA’s article asserts that ‘individuals with autism frequently have significant impairments in sensory processing and motor function, as well as in many medical domains. Multiple studies show high rates of health problems in individuals with autism, including epilepsy, gastrointestinal problems, allergies, major depression, schizophrenia, and many others.’ It is ironic that this statement is used as a criticism of a document – our Manifesto – the very first policy point of which includes the commitment to ‘Assessment as to whether the individual has other, related conditions.’ Yes, we are aware that many autistic people have co-occurring health conditions.
However, there are nuances here that TA overlooks. Firstly, some of these co-occurring conditions e.g. depression may arise from autistic experience rather than directly from autism itself. Depression is relatively common in autistic people – but is that because depression is a symptom of autism, or because our society makes autistic people depressed?
Secondly, where TA refers to ‘impairments’ in sensory processing and motor function, it may well be including what we would consider to be differences in these things – including such significant differences from the standard or typical that the person concerned experiences significant disability.
Thirdly, it may well be that autistic people with co-occurring conditions are more likely to be recognised as autistic, so the statistics may be skewed to an extent. For example, many people receive an autism diagnosis having first sought help for, say, anxiety or depression. They will register on the statistics as autistic people with a co-occurring mental health condition, while an autistic person who does not have a mental health problem and has not sought help and not been diagnosed as autistic will not register in the statistics at all.
Fourthly, even if these conditions do occur more frequently in autistic people, that does not mean that they are part of, or caused by, autism. As the NHS states, ‘It’s important that these conditions are identified and treated properly, and not thought of as part of the autism spectrum.’
TA argues that ‘those people with autism who require the most support, who face the greatest barriers, are also far more likely to be seriously ill’. This is, of course, a truism. If you are more ill, you need more support. There is nothing in our manifesto that denies this, and plenty which offers the support needed, not least of all: ‘adequate health and social care: restore the NHS; reverse privatisation. Provide appropriate, publicly-controlled and accountable care close to home, family and/or other support networks.’
TA claims that ‘scientists now recommend approaching autism as a chronic health condition’. This is disingenuous and highly selective. The link it offers is to another of its own articles, which refers to a very small sample of limited research with no evidence of any consensus among ‘scientists’ to label autism in this way.
Neurological differences
It is instructive that TA’s article refers to divergence in neurology as ‘under- and over-connectivity’. This is an entirely subjective framing, which asserts neurotypicality as the norm, and every different brain as having too many or too few connections.
Contrary to TA’s accusation, our manifesto does not claim that a person’s full and final neurological make-up is necessarily and always ‘present from birth’. Neural pathways can be created by early experience and by later trauma. So, once again, TA makes false assumptions, reading things into our manifesto that are not there.
Thinking Autism’s search for a cure
Thinking Autism makes the bizarre claim that ‘To cure means simply to provide relief from symptoms’. This is a perverse rewriting of the English language. There is one dictionary definition that uses this terminology (OED), but it then gives two sub-definitions that clarify that this ‘relief’ is to be brought about by the elimination of disease. In everyday English, no-one understands ‘cure’ to mean simply relieving symptoms: they understand it to mean the defeat or removal of a disease or condition. If TA’s definition were correct, then society has already found the cure for the common cold! After all, there are plenty of treatments that provide relief from its symptoms.
TA steps up its hyperbole in demanding people’s right to seek a cure for autism, and accuses our manifesto of removing that option. We accept that some autistic people would like to be cured, and that some parents would like to cure their children. We do not accept that this alone establishes that the pursuit of a cure is ethical. There are gay people who would like to be cured of their homosexuality, and parents who would like to cure their gay children. There are, unsurprisingly, more of these in societies which are virulently homophobic.
The desire for a cure is genuine and understandable, but it is not a substitute for tackling the various ways in which society distresses, excludes, discriminates against and traumatises autistic people. Many of those who would like a cure are seeking relief from distressing experiences which they believe to be caused by autism (having been told so by groups such as Thinking Autism) but which are rooted in the interaction between being autistic and living in an autism-hostile environment.
In fact, our manifesto calls for a ban on ‘quack ‘cures”. The fact that TA takes this to mean any mention of cures at all seems to suggest that it sees all cures as quackery. Why, then, does it demand so ferociously the right to seek them out?
However, TA is not just committed to the search for a cure for autism – it claims that such a cure has already been found! It asserts that ‘Research shows that people who once had autism can recover from it’. This is a bizarre claim that contradicts all credible scientific evidence. You will not find credible research that backs this assertion.
TA also argues that ‘debilitating symptoms of autism can be ameliorated, and even disappear entirely’ and that ‘effective treatments that are individual-specific and grounded in precision medicine can reduce and even eliminate the symptoms that constitute a diagnosis of autism’. It is important to consider the term ‘symptoms of autism’, to recognise the nuances of what it implies. Some symptoms of autism – such as avoiding eye contact or many forms of stimming (eg. rocking) – are not harmful, and we believe that it may be abusive to try to suppress them. Insisting that an autistic person look other people in the eye is the modern-day equivalent of tying left-handed people’s left arms behind their backs. Other traits considered to be symptoms of autism may be more accurately considered to be symptoms of autistic experience in a hostile society – for example, when a person responds to excessive sensory input by hurting themselves.
For sure, these ‘symptoms’ can be reduced – sometimes beneficially, sometimes harmfully – but it is not autism itself that is being reduced or eliminated.
Lived experience
Thinking Autism’s article repeatedly claims that ‘lived experience’ endorses its views and contradicts ours.
We remind readers that our manifesto was put together by a team of people all of whom have extensive lived experience of autism and/or other neurodivergent conditions. It was put together in a two-year process which brought in the input of thousands of others with lived experience.
By contrast, Thinking Autism claims to represent ‘hundreds of UK families and individuals who are living with autism’. We note that this is a very small proportion – less than one per cent – of autistic people and our families, and that by its own admission, the large majority of its members are relatives of autistic people rather than autistic people themselves.
While TA claims authority for its views from their base in ‘lived experience’, it dismisses ours as ‘identity politics’, the go-to insult for those who wish to ignore the voices of people speaking out about their own experiences of oppression. It then makes the bizarre and unfounded accusation that we all have ‘a self-image based solely on [our] neurological (dys)function’ and that we use this to impose our beliefs on others. We repeat that this is a manifesto: a set of policies that we would like to persuade people to support. It is not an imposition, and it is a very poor form of argument to suggest that it is. Does TA generally accuse political parties or other organisations of trying to impose their views on others when they publish manifestos? Or does it reserve this absurd allegation only for a Manifesto drafted by autistic and other neurodivergent people?
Autistic prevalence
Thinking Autism claims that ‘there are ever increasing numbers of people with autism’. It again misses important nuance by assuming that increased rates of diagnosis are the same as increasing prevalence. In doing so, it overlooks the impact of broadening diagnostic criteria and increased awareness of autism, and of the increasingly distressing experiences, for example of co-occurring mental health conditions, that drive people towards diagnosis.
Although there are many different views and understandings of autism, there are some facts on which all credible authorities agree. TA places itself outside this consensus with its risible assertion that autism is not a lifelong condition. It even has the audacity to describe the scientific consensus as ‘scientifically unsupported’. This would be laughable if its implications were not so serious and damaging.
The ‘cost of autism’
Thinking Autism quotes the cost of autism in the UK as £32 billion per year. Its assumption seems to be that this entire cost is caused by autism itself, rather than by societal barriers to autistic people. For example, if an autistic person is made so anxious by sensory overload that they require hospitalisation, or so depressed by bullying that they require medication, or becomes unemployed because their workplace was not suitable for them, we would contend that the cost has been incurred by society’s failure to accept and accommodate autistic people rather than by those people’s autistic brain structure. As our Manifesto points out, ‘Even if a mere 10% more autistic people were allowed access to the workforce, then the economy could be boosted by £593.25 million per year.’
TA justifies economic rationing of measures to make autistic lives easier, arguing that its preferred approaches – ‘treating’ and ‘curing’ autism – be prioritised. It demands that its own agenda receive public funding in preference to the demands of autistic people. It accepts rather than challenges the political narrative that claims a shortage of money but can readily fund handouts to big business and political bribes to prop up the government.
Regulating treatments
Thinking Autism accuses our Manifesto of asserting that ‘researchers should not investigate treatments for underlying causes in order to improve the functioning and reduce the disabling symptoms of autism’, calling this an ‘absurd argument’. TA’s article provides no extract from our manifesto to show that we argue this – because we do not. This is a fiction, yet another misreading or falsehood in an article littered with them.
In fact, our Manifesto strongly supports research, demanding ‘[m]ore resources for research, in areas guided by the needs and concerns of neurodivergent people.’ If, as TA repeatedly suggests, the needs and concerns of autistic people include investigating treatments then that is what will happen if our Manifesto is carried out.
TA dismisses our manifesto’s objection to profiteers and quacks exploiting the fears of neurodivergent people and our families as ‘straw man fallacy’. But the marketing of false and dangerous ‘treatments’ and ‘cures’ is not a straw man (an exaggerated or imaginary enemy); it is very real and of great concern. From exorcism to bleach enemas, electric shocks to chelation, autistic people are being harmed and abused in the name of ‘treating’ or ‘curing’ their autism. Our Manifesto wants this to be investigated and regulated, with proven ‘quack cures’ banned. Does Thinking Autism not want this? If not, why not?
‘Nothing about us without us’
Thinking Autism makes the frankly disgusting allegation that our Manifesto ‘attempt[s] to silence those whose disability precludes their participation and those (both people with autism and the families of people with autism) who disagree with certain tenets of the neurodiversity movement’.
Firstly, we have made every effort to enable people to contribute to our Manifesto in whatever way is most appropriate to them. We welcomed submissions to our Manifesto consultation from everyone, and gave serious consideration to everything that was submitted. We received submissions from neurodivergent people with various levels of disability or impairment, and in various formats. We also received submissions from parents, carers and organisations. We did not, and do not, attempt to silence anyone.
Obviously, not every autistic person in the UK contributed to the Manifesto, some because their level of disability or impairment precluded them from doing so. However, that is not a sufficient reason for us to not produce a Manifesto based on the submissions of those who could and did. Does Thinking Autism criticise every organisation’s manifesto for not including contributions from people who were unable to contribute to it? Or does it reserve this criticism solely for a manifesto put together by neurodivergent people?
When TA states that ‘In this manifesto, there are demands being made by people who would take away the rights of others, denying them the right to a cure and the right to have the correlation between their medical illnesses and autism recognised’, this is a straightforward lie. Firstly, the right to something that does not exist is a nonsense; and secondly, our Manifesto specifically addresses the issue of co-occurring medical conditions.
TA complains that our manifesto does not represent views that disagree with it. What manifesto does?! A manifesto is not a survey of views or a panel debate: it is a set of policies. We do not demand representation of ourselves or our views in the Conservative Party’s manifesto, or in Thinking Autism’s publications. We are confident that most people understand that a manifesto is a statement of one group’s beliefs and that therefore, attacking it for not including contrary beliefs is absurd.
TA also makes the groundless claim that we exclude non-autistic parents from having ‘a say in the health and well-being, and the future lives of their own children’. Nothing in our Manifesto suggests anything of the sort. On the contrary, it includes plenty of policies that are of great benefit to parents and which many parents have welcomed.
We would also draw readers’ attention to the fact that the group which put together our Manifesto included parents of autistic and other neurodivergent children, including children with co-occurring learning disabilities and other conditions, and including children with very high care needs. It is deeply insulting to those parents and children to suggest, as TA does, that they do not consider the needs of autistic people who are significantly disabled.
It is instructive that these wild allegations have been prompted by our application of the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’. This principle has been a core slogan of the disabled people’s movement for decades, and sadly, TA’s approach shows exactly why it is still needed. For Thinking Autism, the suggestion that autistic people might wish to be involved in policy-making about our own lives prompts a horror-struck reaction that we must be trying to silence others. Perhaps TA would prefer us to go home, shut up and let others speak for us?
A few points about drafting
Thinking Autism alleges that our manifesto’s five key principles are each ‘lacking in nuance’. This section of our Manifesto is a brief, concise summary of the basic principles we applied. In a concise summary, there is not going to be a great deal of nuance. But as we have shown, it is actually TA’s reading which lacks nuance.
It also alleges that our Manifesto contains ‘opinions presented as facts’. It does not. The examples that TA provides to back this allegation this are from the short section ‘Our Principles’. Clearly, the very fact that they are in this section clearly labels them as being our principles, our opinions, not assertions of uncontested fact. In fact, it is TA’s article which is characterised by ‘opinions presented as facts’. One example is its assertion of an ‘unassailable fact that autism is a disability’. Not even the law supports this assertion, and whether you agree with it or not, it is plainly a contested opinion, not a fact, unassailable or otherwise.
TA follows this ludicrous claim by accusing us of bullying people simply by expressing our opinions. This is a disgraceful slur on the many autistic and other neurodivergent people involved in and supporting this Manifesto. Evidently, this ‘charity’ finds autistic people expressing our opinions objectionable, which suggests a contemptuous and fearful view of autistic people.
TA repeatedly accuses us of trying to force our views onto others. This is another ludicrous slur. Like any other manifesto, this document presents our policies. People are free to agree or disagree with them. If us producing a manifesto represents forcing our views onto others, then what does TA publishing this dogmatic and accusatory article represent?!
Thinking Autism purposely uses the term ‘people with autism’, in order to separate autism from autistic people. We, and the big majority of autistic adults, prefer ‘autistic people’.
Conclusion
Thinking Autism’s hit-piece against the Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto illustrates the reason why such a manifesto is urgently required.
The article discusses autistic people as damaged, diseased, broken people in need of fixing. It portrays us as people incapable of articulating our views and as not entitled to raise demands. It relies on ‘evidence’ that lacks credibility to attack scientific consensus.
It employs various rhetorical techniques to make ludicrous allegations, including many of which it is itself guilty.
And it does all this in order to justify its pursuit of the medical suppression of autism.
It is pathologising, patronising and inaccurate.
We urge readers not to be taken in by its rhetoric, and instead to read our Manifesto and see it for what it is: a set of transformative policies well worth fighting for.
You can read the Labour Party Autism Neurodiversity Manifesto via this link: https://neurodiversitymanifesto.com/2018/09/18/labour-party-autism-neurodiversity-manifesto-final-draft-version-2018/
Message from one of our Neurodivergent Labour Organising Group members, Lucy Stokes:
“Excellent news comrades.
The Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto motion for St Thomas’s branch in Dudley North constituency has been unanimously passed.
Here is the motion:
Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto
St Thomas’s Branch Labour Party welcomes the drafting of a specific Labour Manifesto on Autism/Neurodiversity.
We note that this process has been overseen by a team of neurodivergent Labour Party members and supporters convened by John McDonnell MP and has had input from trade unions and campaign groups.
We note that autistic, dyslexic, and dyspraxic people, and people with attention deficit disorders, Tourette’s, obsessive-compulsive disorders and other neurodivergent conditions experience a great deal of hostility, distress and disadvantage in our society, and that strong Labour policies on this issue can make a real difference to people’s lives.
We support the draft Manifesto’s core principles of the social model of disability; the neurodiversity approach; opposition to austerity; socialism, democracy and solidarity; and ‘nothing about us without us’.
We welcome the Manifesto’s policies, including commitments to stop and reverse cuts to services; provide access to diagnosis/recognition for all; fund and organise education to meet neurodiverse needs; place a legal requirement on employers to make workplaces and working conditions more equal and accessible and less hostile; and add ‘neurological status’ as a tenth protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
We urge the Labour Party to adopt this Manifesto as its policy and to campaign vigorously to promote it.
Further, we welcome the launch of Neurodivergent Labour on 9 February 2019, and will publicise and support the development of this much-needed new organisation.
St Thomas’s Branch Labour calls upon Dudley North CLP to invite a speaker from the Neurodivergent Labour Manifesto Group to a future meeting and supports this motion.”
Onwards…
A Labour Party branch usually covers the area of a local council ward.
Make sure you know which branch you are in, when and where it meets, and who the Secretary is.
You can find out this information from your Constituency Labour Party (CLP) Secretary, whose name, email address and phone number is on your Labour Party membership card.
Submit the motion to your branch secretary.
It should then be on the agenda of the next meeting.
At that meeting, the Chair will ask for someone to second your motion. You might want to ask someone to do this in advance.
Then you will speak in favour of your motion, explaining why you want people to vote for it.
You might want to prepare a few points in advance.
You could mention how discrimination or hostility has impacted on you or people you know; or perhaps pick one or two policies from the Manifesto to highlight.
Remember that not everyone will be familiar with the terminology, so explain words like ‘neurodiversity’.
After you have spoken, the motion’s seconder will speak in favour of it if they want to (but they may prefer to second it ‘formally’; i.e. not make a speech).
Then there will be a debate. Members may ask questions, speak for, against or just about the motion.
Members may propose amendments i.e. changes to the text of the motion. You can decide whether to accept an amendment (if you agree with it) or not accept it (if you disagree with it or want it to be voted on separately).
If you do not accept an amendment, there will then be a mini-debate about the amendment; its proposer and seconder will speak in favour of it, and others (including you) may speak against it.
Then there will be a vote on the amendment.
If more people vote in favour of it than against it, it is passed, and your motion will be changed accordingly.
If more people vote against than in favour, then it will fall.
If the vote is tied, then the Chair of the meeting may cast a vote for or against, which will decide the outcome.
After all the debate, and any amendments have been dealt with, you get to speak, replying to any points that you want to reply to.
Then there will be a vote.
If more people vote for than against, it is passed. If more vote against than for, it falls.
If it is tied, the Chair will have a casting vote.
Once your motion is passed, please confirm with the Branch Secretary that they will forward it to the CLP.
And please let ND Labour know of your success!
There is plenty for trade unions to support in our Manifesto. So please help us to spread the word and build support within your union.
Below is a model motion that we are asking you to propose to your union branch.
You can use it exactly as it is or change it to suit your union.
If you would like any advice on how to submit a motion, please contact Janine Booth janine.booth@btopenworld.com. Please also let Janine know when your branch passes the motion. Thank you.
Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto
THIS UNION NOTES THAT:
1. the population, the workforce and our movement are neurologically diverse – people have different ‘brain wiring’ or structure
2. autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic, ADHD and other neurodivergent people experience systematic disadvantage and discrimination in our society, including in employment
3. only 16% of autistic adults are in full-time employment; other neurodivergent groups also have low employment outcomes
THIS UNION DEMANDS urgent and effective measures to address this systematic discrimination.
THIS UNION WELCOMES the drafting of a Labour Party Manifesto on Autism and Neurodiversity by a neurodiverse group of labour movement activists, and the opportunity to contribute to this. We congratulate John McDonnell MP for his support for this initiative.
THIS UNION RESOLVES TO:
1. provide training for officers, representatives and activists on neurodiversity in the workplace
2. endorse the Manifesto, urge the Labour Party to adopt it in full, and campaign for its policies
3. circulate information about this to branches and members
4. ask the Labour MPs who work with this union to support this Manifesto
5. invite a speaker from Neurodivergent Labour to tell us more about the Manifesto.
To help us spread knowledge of and build support for our Manifesto, please propose a motion supporting it to your Labour Party branch.
Below is a model motion – you can use it exactly as it is or change it to suit your branch.
If you would like any advice on how to submit a motion, please contact Janine Booth janine.booth@btopenworld.com.
Please also let Janine know when your branch passes the motion. Thank you.
Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto
We welcome the drafting of a specific Labour Manifesto on Autism/Neurodiversity.
We note that this process has been overseen by a team of neurodivergent Labour Party members and supporters convened by John McDonnell MP and has had input from trade unions and campaign groups.
We note that autistic, dyslexic, and dyspraxic people, and people with attention deficit disorders, Tourette’s, obsessive-compulsive disorders and other neurodivergent conditions experience a great deal of hostility, distress and disadvantage in our society, and that strong Labour policies on this issue can make a real difference to people’s lives.
We support the draft Manifesto’s core principles of the social model of disability; the neurodiversity approach; opposition to austerity; socialism, democracy and solidarity; and ‘nothing about us without us’.
We welcome the Manifesto’s policies, including commitments to stop and reverse cuts to services; provide access to diagnosis/recognition for all; fund and organise education to meet neurodiverse needs; place a legal requirement on employers to make workplaces and working conditions more equal and accessible and less hostile; and add ‘neurological status’ as a tenth protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
We urge the Labour Party to adopt this Manifesto as its policy and to campaign vigorously to promote it.
Further, we welcome the launch of Neurodivergent Labour on 9 February 2019, and will publicise and support the development of this much-needed new organisation.
We resolve to help with its set-up expenses up to a maximum of £x [please insert a figure, depending on your branch/constituency party’s finance].
We resolve to invite a speaker from the Neurodivergent Labour Manifesto Group to a future meeting.
The launch meeting of Neurodivergent Labour took the following decisions to enable the establishment of the new organisation. Each was proposed and debated, and several amendments were made and some rejected before the final decisions were taken.
Organisation and Name
We agree to found an organisation with the name ‘Neurodivergent Labour’.
Aims
Neurodivergent Labour aims to develop socialist policy on neurological diversity; to win support for Labour among neurodivergent people and their supporters; to campaign against discrimination, exclusion, oppression and injustice and for equality for neurodivergent people; to provide support to neurodivergent Labour Party members who are experiencing discrimination; and to work to make the Labour Party more accessible to its neurodiverse membership.
We endorse the Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto and will campaign for its implementation by a Labour government. We look forward to deciding at a future time that the term ‘neurodiversity’ is widely-enough understood to rename the document the Labour Party Neurodiversity Manifesto.
Neurodiversity
We believe that humanity is neurologically diverse; different people have
different ways of thinking and understanding the world. Developmental
conditions including ADHD, dyslexia, autism, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and others
are neurological differences.
We want neurodiversity to be accepted and celebrated, and oppose the assumption
that non-typical neurologies (neurodivergent conditions) need to be prevented,
suppressed or ‘cured’.
We accept that conditions such as these are natural forms of neurodiversity and
that neurodivergent individuals will have strengths which stem from their
neurotype(s) but will face unnecessary barriers to education, employment and
independent living if unsupported.
Neurodivergent people are at risk of developing additional mental health issues
as they try to navigate neurotypical environments and search for acceptance,
but neurodivergent conditions are not in themselves mental health conditions.
Membership
Full membership of Neurodivergent Labour is open to individual Labour Party
members who are neurodivergent (diagnosed, seeking diagnosis or
self-identified).
Neurodivergent people who believe that they have been unfairly excluded from
Labour Party membership may discuss their situation with the Organising Group.
The founding AGM will decide any additional membership categories (eg
supporters, organisations) and subscription rates. Until then, as an interim,
neurodivergent people may join without charge.
Founding AGM
We agree to hold a founding Annual General Meeting open to all Neurodivergent
Labour members before the end of 2019, which will adopt a full constitution;
debate and decide policies; and elect officers and representatives.
Volunteer groups
At this meeting, we welcomed volunteers for two groups:
• an Organising Group to arrange the founding Annual General Meeting, draft a
constitution and set up membership; and
• a Manifesto Group to promote our Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto
and its policies.
We agreed to elect a convenor for each of these two groups. We elected Austin
Harney as convenor of the Organising Group and Janine Booth as the convenor of
the Manifesto Group.
See the Facebook page: Neurodivergent Labour
Labour MPs (including John McDonnell, Thelma Walker, Ian Austin and Emma Lewell-Buck) met with the Steering Group on 22nd January 2019 in discussions to forward the Manifesto.
Many thanks indeed to all who contacted their own Labour MP, asking them to attend / view the Manifesto & its Appendix on ABA, using the information below:
Background
We are writing to you to give background information and to update you with progress – and, importantly, to ask you to further support this crucial work.
In April 2016, two neurodivergent activists, Monique Craine and Janine Booth, proposed to the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, that the Labour Party draft an Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto and take steps to appoint a Shadow Minister for Neurodiversity. John agreed, and asked Monique and Janine to put together a Steering Group of neurodivergent people of all ages, background and neurotypes to oversee the drafting of this manifesto.
Since then, thousands of autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic and otherwise neurodivergent people, our allies and labour movement activists have supported the development of a Labour Party Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto.
From all of us in the Labour Party Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto Steering Group, we would like to thank everybody who has helped us in creating and spreading the word about this manifesto.
This is an historic moment: the Labour Party is the first major political party to have drawn up a Neurodiversity Manifesto; and also the first to directly consult neurodivergent people and organisations in order to set its policies.
With your help, the Labour Party could be the first political party to adopt this manifesto as policy, which would be a major step in advancing the rights of neurodivergent people.
By helping us, you can make history.
Since 2016 we have undertaken many activities. Here is a summary:
We have assisted with raising this issue in the General Election 2017. This resulted in an historic first for a major political party as the Labour Party Manifesto promised to use the social model, work towards an ‘autism-friendly’ society and promote neurodiversity in the workplace and elsewhere. We have consulted trades unions, Constituency Labour Parties and branches, neurodivergent people and organisations on the drafts of the LPAND Manifesto
We have set up a website (www.neurodiversitymanifesto.com) and a public Facebook page, ‘Labour Party Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto’, which now has over 1,200 followers.
We have reached out to campaigners, students, neurodivergent researchers and academics across the UK and beyond, given talks to organisations, conferences and trade unions.
We have included sessions about the LPAND Manifesto in trade union courses about neurodiversity, and input ideas generated by these into the document
We have hosted a Fringe meeting at each Labour Party Party Conference since 2016 – firstly, in 2016, to launch the first draft LPAND Manifesto; in 2017 to engage Labour and the neurodivergent community with the Manifesto principles and ideas for the future; and this year, 2018, when we brought the final version to delegates and where John McDonnell committed the next Labour Government to implementing the Manifesto principles. (video clips on our website)
We have commissioned and adopted an Appendix on Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), two ‘therapies’ that many neurodivergent people believe to be harmful and abusive
We have undertaken preparatory work ready to establish ‘Neurodivergent Labour’ – a new, democratic organisation for neurodivergent Labour Party members – on 9th February 2019.
We have produced the final Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto and, in November 2018, formally presented this Manifesto to the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell.
What now:
John McDonnell will host a briefing event for Labour MPs, at which Steering Group members will explain the LPAND manifesto and answer questions.
This will be followed by further discussions with Shadow Cabinet members about policy details.
Consideration will be given to the appointment of a Shadow Neurodiversity Minister.
The Steering Group are planning and convening the launch of ‘Neurodivergent Labour’ on 9th February 2019 https://www.facebook.com/events/2232294323722636/
What we are asking you to do:
We need as many Labour MPs as possible to attend the Labour Party’s Briefing Event about its Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto on 22nd January 2019, 5.00pm – 6.00pm in the NSCR, Houses of Parliament.
Please invite your Labour MP to attend this briefing.
(If you don’t know who your MP is, please go to http://www.theyworkforyou.com and enter your postcode)
A template letter is provided below for your use.
Nothing about us without us,
The Labour Party Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto Steering Group
—————————————————-
Template letter for writing to MPs
[Your name & address]
[MP’s name]
[Date]
Dear [MP’s name],
I am writing to ask you to attend the Labour Party’s briefing event about its Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto on Tuesday 22nd January in the NSCR, Houses of Parliament at 5.00pm – 6.00pm.
The Manifesto is the result of a two-year consultation process convened by a steering group comprised of neurodivergent people (who are autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic, ADHD / and with other atypical neurological developmental conditions), who are trade unionists, Labour Party members, academics, students and others. This process has produced a set of radical and inspiring policies which if implemented, will transform and improve the quality of life for all neurodivergent people.
Millions of people in the UK are either neurodivergent or close to someone who is. But neurodivergent people experience systematic discrimination and their* needs are neglected. When neurodivergent people are discussed, it is often other people talking about them*, rather than their* own voices being heard.
The Labour Party is the first major political party in the UK to directly involve neurodivergent people in drawing up a Neurodiversity Manifesto. This is an exciting development which I and many other Labour Party members and your constituents would like you to actively support.
By attending the briefing event, you can find out more about this, ask any questions that you may have, and show your support.
[If you wish, add your own question which you would like asked and/or personal reasons why this is important to you here.]
You can read the Manifesto and Appendix by clicking on this link: https://neurodiversitymanifesto.com/2018/09/18/labour-party-autism-neurodiversity-manifesto-final-draft-version-2018/
Best wishes,
[Your name]
* Please feel free to use us/our rather than them/their if you are neurodivergent.
Thank you 🙂
Neurodiversity Manifesto: Labour Party Launch 