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The Voice of Autism is a social networking site for autistics and their allies in the neurodiversity movement.
For our purposes, "autistic" means:
By "neurodiversity movement" we mean the movement which affirms the value and human rights of persons who don't have standard neurologies, especially, of autistics. Some websites about neurodiversity are Neurodiversity.com and The Autism Acceptance Project.
From time to time the administrators of this site may invite persons other than the above to join.
A few years ago, the Autism Society of America attempted to brand itself "The Voice of Autism". Such a branding rubbed many autistic people (who are inarguably, the real voices of autism) the wrong way. Autistic people have not been allowed more than a token voice within the ASA, with occasional exceptions at the chapter level. By way of contrast, an ASA breakaway organization, the Autism National Committee, makes a genuine, if sometimes imperfect, effort to include autistics.
In response, we of the Autistics.org Project (a group of autistic people who operate this server) quickly bought up a number of domains, including "thevoiceofautism.org" and "thevoiceofautism.com" and rebranded itself "The Real Voice of Autism". The Autistics.org Project did so with a disclaimer that it did not, by such a slogan, mean that the handful of autistics who work on the site were the exclusive voice for all autistic people, but that autistic people ourselves are the only genuine voices of autism.
The next logical step was to set up the domains we had purchased for autistic people to speak for ourselves. Unfortunately doing so was slowed by a number of problems, including technical issues and health issues. But in late April of 2008, we managed to set up this site so that any autistic person with internet access (and the willingness to play by the Terms of Service) can here use their "voice">
If you're an autistic person or a neurodiversity movement ally, sure, sign up!
On the other hand, If you're a spammer, a reporter pretending to be autistic to get a "good story" (yeah, it's happened), or anyone interested in exploiting this site to promote your agenda that autistics are diseased, defective, helpless, pitiful, poisoned, and should shut up and let others speak for us, be aware there is a $50.00 per day charge for such abuse (see the Terms of Service). And we're prepared to collect it, too.
The Autistics.org Project, a somewhat disorderly group of autistic adults who operate this server, does. We really do intend to formally incorporate, someday. Don't necessarily hold your breath, but then don't count out the power of a burst of perseverative energy. We might be "The Autistics.org Project, Inc." tomorrow.
Sure, why not. Just be aware that unless the suggestions also come with an offer to volunteer to implement them, it may be a very long time before you'll see them in place.
Contact the admin, and volunteer yourself or someone else willing and qualified, to implement them.
Zero, zip, nada, if you're an autistic or ally as described above. As much money as we can reasonably get out of you, if you're a spammer.
Try here.
Not formally, at least not of this writing. We do ask that allies identify themselves as not autistic. But things can and will change I'm sure.
As of right now you need to contact the site administrator. We hope to arrange things so that you can delete yourself in the future.
It's the Internet, right? And you don't see that little padlock locked on your browser, right? We're certainly going to do everything within our ability to keep this site secure. We don't want the hassle of repairing the damage after being hacked any more than you want your account hacked. But if you think this is a safe place to store your credit card numbers, your medical records, and that secret map to where Aunt Nellie buried the family gold, you're a fool.