Julia Bascom
{{Short description|American autism rights activist}}
{{Autism rights movement}}
Julia Bascom is an American autism rights activist. She is a former executive director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and replaced Ari Ne'eman as president of ASAN in early 2017 before stepping down at the end of 2023.{{cite web|last1=Ne'eman|first1=Ari|title=A Message from ASAN President Ari Ne'eman|url=http://autisticadvocacy.org/2016/07/a-message-from-asan-president-ari-neeman/|website=autisticadvocacy.org|access-date=27 August 2016|date=18 July 2016}}{{Cite web |date=2023-09-28 |title=A Message From ASAN Executive Director Julia Bascom - Autistic Self Advocacy Network |url=https://autisticadvocacy.org/2023/09/a-message-from-asan-executive-director-julia-bascom/ |access-date=2024-05-03 |website=Autistic Self Advocacy Network |language=en-US}}
Advocacy work
Bascom previously worked on the New Hampshire State Developmental Disabilities Council.{{cite web|title=Council Members|url=http://www.nhddc.org/members.html|website=nhddc.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008181629/http://www.nhddc.org/members.html|archive-date=8 October 2012}} She also serves on the boards of Advance CLASS, Inc. and the Centene National Advisory Council on Disability.{{cite web|title=Staff – Autistic Self Advocacy Network|url=http://autisticadvocacy.org/home/about-asan/staff/|website=autisticadvocacy.org|access-date=27 August 2016}} She was the Deputy Executive Director of ASAN, and replaced Ari Ne'eman as president of ASAN in 2017. She left her position as president of ASAN at the end of 2023 due to complications from long COVID.
Bascom was one of the experts consulted to create an autistic character, Julia, for the children's show Sesame Street.{{Cite web|url=https://slate.com/culture/2017/04/autistic-self-advocacy-network-s-julia-bascom-on-sesame-streets-new-muppet.html|title=An Autism Advocate Explains How She Helped Sesame Street Create Its New Autistic Muppet|last=Martinelli|first=Marissa|date=2017-04-12|website=Slate Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
As an autistic person herself and an advocate, Bascom stresses the importance of letting autistic people speak for themselves on issues that relate to their health, rights and well-being.{{Cite journal|last=McCollum|first=Sean|date=2016|title=A New Frame of Mind|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=118250724&site=ehost-live|journal=Education Digest|volume=82|pages=43|url-access=subscription|via=EBSCOhost}} She states that it is important to recognize that autistic people are different and that there "is nothing wrong with us".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJWFCgAAQBAJ&q=%22julia%20bascom%22&pg=PA16|title=The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies|last1=Howe|first1=Blake|last2=Jensen-Moulton|first2=Stephanie|last3=Lerner|first3=Neil William|last4=Straus|first4=Joseph Nathan|date=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199331444|pages=16|language=en}} On April 2, 2018, Bascom addressed the "state of women and girls with autism" at the United Nations.{{Cite web|url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/04/1006681|title=UN celebrates voice and visibility of women and girls with autism|date=2018-04-05|website=UN News|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
Loud Hands Project
Bascom organized and founded the Loud Hands project. Loud Hands was designed to be a "transmedia project", that is, one that uses "multiple forms of content--written words, videos, visual art, the internet, and more".{{cite book|editor1-last=Bascom|editor1-first=Julia|title=Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking|date=2012|publisher=The Autistic Press|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-1-938800-02-3|pages=9}} The project was launched in December 2011 as crowdfunding campaign to create an anthology of essays written by autistic people.Zurcher, Ariane. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariane-zurcher/autism_b_2435209.html "A Conversation With the Talented Writer, Blogger and All-Around Amazing Julia Bascom"], The Huffington Post, September 1, 2013. Accessed August 27, 2016. The resulting anthology, Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking, was described as "groundbreaking" in Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes.{{cite book|last1=Silberman|first1=Steve|title=Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently|date=2015|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Crows Nest, New South Wales|isbn=978-1-760-11363-6|pages=446|edition=1st}} The project has put together over 20 years of culture, history and writing by and about autistic people.{{Cite web|url=https://researchautism.org/women-speaking-out/|title=Women Speaking Out|date=1 May 2015|website=Organization for Autism Research|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
Bibliography
- Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking (8 December 2012) (editor)
- And Straight on Till Morning: Essays on Autism Acceptance (28 March 2013) (editor)
- The Obsessive Joy of Autism (21 May 2015)
References
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Category:American disability rights activists