2020s

The Food and Drug Administration issued their final ban on the Graduated Electronic Decelerator devices used at the Judge Rotenberg Center. This ban was delayed on grounds of the COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Well-known and longtime activist Mel Baggs died of medical neglect at the age of 39.

CommunicationFIRST released a short film called LISTEN, which featured various nonspeaking autistic people talking about how they want to be perceived and respected. This was made as a response to Sia’s movie MUSIC, which featured a non-autistic actor playing a nonspeaking autistic character.

Mark Rober partnered with several celebrities to do a fundraiser for Autism Awareness Month called “Color the Spectrum”. Proceeds went to NEXT For Autism. Autistic advocates were upset about this, due to certain things about NEXT. There were some protests and a call for a boycott, while other people showed up on the stream to try and improve it.

The D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the FDA’s ban of the shock devices at JRC on the grounds that they were only being banned for a specific use and not banned entirely. 

Autistic Archive, the stie you are currently on, was started in July of 2021. by Ira Eidle Originally a collection of Google Drive folders, Autistic Archive is a repository of materials related the to Neurodiversity Movement's history.  

Simon Baron-Cohen, a well-known autism researcher, started a project called Spectrum10k, where he aimed to get 10,000 or more DNA samples of autistic people. There was lots of concern from neurodiversity advocates over the ethical implications of this research and the lack of transparency. The project was frozen and then given the greenlight to go again by an ethics committee in 2022. 

Amidst the outbreak of the omicron variant of COVID-19, CDC director Rochelle Walensky made comments about how people dying of the omicron variant were "unwell anyway" and that was encouraging data to them. This caused a massive firestorm on social media. Several disability rights leaders met with Walensky to discuss the weight of her comments, as well as concerns the disability community had about the CDC's handling of COVID-19.

Andre’s Law was introduced in the state of New York. This law would make it so people in New York could not be sent to the Judge Rotenberg Center, which would curb enrollment significantly. 

New Disabled South, a nonprofit that fights for disability rights and disability justice in America's southeastern region, was started in 2022 by Dom Kelly. They also have an advocacy arm known as New Disabled South Rising that started in 2023.

The last official Autistics Speaking Day was held in 2023. Some may still decide to observe the day, but the ASDay blog will no longer be updated. ASDay outlasted the Communication Shutdown from the AEIOU Foundation that it was started as a protest to.

A satirical autism news site known as The Daily Tism was started by Elsa Williams and Sara Gibbs

A campaign known as Disability Divest was started to advocate for disability organizations to divest from companies that support the State of Israel, namely weapon manufacturers. This is being done to support the Palestinian people, including Palestinians with disabilities. 

In December of 2024, the Canadian chapter of Autism Speaks announced they were closing on January 31st, 2025. A reason was not given for their closure. Their original organization in the United States remains open.