A4A

In 2018-19, A4A took on the ABA industry’s stranglehold on provincial autism funding. Gaby, Borden and Banerjee, along with members Kim Crawley, Jim Martin and Deanna Shoyer successfully advocated to have the provincial government begin to include AAC, speech language pathology and occupational therapy in funded programs that had previously been monopolized 100% by ABA from 2003 to 2019. The team also successfully advocated to get autistic representation at the Government’s Autism Advisory Panel, which had previously been 100% comprised of ABA industry and parent group representatives.

In 2021, members of A4A, along with Autistics United Canada, extensively consulted with the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, an arms-length group reviewing federal autism priorities.

In 2022, representing A4A, Borden spoke about autistic rights and the problems of the autism industry lobby before the Canadian Senate, with Vivian Ly from Autistics United Canada, the first time autistic-led advocacy groups ever spoke in a public forum before the Government of Canada.

Community: Rights and Pride

In 2018, Gaby, Banerjee and Borden, along with Caro Kovesi, Mandy Klein and Raya Shields organized A4A’s first Disability Day of Mourning vigil as an international affiliate of ASAN (which founded the worldwide event).

That same year, Banerjee and Borden, together with members Jeff Chislet and Riley Whitchurch organized the first annual counter-protest of Ontario’s Autism Speaks charity fundraising walk.

In 2019, Gaby and Borden, with ally Nancy Marshall Co-organized the first Neurodiversity flag raising in Ontario (and the second in the world) at Toronto City Hall.

In 2020, the group organized a Toronto-based protest against VAXXED 2, an anti-autistic, anti-vaccine propaganda film screening in theatres across Canada. The protests were in concert with protests in Bedford, NS and London, UK.

A4A’s Board also authored a 2021 expose on extreme bias towards ABA in The Toronto Star, with illustrations by Charlie Reveler.

Social media

In 2018, Borden and Shields created the International Day of the Stim, an international online event celebrating stimming and the right to self-regulation and free movement, every September 17, on Twitter and Facebook.

The following year, Borden created #CatAwarenessMonth on the A4A Twitter account, an online disruption to Autism Awareness Month (in April) on Twitter. This grassroots, alternative campaign uses the mottos “Cat Awareness Month: Celebrate Biodiversity” and “Light It Up Mew.”

Education

In 2020, Borden and A4A member Darla Burrow launched the Autistic Health Access Project, where members of Autistics for Autistics speak to Canadian medical schools (examples: University of Toronto, Queen’s University) about identifying and removing health access barriers for non-speaking, autistic and intellectually disabled people. 

In 2022, Aguirre, Borden and Burrow, along with member Sam Lee, collaborated with the Centre for Independent Living Toronto on the Disability Vaccine Outreach Initiative, presenting about accessibility issues and directly working to remove access barriers for autistics in Toronto to receive their vaccines. 

Members of the group have also presented throughout Canada on workplace accessibility and educational inclusion.