A4A

A4A challenged the ABA industry's control in 2018 and 2019. ABA is a method of therapy. It is the most common one used on autistic people. Many different people and organizations are in charge of providing ABA. This is the ABA industry. They asked the provincial government to fund other services that aren't ABA. This includes speech, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and AAC devices. AAC devices are devices people use to communicate. They use it when they can't speak well. A4A was successful. A province is a defined area in a country. Ontario is a province of Canada, a country. They were also able to get autistic people on the Government's Autism Advisory Panel. It only had parents and therapists before.

In 2021, members of A4A and Autistics United Canada spoke with the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. CAHS is an arms-length group reviewing federal autism priorities. This means they look at what the government is spending most of their money on with autism.

In 2022, Borden talked to the Canadian senate. She talked to them about autistic rights and the autism industry. Vivian Ly also spoke to them with Borden. Both of them represented the first autistic-led autism advocacy groups in Canada.

Community: Rights and Pride

In 2018, A4A observed their first Disability Day of Mourning vigil . They did this as an international affiliate of ASAN. ASAN founded the worldwide event.

Also in 2018, A4A members organized a protest to an Autism Speaks walk in Ontario. This was the first of its kind.

In 2019, A4A members Co-organized the first Neurodiversity flag raising in Ontario. They also co-organized the second raising at Toronto City Hall.

In 2020, the group organized a protest against VAXXED 2 in Toronto. , VAXXED 2 contains misleading information about vaccines. It screened in theatres across Canada. There were also protests in Bedford, NS and London, UK.

A4A’s Board also wrote a 2021 expose on extreme bias towards ABA in The Toronto Star. Charlie Reveler did the illustrations.

Social media

In 2018, Borden and Shields created the International Day of the Stim. International Day of the Stim is an online event . It celebrates stimming and the right to self-regulation and free movement. Stimming is what autistic people do to regulate themselves. There are many reasons people stim. There are also many different ways to stim. The event is international. This means people from different countries celebrate it. It happens every September 17, on Twitter and Facebook. .

Borden then created #CatAwarenessMonth on the A4A Twitter account. It is an online disruption to Autism Awareness Month (in April) on Twitter. It uses the mottos “Cat Awareness Month: Celebrate Biodiversity” and “Light It Up Mew.”

Education

In 2020, Borden and Darla Burrow launched the Autistic Health Access Project,. They spoke to Canadian medical schools about finding and removing barriers to healthcare. They talked about barriers autistic people face. This includes autistic people with intellectual disability and non-speaking autistic people. In 2022, A4A and Centre for Independent Living Toronto worked on the Disability Vaccine Outreach Initiative,. They presented about accessibility issues and removing access barriers to getting vaccinated. They also presented about inclusive education and accessible workplaces.