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[Image description: Three white passing people standing together, two of them wrapping their arms around each other. They are standing in an open field]
Thumbnail image is from the Autism Picture Page
Autism Conferences have been done for several decades. Many of them are not led by autistic people. This started to change in the 1990s with Autreat. Several autistic-led autism conferences have been held since then.
Autreat
Autreat was an annual retreat ran by and for autistic people. It was the first known retreat of its kind, and many customs that came from it and the organization behind it, Autism Network International, have been instrumental in establishing the culture and customs of the Neurodiversity Movement. It was born out of the mistreatment autistic people faced at autism conferences when they would ask to be treated more fairly. Several autistics and cousins, some parents, and a few autism professionals, decided to develop their own event that was by and for autistic people. Non-autistic people were still allowed to attend and even present, but they were for once not in the majority. You can learn more about how Autreat came to be here: http://www.autreat.com/History_of_ANI.html
The first Autreat was held at a children's summer camp in August of 1996. It shifted locations every few years, often being held on college campuses. The last Autreat was held in 2013, as ANI disbanded soon after.
Below are some anecdotes of the retreats.
Autreat Graphics
Autreat presentations
Slides and program inserts for Autreat presentations can be found here. For a full list of all presenters and presentations for every Autreat up to 2012, click here. 2013 can be found here.
Autspace
Autspace is a conference similar in vein to Autreat. It is organized by The Association for the Autistic Community . It is usually held annually, but because of Covid-19, there has not been an Autspace since 2019, but one is being planned for the future when it is safe to hold one.
A group of autistic people in the United Kingdom devised of a similar event to Autreat known as Autscape. It is usually held in-person. It was virtual in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid-19.
Autistics Present is held in Bellevue, Washington. It is organized by Neurodiversity Navigators at Bellevue College. Their conference has been both in person and virtual.
Autism Summer Institute
The Institute of Disability at University of New Hampshire held a conference starting in 1999 called the Autism Summer Institute. Their 2011 conference had the theme "Everybody Reads, Everybody Writes, Everybody Has Something to Say". ASAN was a co-sponsor of this conference.
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