There's an autism advocacy group here in Australia called Autism Awareness. They received government funding to produce the below video. The intention is to distribute as an autism education campaign to schools here in Australia. Yet the government is not willing to provide the funding support to distribute the film, and despite the organisations efforts to meet with the Federal Health Minister (Peter Garrett) to discuss the issue they've met only with brick walls. It's an outrage.
For those of us with children in mainstream school environments one of the biggest fears is bullying and inappropriate responses to our kids due to misunderstanding of autism. This short film would go some small way to counteracting a few misconceptions.
Some who watch it may be uncomfortable with aspects of language used, though it's important to remember this is aimed primarily at young children. And others will no doubt be concerned about the lack of autistic voices as 'outoutout' who comments here from time to time pointed out to me on twitter recently. Despite any misgivings about the production, I'm sure we can all agree that more needs to be done to help NT students (and their parents and teachers) in mainstream educational environments better appreciate their autistic peers. I consider this movie as a foundation stone with which to build on in the push for greater knowledge and acceptance within our communities here in Australia, and if successful a model for other countries.
A twitter campaign to hopefully pressure the relevant Federal Government Ministers to meet with Autism Awareness to discuss distribution has been proposed with the hashtag #WhatAreYouDoingMovie. I'd appreciate the help of anyone who has a twitter account to get the message out.
http://www.whatareyoudoingfilm.com/
For those of us with children in mainstream school environments one of the biggest fears is bullying and inappropriate responses to our kids due to misunderstanding of autism. This short film would go some small way to counteracting a few misconceptions.
Some who watch it may be uncomfortable with aspects of language used, though it's important to remember this is aimed primarily at young children. And others will no doubt be concerned about the lack of autistic voices as 'outoutout' who comments here from time to time pointed out to me on twitter recently. Despite any misgivings about the production, I'm sure we can all agree that more needs to be done to help NT students (and their parents and teachers) in mainstream educational environments better appreciate their autistic peers. I consider this movie as a foundation stone with which to build on in the push for greater knowledge and acceptance within our communities here in Australia, and if successful a model for other countries.
A twitter campaign to hopefully pressure the relevant Federal Government Ministers to meet with Autism Awareness to discuss distribution has been proposed with the hashtag #WhatAreYouDoingMovie. I'd appreciate the help of anyone who has a twitter account to get the message out.
http://www.whatareyoudoingfilm.com/
Done. Tweeted KRudd, Peter Garrett and Julia. Liam got smacked by an old fella in Ballarat - due to lack of awareness. Would Autism Awareness like to share that?
ReplyDeleteThanks LisaMaree. xx
ReplyDeleteMmm seems we are the only ones twittering LisaMaree. Twitter fail!
ReplyDelete