True Inclusion, Equality, and Empowerment of autistics - Learning from Examples of International Women's Day and SG Women 2021

Preamble

International Women's Day (IWD) has gotten a lot of attention this year (2021) in Singapore. In fact, The Ministry of Social and Family Development has dedicated 2021 as the Year of Celebrating SG Women. As a believer of Equality, Inclusion, and Fairness for all, I find this inspiring. More importantly, I find many fundamental principles/values and attitudes on which this concept of gender diversity operates upon, which I feel can be emulated and applied to disability inclusion, including Autism Awareness Day coming up next month (April). 2nd April was declared as Autism Awareness Day by the United Nations General Assembly

A bit of History

8th March is International Women's Day (IWD). Officially recognised by the United Nations since 1977, today it is celebrated by many countries globally.

The Women’s Rights Movement dates all the back to 1848.

Readers keen to read more history may refer to the links appended below in the Appendix.

Closer to home, MPs such as Minister of State(MOS) Low Yen Ling, speaks of examining entrenched gender bias, including her personal story. She and a few others spoke at the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Forum 2015  as well. 

Currently in Singapore

Among other things (e.g. needs of the vulnerable groups, mental health etc.), one of the issues came into the limelight during COVID-19 pandemic was Review of women’s issues: Challenges facing women highlighted by pandemic (The Straits Times ("ST"), 21 Sep 2020). Budget 2021 debate touches on this issue as well - see Budget debate: New task force to boost women and children's health (ST, 5 March 2021)

Meanwhile, Seven women (were) inducted into Singapore Women's Hall of Fame (ST, 8 March 2021) by Singapore President Halimah Yacob. Mdm Halimah also highlights areas of focus to raise gender equality (ST, 9 March 2021).

Organisations rally together in commemoration of this event and in recognition of women who have achieved much, against all odds, and overcome gender bias. Just a few examples:

1. Celebrating Female trailblazers in Singapore Police Force (ST, 8 March 2021)
2. Restaurants in Singapore to Celebrate International Women’s Day 2021
   

The popular hashtag for this year's Celebrating SG Women is #choosetochallenge, which is the IWD Campaign 2021 theme, signifying a call to choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality.

Principles we can Adopt to other Minority Groups (e.g. Autistics)

A close observation of IWD and Gender Diversity tells us the fundamentals on which it operates:

1. Equal Opportunities:
• There is a strong call for women to have equal opportunities to education, employment and other areas of realising their talent and potential. 
• This is lacking in the disability community. For instance, it is not uncommon to hear of how disabled people are rejected from a job offer, or not even given a chance for the job interview, because of their disability. The unemployment rate in the autistics population is very high.
  
•  Many autistics also find themselves in jobs where the job scope is not relevant to their field of academic qualification, or in jobs with prerequisites lower than their qualifications (the economist would call this "underemployment"), hence lack of chance to put their skills to good use and putting what they learnt to practice.
  
  
2. Women are empowered to stand as EQUALS.
   Gender Equality is far from the charity model.
• Today, broadly speaking, women are NOT seen as inferior beings in need of charity, pity, or dependent on men.
• Instead, women are empowered to be equal with men in terms of opportunities, competency (or opportunities to present their competencies), contribution to society etc. Case in point: It is not uncommon to see women in Senior Management positions or the C-Suite level (i.e. CFO, COO, CEO etc.) in corporations big and small. It is an interdependent relationship between men and women.
• In a way, the novel concept of Inclusive Equality (applicable to the autism community), a term coined by Mr Eric Chen, the first ever Singaporean autistic autism advocate, is somewhat similar to this. Mr Eric Chen had recently written in to the Press on how we can Empower people with disabilities to stand as equals (Oct 12, 2020). However, the stark reality is society still operates on the charity model towards autistics and the wider disability community, and operate on a dependent relationship where autistics are seen and treated as people needing help of non-disabled people to assist them and make decisions for them. There is a problem of presumed incompetence.
  
  
3. Nothing About Us Without Us. 
   In this context, the "Us" is women.
• A lot of the testimonies shared during the last few days in the newspapers (1st and 2nd week of March 2021) were the women voices.
• Organisations invite women, including high achievers, as external speakers to be their own voice to tell their story and their views to the employees who wish to tune in to listen, and NOT have men (e.g. their husbands) tell their story on their behalf. I recently listened to two of such talks in my workplace.
• Women are involved in policy making and policy decisions for the very policies that affect them. In fact, we even see women being the leaders in this! The Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) founded on 25 November 1985, is run completely by a team of women on the Board. Meanwhile, a review of Women's issues in Singapore will be led by women MPs, namely MOS Low Yen Ling, MOS Sun Xue Ling and Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam. President Halimah Yacob also stresses that "It is also important to ensure women are represented at all levels of decision-making" 
• In contrast, in the autism space, autistics are still seen as mere beneficiaries of charities, and are hardly involved in decision making of the very policies that affect autistics.
  
  
4. Respect is a fundamental value 
    Respect for women, who are the primary stakeholders, is fundamental and imperative.
   Likewise, respect for autistics should be fundamental to autism awareness day. Again, this is lacking. One example is how some non-disabled people, and the media, insist on using person-first language ("person with autism") despite local and international autistic advocates advocating strongly for the use of identity-first language ("Autistic person"). Readers who are new to this can read up from some links appended below in the Appendix.
   
   
5. It is Nation-wide
   Many parties are playing their part at all levels. It has been described in earlier parts of this blogpost how this is done at the community level, organisation level and government level

While our society and country has made some positive developments in the autism space and disability space, there is a still a lot of gaps, and many of the fundamental imperative principles outlined above are found lacking/wanting.

• Fundamentally, some autistics do not feel respected by others in the way they are treated in society. As a personal example, I have witnessed inclusion events or concerts/performances where the autistics are hardly involved in the decision making and are not in the spotlight. The autistics perform the items while the emcee, the organisers, etc. (a.k.a. those who "run the show") are all non-disabled people. I was invited to such an event with no clear directions on how to get to the venue and I was given a very bad seating location that had no good view of the stage performances.
  
  
• Autism organisations in Singapore currently have zero autistics on their Board.
  
  
• To the best of my memory, Autism Awareness Day in April in past years, though it had some events in the month of April, had never received the same level and focus as how the IWD and SG Women 2021 had.

However, I would like to think this is not a lost cause. Having autism events, campaigns etc. that are more in-line with the principles above are not unheard of.

 Beyond the shores of Singapore, 

• The Asia Pacific Autism Conference (APAC), a biennial event convened by autism organisations in Australia, involves many autistics as co-organisers and speakers, of whom some of them are Board members of some of these organisations. The APAC 2019 included many autistic speakers as well. Being hosted in Singapore for the very first time, it was a significant milestone for the Singapore Autism Community.
• The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) in UK, and ASAN Australia & New Zealand, are all run by autistics.

Back home, Singapore is still at a very 'beginner' level in achieving this. That said, there have been autistics who have stepped up to start the ball rolling, a few to highlight:

• The Life After Death (LAD) Forum 2019, first ever autistic-led event. The panel chair was Dr Siobhan Lamb, a female autistic.
• Sharing of our stories - such as Ms Langeline Leong, Mr Eric Chen, Mr Wesley Loh (myself), Mr Cheow Yi Jian.  
• Writing in to the Press (Straits Times Forum - various articles)
• Expressing our views publicly online such as through blogspot (the platform which you are reading this blogpost) and iautistic website
• WhatsApp Autism Community Singapore (WACS), an ongoing long-run project, which is meant to be an appetiser to the Autism Action MasterPlan written by the first Singaporean autistic autism advocate.

There is much value to be gained when embracing diversity and ensuring a diverse workforce. Giant companies like SAP and Microsoft hire many autistics worldwide in their global offices, and they testify how autistics are a source of innovation, creativity and innovation.  

Locally, the United Overseas Bank has hired many autistics ever since partnering the Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) in 2015, and is currently partnering various social service agencies that look into the employability of disabled people.

The journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step. We have taken the first step. It is time to take the next, and the next, and the next. Autism Awareness Month (April 2021) is less than a month away.  Many autistics have called it for to bring to the next level of Autism ACCEPTANCE Month.

I urge everyone to make this one better than the last, bearing in mind the imperative fundamental principles above we want to inculcate in autism inclusion and disability inclusion & equality as much as they are inculcated in gender equality. I also hope the Government Ministries will give this community equal attention on a national level as they did on SG Women 2021.

Together we can make progress for the Singapore autism community.

Doing this will also be an important step and contributor to building a just, equal and fair society, and strengthening our social fabric as emphasised in Budget 2021 by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. 

I call upon all Singaporeans, organisations and government ministries to join arms as One United People, in building a Singapore culture that engenders the kind of fair and equal society we want to live in, achieving progress, justice, equality and equal opportunities for all regardless of disability, gender, age, race, religion.

_________

APPENDIX

History of Women's Rights, Gender Equality and the Like

1. A brief history of gender (in)equality
   
2. Women's Footprint in History
   
3. Women’s History Milestones: A Timeline
   

Identity-First Language (and why it is preferred over Person-first language)

• https://autisticadvocacy.org/about-asan/identity-first-language/
  
• https://autisticadvocacy.org/about-asan/identity-first-language/
  
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-020-04858-w