Hi Everyone!
Thank you all so much for signing and sharing the petition. We really think we can get to 1000 signatures by the end of July if we all share the link and make another push for our communities to be made aware of what goes on at this cafe and how they're exploiting autistic and otherwise disabled folks as a marketing gimmick, while promoting the use of ABA.
Speaking of ABA and behavior therapy...
Another petition everyone should know about - though I'm sure many of you already are and have signed - is the petition for the FDA to ban using a graduated electronic decelerator to shock disabled people for the purpose of behavior modification. After years of fighting for this usage to be banned, the FDA finally did so.
"The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Canton, Massachusetts is a 'treatment center' that uses their own, non-FDA approved electric shock devices on disabled people, primarily autistic people with and without intellectual disabilities, as a way of controlling their behavior.
Children and adults at the JRC wear shock devices all day and staff of the facility deliver painful electric shocks remotely. It is the only program in the U.S. that uses these devices as punishment. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture determined that the use of these devices is not treatment -- it is torture."
Unfortunately, the Judge Rotenberg Center filed a lawsuit to have the ban overturned. The court recently ruled that the FDA only has the authority to ban the devices entirely or not at all, as they allegedly cannot dictate how the device is used.
You can read more about the situation and sign the petition at the following sites (please note the content may be disturbing for folks who have PTSD and/or have been in ABA)...
https://www.change.org/p/fda-ban-torture-of-people-with-disabilities-and-stoptheshock
https://autistichoya.net/judge-rotenberg-center/
https://autisticadvocacy.org/2021/07/asan-denounces-court-ruling-on-electric-skin-shock/
Thank you again for your support of the autistic community and for speaking up & amplifying our voices!
- Giraffe Party