ABA has affected those on the autism spectrum for so many years. And many are manipulated into thinking that it’s the way of life without even realizing it’s ABA policy.

i had experienced so many people saying to me that I have to act more ‘normal’ and that life’s not about me, and even telling me to kill myself.

But I’ll never forget the incident where one gymnastics instructor threatened to chop off my leg and replace it, and for what reason? Because my leg was just feeling sore.

So how do I know all this was the result of Applied Behavioral Analysis? I researched it and studied Youtube videos on how it works and I’ve seen videos of girls’ hands being grabbed and forced into their lap for no reason. That video also showed how the girl stopped fighting back because she didn’t think her feelings mattered anymore.

That was when I said ‘bingo.’ That was how I felt back in the day; nobody cared about how I felt, they wanted me to be more like them and less like myself. Unacceptable.

Recently, the Virginia House of delegates introduced and passed HB1722 to expand ABA services to the entire commonwealth and the delegate who introduced it promised that if anything went wrong with ABA that she’d be the first one to call it out. Unfortunately something recently did go wrong and the delegate remained silent. So it’s up to us.