Autism in Ireland: Protesting Service Cuts

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.thinkingautismguide.com Updated extensively on 5/28, as the photo in question was removed from all TPGA pages by request of the parent and the photographer, so the photo-linked TPGA Facebook thread this post referred to was also removed — and now context is needed. -SR This photo may not mean what you think it means. So let’s get that cleared up, because the Irish government is putting autism families and people with disabilities in dire straits, and that’s where we need to focus. The photo was of a little boy at a protest regarding the Irish government’s cutback of in-home support services (called entitlements in Ireland) holding up a sign with his own photo and the statement “If you take away my entitlements, can you take away my autisim [sic]? There’s a chance that, like me and like many other literal thinkers, you see this sign as…