שתיל - שירותי תמיכה וייעוץ לקידום שינוי חברתי

"The deepest hunger of the human heart is to feel understood, valued and respected." - Dr. Ava Ruth Baker

SHATIL's new focus on disabilities has led to the creation of projects that improve the lives of people with special needs, initiated by new activists as part of their SHATIL course requirements.

People with disabilities will spread the message about their rights and their lives through a new lecture/workshop bureau created by participants in the recent Combined Course for Social Change in the Area of Disabilities for people with disabilities and students at David Yellin College of Education.

Social Change Fellows in the Area of Disabilities, a SHATIL course run in cooperation with Beit Issie Shapiro, resulted in the formation of an Arabic language hot line in the Triangle for parents of children with disabilities. Twenty five volunteers were trained to provide guidance and information about rights and services in an area with a dearth of guidance for this population. A second project, the new Community of Families of Mentally Ill Individuals provides a support network and educational projects such as a web site and lectures aimed at changing the attitude of the broader public toward people with mental illness.

In an attempt to launch a discourse about Israeli society's attitude toward autism, two other graduates of this course, Ronen Gil and Sola Shelly, organized a day long seminar, Toward Quality of Life for People on the Autism Spectrum: Community, Self Definition and Equal Rights. Led and keynoted by autistic people, the seminar and was co-sponsored by the Center for Independent Living and Beit Issie Shapiro, with which the organizers linked to through SHATIL.

SHATIL organizational consultant Israel Sykes who led the course, called the seminar "a historic event -- the first effort of its kind led by autistic people in partnership with other organizations."

"Autism is not a disease, it's a way of life," said Ronen Gil, director of The Community of Autism Spectrum People in Israel (ACI - http://aci.selfip.org/) in his opening remarks at the seminar. "Until today, autism has been defined as difficulty in emotional interaction, in understating feelings, in verbal and non verbal communication. Today, we ask that you look at autism differently, not as a disorder...but as a difference.

"Social change begins with raising our value in our own eyes," concluded Gil, who credits SHATIL with giving him the tools to carry out his social change work.

The seminar's keynote speaker, New Zealand author and physician Ava Ruth Baker, pointed out that "Current models emphasize an outsider viewpoint rather than an insider experience. Autism is only a disability because of society's current response to it."

To drive the point home, Dr. Baker joked about "neurotypical syndrome," (i.e. people not on the autism spectrum) saying it is characterized by a preoccupation with social concerns, obsession with conformity, difficulty in being alone, intolerance of minor differences in others, and social and behavioral rigidity!

Dr. Baker said, "The deepest hunger of the human heart is to feel understood, valued and respected. My recent residual Asperger's diagnosis has helped me to feel these three things for and about myself - which I had never been able to do before."

She continued: "Solution focused counseling using the client's own goals and strengths is a promising approach. Instead of failing to succeed in what you're not, you can start succeeding at what you are."

"The seminar was an eye opener for me," said Ella, a social worker who came because she suspects one of her children is at the edge of the autism spectrum. "The lack of superfluous social convention was refreshing. I felt I could be myself without worrying how others saw me.

"And when I got home, I began seeing my son differently - not as someone who needed to be fixed, but as a neurologically atypical individual who needed only to be accepted and appreciated for who he is."

Arlene Kanter, Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Disability Studies and Law at Syracuse University and a renowned expert in the area, sees SHATIL's disabilities work as path breaking.

"SHATIL's approach of empowering people with disabilities and supporting them to advocate for themselves is a cutting edge approach, not only within Israel but also with respect to the field of disability rights worldwide," she said.