The INTEGRAL Adult Autism Conference helps to fill this major gap by inviting adults on the autism spectrum and the other stakeholders of the autism community to engage with each other directly, openly, and honestly. INTEGRAL is an opportunity for our autism community to truly be a community on important issues of social & cultural factors, economic & employment factors, and identity & justice factors. Other stakeholders are vital to these discussions, and you are encouraged to attend if you are a parent of a person on the autism spectrum, a researcher, clinician, therapist, educator, support worker, legislative advocate, business leader, and/or a member of law enforcement. INTEGRAL promotes the exchange of important ideas, experiences, roles, and proposals across all of these groups in the autism community.
Everyone with a connection to autism is encouraged to attend. We want both autistic and non-autistic members of the wider, general autism community to be present, because the goal of INTEGRAL is to increase communication between these groups. INTEGRAL is meant to bring together from all parts of the autism ecosystem - autistic adults, non-autistic autism professionals, non-autistic parents, family, and friends. Autistic adults are not being heard enough by non-autistic professionals and parents - and we won't be heard if we only meet with ourselves! If you have any connection to the autism community, whether personally or professionally, please attend INTEGRAL - we want you there.
There are invisible barriers between groups within the autism community, especially between adults on the spectrum and adults not on the spectrum. This has led to a persistent lack of any coherent sense of community or shared purpose by adults on the spectrum in our region. INTEGRAL seeks to address these issues by bringing adults on the spectrum and many other key players in their lives together to listen and learn from the experiences, concerns, and goals of adults on the spectrum while those adults actively learn from, and place themselves within, the larger context of these key players’ roles.
INTEGRAL emphasizes that adults on the spectrum need and deserve a model of growth and dignity, not of deficit and disorder, to best pursue their potential and be integrated members of their community. It also emphasizes that adults on the spectrum have existential concerns that are too often ignored or inadequately addressed, often in favor of training for skills that will make them more similar to other people, without exploring or promoting an understanding of purpose, legitimacy, hope, and dignity about their roles in society. INTEGRAL recognizes adults on the autism spectrum as full people who deserve, whenever possible, to be taught how to actively pursue growth and personal goals, not to absorb the inadvertent message that they are unable to do more than passively allow others to support them.