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Advocacy work

Bascom previously worked on the New Hampshire State Developmental Disabilities Council.³ She also serves on the boards of Advance CLASS, Inc. and the Centene National Advisory Council on Disability.⁴ She was the Deputy Executive Director of ASAN, and replaced Ari Ne'eman as president of ASAN in 2017. She left her position as president of ASAN at the end of 2023 due to complications from long COVID.⁵

Bascom was one of the experts consulted to create an autistic character, Julia, for the children's show Sesame Street.⁶

As an autistic person herself⁷ and an advocate, Bascom stresses the importance of letting autistic people speak for themselves on issues that relate to their health, rights and well-being.⁸ She states that it is important to recognize that autistic people are different and that there "is nothing wrong with us".⁹ On April 2, 2018, Bascom addressed the "state of women and girls with autism" at the United Nations.¹⁰

Loud Hands Project

Bascom organized and founded the Loud Hands project. Loud Hands was designed to be a "transmedia project", that is, one that uses "multiple forms of content--written words, videos, visual art, the internet, and more".¹¹ The project was launched in December 2011 as crowdfunding campaign to create an anthology of essays written by autistic people.¹² The resulting anthology, Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking, was described as "groundbreaking" in Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes.¹³ The project has put together over 20 years of culture, history and writing by and about autistic people.¹⁴

Bibliography

• Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking (8 December 2012) (editor)
• And Straight on Till Morning: Essays on Autism Acceptance (28 March 2013) (editor)
• The Obsessive Joy of Autism (21 May 2015)

References

1. Ne'eman, Ari (18 July 2016). "A Message from ASAN President Ari Ne'eman". autisticadvocacy.org. Retrieved 27 August 2016. http://autisticadvocacy.org/2016/07/a-message-from-asan-president-ari-neeman/ ↩

2. "A Message From ASAN Executive Director Julia Bascom - Autistic Self Advocacy Network". Autistic Self Advocacy Network. 2023-09-28. Retrieved 2024-05-03. https://autisticadvocacy.org/2023/09/a-message-from-asan-executive-director-julia-bascom/ ↩

3. "Council Members". nhddc.org. Archived from the original on 8 October 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121008181629/http://www.nhddc.org/members.html ↩

4. "Staff – Autistic Self Advocacy Network". autisticadvocacy.org. Retrieved 27 August 2016. http://autisticadvocacy.org/home/about-asan/staff/ ↩

5. "A Message From ASAN Executive Director Julia Bascom - Autistic Self Advocacy Network". Autistic Self Advocacy Network. 2023-09-28. Retrieved 2024-05-03. https://autisticadvocacy.org/2023/09/a-message-from-asan-executive-director-julia-bascom/ ↩

6. Martinelli, Marissa (2017-04-12). "An Autism Advocate Explains How She Helped Sesame Street Create Its New Autistic Muppet". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-02-13. https://slate.com/culture/2017/04/autistic-self-advocacy-network-s-julia-bascom-on-sesame-streets-new-muppet.html ↩

7. Zurcher, Ariane. "A Conversation With the Talented Writer, Blogger and All-Around Amazing Julia Bascom", The Huffington Post, September 1, 2013. Accessed August 27, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariane-zurcher/autism_b_2435209.html ↩

8. McCollum, Sean (2016). "A New Frame of Mind". Education Digest. 82: 43 – via EBSCOhost. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=118250724&site=ehost-live ↩

9. Howe, Blake; Jensen-Moulton, Stephanie; Lerner, Neil William; Straus, Joseph Nathan (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies. Oxford University Press. p. 16. ISBN 9780199331444. 9780199331444 ↩

10. "UN celebrates voice and visibility of women and girls with autism". UN News. 2018-04-05. Retrieved 2019-02-13. https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/04/1006681 ↩

11. Bascom, Julia, ed. (2012). Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking. Washington, DC: The Autistic Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-938800-02-3. 978-1-938800-02-3 ↩

12. Zurcher, Ariane. "A Conversation With the Talented Writer, Blogger and All-Around Amazing Julia Bascom", The Huffington Post, September 1, 2013. Accessed August 27, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariane-zurcher/autism_b_2435209.html ↩

13. Silberman, Steve (2015). Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently (1st ed.). Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. p. 446. ISBN 978-1-760-11363-6. 978-1-760-11363-6 ↩

14. "Women Speaking Out". Organization for Autism Research. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 2019-02-13. https://researchautism.org/women-speaking-out/ ↩