Amy Sequenzia

Amy Sequenzia is an autistic advocate, essayist, and poet known for her work at the Autism Women's Network and Ollibean. Her prolific work is well-known and respected in the autistic community. She is also a board member of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Life
Sequenzia was born in Miami, Florida. She was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. Up until around age 8, she was unable to communicate well due to seizures. She then learned to type with facilitated communication, and her family thought some of her words were very poetic. This laid the foundations for her to become a poet, and she began writing poems around age 16.

Sequenzia remains nonverbal and lives happily in a group home with some friends in Florida. She has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and dyspraxia.

Work
Amy Sequenzia writes for the Autism Women's Network and Ollibean. She writes essays and poetry about autism, and has published several poetry books.

Positions
Amy Sequenzia loves life and wants other autistic people to feel the same way.

Autism
Sequenzia is strongly against Autism Speaks and other anti-autism groups, stating that they send a message of despair that hurts autistic people and their loved ones. "'To the 'warrior parents' who are 'fighting autism:' You are fighting your child. Autism is, and will always be, part of them. It doesn’t matter if you can only see deficits and woes. Every time you show a video of your child having a bad moment, every time you blame autism for all the things you believe your child should be doing, but still can’t, you are hating your child.'"She advocates for neurodiversity and autism acceptance, rebelling against stereotypes and others' low expectations of her.

Language
Amy Sequenzia uses identity-first language, sometimes capitalizing the word Autistic. She has written against the use of functioning labels as a person who is typically labeled "low-functioning."

Therapy
Sequenzia speaks out against compliance-based therapies such as ABA, arguing that they demean autistic people and violate their human dignity, forcing them to act and think exactly how the therapist wants them to."I had some ABA when I was young, and I “flunked”. I want to say, I am proud of this “F” in my life.""Of course, the “experts” explanation for having failed to make me into a “tidy”, “appropriate”, “good girl”, obedient and compliant Autistic was my severe impairment, my extreme low IQ, my inability to learn or, as Lovaas would probably have said (and something a doctor actually said), my lack of human dignity."She believes that therapy should be ethical and respectful.