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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.[1] She was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. Up until around age 8, she was unable to communicate well due to seizures.[2] 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.[3]

Sequenzia remains nonverbal and lives happily in a group home with some friends in Florida. She has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and dyspraxia.[3]

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.[2]

Positions

Amy Sequenzia loves life and wants other autistic people to feel the same way.[4]

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.[5]

"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."[6]

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."[7]

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.[8]

She believes that therapy should be ethical and respectful.

References

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