Published on 12, July, 2020
I promised to do this a while ago, and now I'm finally getting around to it. The petition will be on petition.parliament.uk. The character counts are extremely limited, so it was difficult to provide the needed information in the available space. Please let me know what you think of the text below, because this is for all of us and not just me. Note that the information I have provided (see the links) is also from a government website, so they can't really refute that.
The title of the petition is:
Make neurodiversity a separate protected characteristic.
The background I have written is:
Neurodivergent individuals, e.g. those with autism or Tourette's, often suffer discrimination due to their condition, whether or not their condition amounts to a disabilty. Making neurodiversity a protected characteristic in itself, separate from disability, would be a step in the right direction.
Here are the additional details I have written:
Neurodivergent individuals are denied both fair treatment and mental health services at a higher rate than in the general population. As a result, the unemployment and suicide rates in the neurodivergent group are disproportionately higher as well. Presently, they are obliged to prove that their condition amounts to a disability in order to be legally protected from the discrimination and mistreatment to which they so often fall victim. Further info: tinyurl.com/y829k3oh & tinyurl.com/yavfxmod.
PS I need 5 emails addresses for supporters of the petition, so if anyone is a UK citizen and willing to "officially" support the petition, please PM me. I can likely get some from people I know, but maybe not all five that I need (I don't know many people).
Thanks.
(Edited based on comments received)
Hi, I did visit the link about petitions what I have noticed typing in the search box 'autism' it showed up with other links that might be worth looking into.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/210975
The first link is about 'Making Autistic Spectrum Disorder widely known about within the DWP Assessments'.
DWP stands for the Department for Work and Pensions for those who may not know.
As it stands there are 4,197 signatures.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/223069
The second link is about 'Mandatory EHCPs for children with Autism'.
EHCP means Education Health Care Plan.
As it stands there are 3,359 signatures.
Thanks for the links to those other petitions. There is also another very worthwhile petition discussed in another thread:
petition.parliament.uk/.../221033
Thank you for sharing this.