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Rule 13: the last nail in NAS's coffin?

Peter

Today completes an important step for the National Autistic Society. Today with Rule 13 they complete the abdication of responsibility for supporting autistic adults reaching out for help.

You may remember in 2021 that the National Autistic Society closed its general helpline. There was a thread about it on this forum. As was pointed out at the time from that point onwards this forum became the only port of call at the National Autistic Society for help for people who did not qualify for one of the remaining helplines.

And the remaining helplines pertain to children in school, children leaving school and parents of autistic children. The National Autistic Society has become a defacto children’s charity leaving autistic adults out in the cold.

Now not content with refusing to help autistic adults they now seek to reduce autistic adults ability to help each other. I fully admit that a bunch of amateurs on an autistic support forum is a poor substitute for professional help. However the vast majority of those seeking such help now have nowhere to go professional or otherwise.

Some of you know that I also brought a lawsuit against an organisation for discrimination. I reached out to the citizens advice bureau and got no useful help. I reached out to the EASS and they said that they couldn’t help me because the other party would not engage with them. I wrote to established academics with a background in discrimination law and autism and they said they couldn’t help me.

Yes I rang that autism helpline back when it existed, back when I tried to get some justice and they said we can’t help you. But at least I spoke to someone who admitted that he was supposed to be able to help me. That helping me was what he was there for.

With regard to the law when you bring a case for discrimination most of the time legal aid is not available. This is in part because the majority of discrimination cases go through the small claims track which is intended to operate without lawyers.

Something similar applies to the health service. It’s very easy for autistic people to get sidelined in the health service particularly if they are bad at articulating their needs and concerns. Again I know this from personal experience.

At this point if autistic adults come to this forum or the loved ones of autistic adults come to this forum and say they are having difficulty with the law or discrimination or a medical issue rule 13 interpreted strictly means that we can provide no helpful advice other than pointing to sources of help that in fact do not exist.

For quite some time now I have run a website dedicated to helping autistic people defend their rights and oppose discrimination. I chose not to include a forum on that website because I was aware that policing it could involve a substantial amount of work. However this development has persuaded me to change my mind. So I’m announcing that areyoualien.uk now has a forum for autistic people. The focus of this forum like the website is advocating for autistic rights in government policy and the law and opposing discrimination. You are all very much welcome there.

  • in reply to I Sperg

    I'm in strong agreement with the points you make sir.  Thank you for saving me typing time.

  • in reply to I Sperg
    I Sperg said:
    Someone needs to do the job, I'm fairly sure I wouldn't want to be a mod here so let's just wonder a bit more about how and why that rule arose, who ordered it and why? 

    Actually almost all internet forums select mods from people who've been posting for a long time and have demonstrated they behave in a responsible way on the forum. Only a few corporate forums have paid staff or screened volunteers exclusively as moderators. NAS's model of forum moderation is the exception rather than the rule for community based forums. Which only reenforces that NAS in some ways runs more like a corporation than a charity.

  • in reply to Peter

    This looks like a rule they have HAD to implement to CYA, the vagueness might be more helpful to us than not in the long term.

    This site I will admit is admiinistered with a deft hand by people who are subject I imagine to a lot of "guidelines".

    We can complain, offer advice, highlight where we think they have overlooked things, but telling them what they "could be doing better" possibly is going a step too far without having better knowledge of the Mods working environment. 

    How connected to money or govenrment is it? Both come with savage pressures to do things the "correct way"...

    Some websites really stamp on the truth, for example a while back you could not say "Ivermectin" on youtube without getting disciplined...

    They've let me tell a LOT of widely suppressed truths here without demur. That speaks to the character of the admin in my book.

    They actually seem to allow adult debate right up until the point where it gets shouty which means someone is constantly observing and excercising judgement for our benefit!! 

    Someone needs to do the job, I'm fairly sure I wouldn't want to be a mod here so let's just wonder a bit more about how and why that rule arose, who ordered it and why? 

    I'm definitely NOT keen on regulations that protect the stupid from their own acts  Seatbelt and helmet laws come to mind, but I'm not entirely stupid myself, so perhaps I simply don't see a real problem that these laws fix.

    I say (in an unsure of himself voice) " let's give rule 13 the respect it deserves, based on past performance of this website under the admin it has, and see how they actually implement it?"

  • in reply to Deleted User

    They could clarify the difference between support and advice. 

  • in reply to Deleted User

    They could clarify the difference between support and advice. 

  • in reply to Deleted User

    Hi mate, sorry I hadnt seen that. My mistake

  • in reply to I Sperg

    I disagree.  Competence does still work for some people......if it didn't, I'd be destitute!

  • in reply to Peter

    Autism in adults, does not a popularity contest win.

    And nowadays everything is a popularity contest. In days gone by we could skate by by having "competence", but that now no longer works.

  • in reply to Twitch

    Or as I might say, "it is a conflation and extrapolation beyond the realms of reasonableness.

    I prefer bolshie !

  • in reply to Billy87

    Hi Billy,

    Sorry to be a pedant....but there is a response from the MODS 6 days ago mate.

    Also, I'm not wholly sure what more that could say on the matter.

  • in reply to Peter

    That's just Bolshie talk Darling! Laughing

  • in reply to Peter

    Wow, that’s a impactful last line in the comment, if I ever did see one.. it made me choke on caught-breath..Confused

  • in reply to Billy87

    To be honest I don't envy the mods. I feel like they are probably stuck between higher ups who would rather NAS be about autistic kids and view this forum as being for parents. The kind of people who won't be thrilled about people like me pointing out that NAS isn't doing much for autistic adults on NASs own forum. And on the other hand they mods have to deal with us, a lot of unruly, mostly high functioning, autistic people who blame them for the edicts NAS hands down.

    Their position is a little bit like black adder trying to convince the generals that walking slowly towards the machine guns is not a good idea. https://youtu.be/y9o_nu6WWEg?t=89

    In short I think NAS top brass would be quite happy if autistic adults just stoped posting here.

  • The fact that no one from the NAS seems to have replied to this post in the last 7 days to clarify this rule speaks volumes. 

    Autistic people need clarifcation, we hate vagueness.

    It seems like even our own society doesn't understand us 

  • I'm glad you stayed.  I like your perspectives.  I am sorry that this forum software makes your life harder than it needs to be.  Thank you for persevering with us/for us.

  • in reply to .....

    It’s not on you, it was only a matter of time, even if it was the  trigger, which it likely wasn’t, it certainly doesnt encompass all of the factors..:)

  • I can only apologise for this rule being introduced. I think it was my health thread thread which is one of the reasons why they did this though I was grateful for the help given by the lovely members and that put my mind at ease so thanks for that. I am sorry though if I'm one of the reasons for this rule being introduced.

    I'm guessing the mods aren't autistic as calling and seeing a GP is one of the most stressful things for a lot of us and to me it makes sense checking with people who understand here first. I saw my GP today and had a meltdown it was horrible and very scary experience. 

    I'm glad of this site as we're all more less in the same boat and it's reassuring that we can look out for each other.

  • in reply to Ian

    In fairness that sort of data mining would apply equally to this forum which is open to everyone to see. I have the same no identifying information rule on my forum this one has. But you can’t keep everything about your life secret and say much at all. Particularly if you’re trying to share personal experience.

    The possibility that someone can reconstruct identifying information from lots of small individually not identifying details is as just as much a risk here as anywhere else.

  • in reply to Peter

    See my film night experiment...

    In fairness to me, I will sign up for your BB simply because I like that format, and having prior admin experience of running one of those for a while I might have something to offer if you develop a need, but it won't be quite as quick as you want..

    On my first attempt, I needed to select a user name, and supply other data, and that gave me pause to consider whether I should keep to this I.D. and remain instantly recogniseable or whether I should start again with a different I.D. partly to give people (whether they think they like me or not) a second crack at evaluating me, and also because I like to make it hard for "bad actors" to follow me about the internet, as should you all. (IMHO) 

    It is possible to operate an internet "speak easy" quite successfully, particularly,  if you use the PHBB "groups" feature so that distressing opinions and content (or even conduct) can be hidden from casual inspection by idiots or busybodies, but be warned, the admin of such places can be quite time consuming and challenging, and it pays nothing..