​As AWN prepares to go on our winter break today, we are reminded of the positive impact and milestones we’ve achieved this year because of the commitment from you and our fellow community members. For several years now, AWN has prioritized self-care and wellness by providing our staff with three weeks paid time off beginning ..read more

Boozhoo! Jules nindizhinikaaz.  Boozhoo is a greeting in Ojibwe. My name is Jules.  I’m an Anishinaabe disability advocate. November was Native American Heritage Month, a time to honor the history and cultures of Turtle Island Indigenous Peoples. The Ojibwe Nation uses the term Turtle Island to describe North America, which comes from a creation story ..read more

I’m Nancy, the Project Coordinator at AWN, and in October I attended a conference together with our executive director Sharon to learn more about how AWN can continue expanding the support we provide to our fiscally sponsored programs. Fiscal sponsorship lets us take smaller or emerging grassroots projects and organizations under our wings and give ..read more

Hi, I’m Lori, the Director of Web Development at AWN. I have been part of AWN since its founding fifteen years ago and have been a web developer for almost 30 years. Since that time I’ve seen the spaces AWN has fostered grow immensely. In this newsletter, we will be sharing the results of a ..read more

AWN’s Liberating Webinars series is back with a new webinar titled Disabled Joy through Dance and Laughter on September 30! This webinar was postponed last year due to AWN staff need for crip time, so we are excited to finally make it happen. I’d love to have you there! The webinar is free, and scheduled ..read more

Hi, I’m Jean, the Administrative Registrations Coordinator at AWN. On July 26th, we’ll celebrate the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This important civil rights law works to ensure all people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. On this anniversary, I wanted to reflect on how much we’ve seen the world change for autistic people in the last few decades.  I am a late-diagnosed autistic mother of three, and like many parents, I only found out I was autistic after getting my first child diagnosed, which was almost two decade ..read more

Lea este artículo en español. Imagine you are a federal judge. You have been asked to decide a case about Medicare reimbursement. The law says that hospitals should be reimbursed in amounts reflecting “differences in hospital wage levels” across “geographic areas.”[1] The problem is that the law doesn’t explain what it means by “geographic areas.”  Is it by city? Town? State? Thankfully, the policymakers at the Department of Health and Human Services have done a lot of work based on their expert knowledge to determine what a “geographic area” should mean. Now you have a choice: do you lis ..read more

Hi, I’m Lei, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network and I wanted to wish you a happy Pride! Last month AWN sent you an update about our LGBTQIAP+ and Gender Justice policy work and asked for your support for our Give Out Day fundraiser. I really appreciate everyone who donated! Yet even if you do not have the ability to donate to LGBTQIAP+ causes, I want to encourage you to support your local queer and trans community this month (and every month) by other means such as volunteering. I believe change really does happen at the local level, and maybe to ..read more

Content warning: eating disorders, fatphobia “It is literally impossible to be a woman,” says America Ferrara’s character at the beginning of her famous monologue from the movie Barbie.  While I agree, I think it is even more impossible when you are a woman from multiple marginalized communities dealing with health issues such as eating disorders. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDA) was from February 26th to March 3rd. One of the themes of NEDA week this year was how eating disorders affect people from underrepresented communities inclu ..read more

March and April were big months for AWN’s policy work. As our Policy Director, I represented AWN at two rallies at the Supreme Court, led AWN’s efforts advancing policies to ensure accessibility in healthcare, transportation, the Census, and transportation, and attended a national conference on disability. Together with our allies, I ensured our disability justice values and our community’s needs, including queer/trans and BIPOC autistic people were heard loud and clear in all these issues. I’m writing to you today to ask you to support our Give Out Day fundraiser, an annual day for LGBTQ ..read more