From Exclusion to Acceptance: Independent Living on the Autistic Spectrum

Abstract

In 1996 Martijn Dekker of the Netherlands founded Independent Living on the Autistic Spectrum (InLv), an e-mail list for autistic people. First run by hand on dial-up, InLv was also the first fully autistic-run, self-hosted online autism community. With forums on topics from “advocacy” to “brain” to daily living such as “self-care”, “employment”, “social”, and “family”, InLv provided a venue for discussions that gave rise to neurodiversity concepts and members published influential essays that remain online. The group provided mutual support to accept autistic people as individuals, promoting inclusion and resisting conformity while helping one another to self-advocate and secure civil rights and appropriate services.