Too Many Autistic Adults Are Denied Basic Rights
Unfairness and prejudice are all too common in the U.S. justice system.
The injustices go beyond matters of race.
Photographer: ARIANA DREHSLER/AFPOne of the more hopeful developments of an otherwise difficult year is the greater concern for the most vulnerable members of society, often accompanied by the realization that they are treated unfairly or worse by the justice system. And while the attention has so far focused on race and gender, it should also be extended to people with disabilities — or, if the word “disability” seems unsuitable, those who are different, neurologically and otherwise.
Some of the very worst treatment of the vulnerable is hardly being discussed. There is an entire category of American adults being denied almost all of their basic legal rights: to hold a job, choose a residence, determine their health care, enter into contracts and even decide what to do with their own body. These are adults under legal guardianship — a court-imposed process, in Ohio as elsewhere, “by which a person is relieved of the right to make personal life decisions and another is appointed to make those decisions on that person’s behalf.”