Dr. Teresa Mulhern:

Science, which includes ABA, is falsifiable and open to critique. By having things such as experts-by-experience panels, which are proposed by ISBA, ensuring that the division of behaviour analysis will have an entire panel symposium and keynotes, and including autistic and other neurodivergent voices, it shows we are not just an echo chamber comprising people saying not to listen to certain voices. As Ms O’Keefe said, if you are autistic and happen to advocate for behaviour analysis, that is not a great space to be in. There is a reason other autistic behaviour analysts call it middle earth. We are kind of stuck in this odd space where we are not accepted by the autistic community. I have been told I am self-loathing, that I should just die and so on, but part of why I got into ABA is that I received some form of ABA when I was a child and it was the most affirming support I have ever had. It has got me to a point where I can self-advocate but also give people the tools to advocate for themselves. At its core, that is what ABA is. It gives people the functional skills to advocate for themselves rather have others speak over them.