Online Memorials, The Autism Memorial

Every year on March 1, the disability community gathers across the nation to remember disabled victims of filicide–disabled people murdered by their family members or caregivers.

Filicide, the murder by one's parents, is one of the top three causes of death in children under five. It is one of the top five overall causes of death among all children and teens. Autistic children are particularly vulnerable, as parents use the "trauma" of having an autistic child as a legal defense. 

Encounters with police can also be dangerous for autistics, especially autistic persons of color. Individuals with a mental illness, including autism, are 16 times more likely to die during an encounter with police, the highest of any group studied. From 2013 through 2015, data show half of the police encounter deaths were people with mental illnesses or cognitive differences.

• https://autismmemorial.wordpress.com
• https://disability-memorial.org
• https://autisticadvocacy.org/melmemorial/
• https://autisticadvocacy.org/projects/community/mourning/

Guest:

Peter Joseph Gloviczki (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Mass Communication, 2012) examines representation in the digital age. He is particularly interested in the ways that memorialization and mediated narration either hold space for or obscure voices that are most often othered or excluded in mediated discourses. He works as an associate professor of communication at Coker University. He also serves as an assistant editor of the Journal of Loss and Trauma (Taylor & Francis). Gloviczki is active in both the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the Carolinas Communication Association (CCA). His first book is Journalism and Memorialization in the Age of Social Media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and his second book Mediated Narration in a Digital Age: Storying the Media Worldis forthcoming in the Frontiers of Narrative Series with University of Nebraska Press.