Ari Daniel Ne'eman (/neɪəˈmɑːn/; born December 10, 1987) is an American disability rights activist and researcher who co-founded the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in 2006.
Like many children on the autism spectrum, he was bullied, and in his early teens he struggled with anxiety and would engage in self-harm by picking his skin.
He has said that although he himself was successful at returning to a mainstream school, "What is, I think, most frightening to me is that for many students out there that kind of message is absorbed—the idea that they are inferior is absorbed, and that can be very damaging because it really puts a limit on people's potential.
He then attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where he became a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science as part of the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program.
[15] There, he authored a minority report to the commission's main document expressing concern over the lack of substantive recommendations regarding aversives, restraint, and seclusion.
In his letter to commission chair Joyce Powell, the head of the New Jersey Education Association, he noted, "It would have been our preference to find a solution in the main document to this issue.
However, owing to numerous compromise proposals having been rejected, including one as basic as requiring parental consent prior to the utilization of these techniques, we feel it incumbent upon us to file a minority opinion.
[16] As ASAN President, Ne'eman continued his work against aversives, restraint, and seclusion in a variety of contexts, ranging from grassroots campaigns[17] to comment on specific regulatory proposals.
On November 30, Ne'eman gave public comment to the Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee, a body within the Department of Health and Human Services that he would join two years later.
[22] After the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Ne'eman was one of a number of advocates specifically recognized by then House Majority leader Steny Hoyer in the Congressional Record.
[9] However, Daniel Pfeiffer, then the White House Communications Director, accused Republican senators of intentionally blocking many of President Obama's nominees; in May 2010, there were 96 people waiting to be confirmed to administration posts.
[33][34] ASAN was initially neutral on Kevin and Avonte's Law, which would have provided money to fight wandering behavior in autistic children, until a provision was introduced into the bill that would have allowed for tracking devices to be installed on people with disabilities that could be used for purposes other than locating them if they were lost.
[38][39][40] In 2014, Ne'eman co-founded MySupport, a technology platform that enables people with disabilities to find and hire support workers.
[9] Ne'eman married Rabbi Ruti Regan, a Conservative Jewish Rabbinical scholar and disability rights advocate, in July 2017.