Neumeier advocates against coercive and forced treatment, and calls to close the Judge Rotenberg Center, an institution known for using electric skin shock aversive treatment on people with developmental disabilities. In 2012, Neumeier attended a medical malpractice trial against the Judge Rotenberg Center brought by former resident Andre McCollins, who received 31 shocks over a period of six hours. Neumeier also testified before the United Nations special rapporteur on torture about the Judge Rotenberg Center. They supported the FDA's ban of electric shock devices in 2020. The Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network stated that "without groundbreaking work, JRC might not have the same level of visibility it does now in the autistic community worldwide." In 2019, University of Portsmouth psychology professor Dr. Steven K. Kapp wrote, "Shain Neumeier and Lydia Brown have taken leading roles in activism to stop the electric use of shocks as 'treatment'." Neumeier has stated that the shock "treatment" is connected to the behavioral modification goals of applied behavior analysis, a widely used form of early intervention treatment for autism. Neumeier also endorses abortion rights activism while opposing contemporary eugenics.
Published articles
Neumeier published a series of seven articles for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network about the trial against the Judge Rotenberg Center. Neumeier has written and commented on ban on the electric shock aversive, reproductive justice, abortion rights, and bodily autonomy for USA Today, The Nation, Rewire, and NOS Magazine. One of Neumeier's articles about abuse and discrimination against children with disabilities was published by Icelandic disability rights organization, Tabú. In Neumeier's essay for disability rights activist Alice Wong's 2018 collection Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, they describe life in the U.S. under the Trump administration as creating a "culture of abuse" and relying on a form of social Darwinism that praises strength and vilifies perceived weakness, such as desire for safe spaces. In 2019, they co-authored an article describing their and Lydia Brown's advocacy work against the JRC for a collection of essays titled Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline.
Attorney
As an attorney, Neumeier worked for Disability RightsNew York, a statewide protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities, before going into solo practice in Massachusetts. Their law practice represents people facing petitions for involuntary commitment. They are an adviser for Supported Decision-Making New York, a statewide coalition focused on development of best practices and policies to enable people with intellectual disabilities and cognitive impairments. They are also an adviser and New England/New York Region Leader for the Intersex and Genderqueer Recognition Project, a transgender rights legal and advocacy organization.
Neumeier's father is Edward Neumeier, a screenwriter known for co-writing the film RoboCop.
Selected works
Neumeier, Shain, "Inhumane Beyond All Reason: The Torture of Autistics and Other People with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center," in Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking edited by Julia Bascom
Neumeier, Shain. "MTV's portrayal of teen treatment centers is misleading," in Teen Residential Treatment Programs edited by Judeen Bartos
Neumeier, Shain, "Back into the Fires that Forged Us," in Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People edited by Alice Wong
Neumeier, Shain and Brown, Lydia, "Torture in the Name of Treatment: The Mission to Stop the Shocks in the Age of Deinstitutionalization," in Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline edited by Steven K. Kapp
