Submitted Photo Joe Dingledy, a local resident with autism, was shamed recently at a downtown Fredonia business, according to his mother, Tina.

Tina Dingledy said her autistic son was shamed recently at a downtown Fredonia business, and wants to use the incident to raise awareness about the often-poor treatment of people with autism.

In correspondence and a phone interview with the OBSERVER, Dingledy detailed the incident involving her 33-year-old son, Joe. She wrote that though Joe and an aide were “having a fun time learning something new, they were yelled at and insulted by the owner who stated ‘I don’t work with people as disadvantaged as he is!’ “

Dingledy said that even when Joe’s aide said she would be helping them, the business owner did not want to work with them. Joe and his aide then left the establishment.

“I am angered and hurt to know that someone in our community, our small hometown community would deny access to creativity to someone just because they are ‘different’,” she stated.

Dingledy added: “Please, don’t ignore this, don’t say ‘oh, that’s terrible!’ and never think about it again. These kinds of things happen to people like Joe more times than we know and it will only stop if we quit supporting it.”

Reached by phone, Dingledy said the incident has shaken her and her son.

“It’s the way in which he did this,” she said. “He could have taken Joey’s aide aside and spoken to her so Joey wasn’t involved in it.

“Resolution for me would be an apology,” she continued. “I’ve had people say to me, ‘what about some education?’ I think that’s great and people need to know things. But I’m this guy’s mother. I’m upset and I can’t get to a point where it’s about education.”

Dingledy said she and Joe, while from the area, lived in North Carolina for many years, with Joe returning here in 2015.

“It’s taken him this long to get him to the point he was at down there,” she said. “It’s been a long process for him and for me. That’s why I hated for something to happen to him — he runs into this man screaming and yelling at him. That’s not the way I wanted to start.”

Joe’s aide recounted the incident to Dingledy immediately after it happened, but Joe also discussed it in his regular Monday night email to her a few days later. “He wasn’t gonna walk away from the conversation,” he said.

“I pay attention when he tells me something logical. He doesn’t speak in sentences, he barely speaks at all,” she said. However, he is a fluent writer.

Dingledy said she wants to protest the business but the recent poor weather is holding her back. When she does do it, she said Dreams, a group associated with developmental disabilities service organization Aspire of WNY, wants to join her protest.

Dingledy said that in the end, she just wants businesses to treat autistic people with respect.

“You don’t know what they know,” she said. “Joey speaks very little but he understands.”