Autism Speaks

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i'm confused about this organization! are they only trying to cure the severe autistics or people like me?

i've already looked on the website and it didn't really give me a clear cut answer.

I don't think they differentiate. I think they want it all gone.

the autism speaks people need to get on here. i'm sure they've heard about it if they know so much about autism.

I doubt they would be interested because they know so much. They did actually make some sort of attempt to say that AS is something special but that is a common tactic to divide those on the spectrum. It is really little more than a ploy. It also sets up some kind of high functioning/low functioning divide which completely ignores the entirety of the spectrum.

They say we're different and yet they're MORE than willing to use the 1/166 statistic whose growth in large part is due to the inclusion of Aspergers on the Spectrum.

As usual, hypocrites want it both ways.

Autism Speaks' essay on AS and Classic Autism
This is the link to the articles penned by Autism Speaks' Alison Tepen (sp?) Singer and GRASP person.
Singer is the mother who was in that "documentary" "Autism Every Day", that said the only thing that prevented her from killing her daughter (and herself) was her NT daughter. She whines about how awful everything is and how her daughter suffers. She complains that her daughter can't do anything while she is holding her and shushing her.
In this essay, she does distinguish between AS and "Classic Autism". But at the same time, she still uses the emotionally negative words about AS, "suffers" "violent".
While it would be nice to see if these parents would change their mind, I doubt they will. There are some pretty vicious parents on the blog circuit who call autistics who don't want to be cured "psychopaths" "exploited" "lazy". They seem to be on a one tract mind.
Honestly, before I encountered the "autistic community" I was completely ignorant of the fact that people didn't want a cure. Googling autism is quite a task and I generally looked for support and resources for small children. It wasn't until this year that I found autistics.org and wrongplanet.

But all the while, I knew something smelled fishy about Autism Speaks, Cure Autism Now and Autism Society. They had vague goals and very emotional testimonies, and very high tech websites for being charities. I knew I didn't agree with them.

thanks kimj and i'll read that tomorrow. i have to go to bed before my mom comes in here and kills me for staying up on a school night.

All I could say about Autism Speaks is that they fund biological research investigating the genetic, biochemical, and neurobiological bases of the autism spectrum, and I support Autism Speaks in that part of their mission.

By the sounds of things, nearly all the major Autism/AS groups have got it the wrong way except for Wrong Planet, which is esentially just a large forum and help center! Man, aren't we lucky? I'll thank Wrong Planet gratefully if I become more well known if my story is a huge hit. I'll also (try and) shun the 'cure it or die!' opinions.

When no money's involved, it's quite easy to stay on the right track, don't you think?

I don't want to NOT be autistic! Do you?

Nope! I'm happy the way I am, thank you very much! No cure for me!

This was my response to their "articles of understanding" thing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXnb-jXl7uw[/youtube]

And yeah, I'm one of the ones who's supposedly being "exploited" by all these people I didn't meet until I'd already been saying stuff like this for quite awhile...

To be polite about my opinion, I don't support or respect ANY advocate groups relating to Autism ran or even founded by Neurotypical individuals or teams. In fact I don't like any form of advocacy from people who can never experience what their talking about first hand. If the organization is founded and ran by a person with Autism, I will respect their right to advocate; however for me to support them is another story altogether, depending on what approach they take, what they say, etc.

Oh don't worry, their right to advocate is not in any danger from anyone, not with all their money and major TV network connections.