Supporting Autism in a way other than Autism Speaks

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I don't see any support, as far as CAN and Autism Speaks are concerned.

Precisely. They are depriving us from being ourselves --- this itself makes them look bad and yet they still want to do so. Sigh!

I am looking into supporting autism service dog organizations as all the funds go to caring for, providing and the training of autism service dogs which inturn are a major benifit to the families the dogs are places with.

At least this sounds PC enough and is an acceptable compromise to our troubles wrt Autism Speaks and the old CAN.

I think that service dogs are a much better idea.

Why not service cats who do nothing for us except giving us a cute little sound called 'Meow'?

-- Adapted from 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

I'm in a bit of a quandry over the whole Autism Speaks controversy. There's a student group at the University of Michigan. I signed up last week even though I knew there had been some controversy with the group. But after reading some of the comments here, Autism Speaks sounds far worse than I had any impression of.
Anyways, the group at Michigan does fund-raise for the national Autism Speaks. I did bring up some of the things I read here, they were offended ( I probably was rude) but I don't want to go into much detail about that. They did say that people do disagree on issues always and some things might be controversial. I understand that. Not all women feel feminist groups speak for them or that Jesse Jackson speaks for black people or Phil Donahue accurately represents Christians. But I sense a really negative vibe about Autism Speaks here. I don't see any posts by people disagreeing and saying it is a good organization. There have been a small number of posts that say they don't see it as that bad but those amount to the most positive opinions on the group I see here. Am I only seeing one side of the story, just extreme views or is this a fair sampling? Because it seems to be a consensus that people here regard Autism Speaks as being supportive to ASD individuals the way Exodus International is supportive to LGBT individuals.

And what do you think I should do? I do have the group leaders contact, she also gave me the representative's email for Autism Speaks that she communicates with. I like the idea of having an autistic support group on campus. But I'm not sure if a group that seems to be more interested in funneling money to political activist groups is a good fit. I'm torn on what to do. But I would like to ask if all of the negative things people feel about Autism Speaks are compiled into one place (where I can see all the videos they've made and so on). I'd also like to know if there is evidence to back up the more serious claims, again, in one place I can reference.

I did look at the official Autism Speaks website earlier today and while I was not outraged, I wasn't that impressed. It focuses only on the very severe cases when it is a spectrum, Aspergers is not even mentioned and it only seems to focus on the negative aspects of autism.

So what do you think a group on campus for autistic spectrum should do? I've heard of GRASP, checking their website, they seem to be a much more supportive organization. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should email to the leader of the student group and the contact from Autism Speaks she gave me.
Thank you all for your help.

I agree... Let's ask other NTs to support GRASP if possible.

Wolverines should be sharp enough to make the best use out of everything, man! Go Blue!

GRASP speaks for us and helps us better!

I would just love to see another organization start making realistic commercials to spread awareness from the standpoint of autistics and their families.
I think it will eventually happen. If the only organization people ever hear about is "autism speaks", then that's all they know.
I hope ASAN, and/or Wrong Planet get really big at some point and make some amazing realistic commercials and open people's eyes to how it really is, and that there is hope and worth to those with autism.
My teen and his awareness group are starting to educate those around them with the facts.
Maybe if people saw a dynamic commercial with hope for the future, instead of doom and gloom, they might be happy to give to a worthy cause.

But first, as an autistic individual... what can I do?

(PS I am a Singaporean...)

In addition to ASAN, what other organizations are working for autism rights/services, specifically services for adults. All focus seems to be on children, those children will one day become adults and what will they have?! We have next to nothing available for us now, that has to change! Any thoughts?

Accepting autistic people just as they are, is a good start.