Supporting Autism in a way other than Autism Speaks

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As more people know that my son has autism, they tell me that they heard of a walk for Autism,etc.
Is there any other group out there that might put out a commercial?
The "autism speaks" commercials are the ONLY way most people who don't deal with this, to hear about it. And they are directed by the commercials to go to the web site.
I have not educated myself enough yet but do not like what I have seen so far about them. It looks suspicious. I will start learning about ASAN.

But does anybody hear about other public awareness campaigns????

It seems like there should be other more trustworthy organizations stepping up. Then when people feel good because they gave to an "Autism walk", it will actually do some good.

I'd sure like to make a "Person Not Puzzle" walk...

I don't know about other groups, but Autism Speaks does not in any way support Autism or those who have it. Autism Speaks' stated goal is the eradication of Autism and anyone who might be born with it. They treat Autism and children with Autism as a disease (they ignore the existence of adults on the spectrum). Their ads repeatedly refer to children with autism as a HUMILIATION to their parents, and paint them as explosive and uncontrollable. Autism Speaks clearly hates persons with Autism and wants the rest of the world to look down upon and despise those with diagnoses on the Autistic Spectrum.

Support would imply understanding and compassion and Autism Speaks is not about compassion - it's about elimination.



I would never refer anyone to Autism Speaks as an educational tool toward understanding Autism. That's like asking a Nazi to explain Judaism.

Hehehe... your signature was the PERFECT ending to that post, Willard!

Unfortunately, I don't have anything useful to contribute to this topic - where I live, Autism Speaks isn't around (thank goodness, from what I've heard of them!), but unfortunately, neither are any really publicly active groups for REAL raising awareness. In fact, I have yet to see a single public campaign involving autism.

I guess it's up to individuals when there's no organizations to do it.

But I'd say you can't go wrong supporting something like ASAN - or anything run by autistics, for autistics.

Have you tried looking up Autism Speaks on Facebook? I looked it up the other day, and got page after page of Autism Speaks group there. It's distressing, because this organization is quickly becoming, if it's not there already, the voice of the autism community, at least according to the NT world. And that's why it's so important to tell the NT's what they're all about.

There are area and regional organizations depending on where you live.For instance, I live in southeast Wisconsin in the USA.So the place I would go to would be Autism Society in South East Wisconsin. There's also the Massachusetts chapter of the Autism Society at this link http://www.massautism.org/

Both of these are part of the larger Autism Society of America.Those are the ones that come to mind first because that's where I live but there are other organizations around the world as well.One such organization is National Autistic Society in Britain http://www.nas.org.uk/

And yes, there should be more trustworthy organization stepping up. It's just that most smaller disability advocacy organizations don't have anywhere near the funds that Autism Speaks possesses. As you know having the money has alot to do with influence. Directing people to those smaller regional non-profits would help remedy the imbalance a bit.

I agree with you, 100% on this one. The people at Autism Speaks hate our guts, just for being born, and they want to eliminate any body who has any form of autism or Asperger's Syndrome off the face of this planet. They paint us all with the same broad brush, spreading the misconception that we're all a bunch of mental cripples who ruin life for our family members. I also don't like that 'Autism Everyday' video that they made. That's not autism everyday for me. I live on my own, hold down a job, pay my bills, make my meals and keep my apartment as clean and tidy as I can. The type of research that the people at Autism Speaks if scientific research to find the Autism Gene, so that future generations of autistics will be prevented from being born. They will be aborted, instead. Think of what happened to all the Down Syndrome babies. They should have never come up for that type of test for that disability, and I hope that they never develope such a test for unborn autistic babies. That's my beef about Autism Speaks. They're the Nazis of the 21st Century.

Thanks for the info Dark Red Beloved. I hadn't looked that one up yet.
And I agree Cockney Rebel, and the general feelings that people have about this situation.
My son at 16, with AS is becoming passionate about spreading awareness because he realizes that Autism speaks IS the only voice heard by most people.
He calls their intent genocide too. It is infuriating!
We are part of a small non profit that is beginning to speak to schools about awareness by using AS and NT teens and present skits, to inform people about how it is for them to deal with people. At question and answer time, this is when Autism speaks comes up. He needs to educate himself about the facts so he can share intelligently.
Meanwhile, waiting for a movement where people UNITE for Autism- not try to eliminate them!

support wrong planet

I believe that there should be an autism organization created by autistics because someone who does not have autism cannot fully explain what it is like to have autism. NT people who know someone with autism are more likely to see autism as a disease or a disability because they are more likely to see the negative things about living with autism. They think "They can't socialize or play with other kids" but I was happy being less social than an NT kid until everyone started telling me that I shouldn't be happy living my life that way. There needs to be a group that presents the positive side to having autism as well as a way to COPE with the struggles. Autism Speaks tells you what the signs of autism are but instead of offering treatment they just tell you that something's wrong with your child. I'm glad I found WP because I can relate to everyone and I can accept my "dehabilitating disease."

Although the idea above sounds utopian, I believe our voices will eventually be heard.

Autistics are all so diverse, it is indeed hard to gather all autistics together, and it is harder for us all to realize that what some of us do are actually good for them, too.

I believe one day, when we feel that our organization helps us more than Autism Speaks, we will definitely tell the world how we can help ourselves and that how their support and trust in our own concerns will help us further... This way, we can thrive.

We should all wear supporting autists shirts (not supporting people who see us as a bother rather than a person) ALL THE TIME. Like, we should get a whole "support autists" wardrobe... other clothes too!

Wasn't there a ribbon or something a few years back? I wouldn't mind wearing something like that.

I'd like to do something like that. I have a set of designs that would be well suited to T-shirts. At least twenty-five of the fifty would be good/marketable designs. They are something like inverted suns is the only way I can describe them. I just need to possibly figure out a good slogan perhaps to go with them and of course autism would be an important, meaningful one to me.

Autism Speaks doesn't support autism. They want to erase it from the face of this planet. Let's put it this way. I'd rather be autistic, than aborted.

Similar sentiments here. We should not support CAN and Autism Speaks. We can definitely speak for ourselves.

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