Comments on: Autism Does Change Everything

By: Whitterer on Autism » Blog Archive » Small World - dib, dib, dib

Whitterer on Autism » Blog Archive » Small World - dib, dib, dib — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:47:04 +0000

[...] uncomfortable as the easy jargon, our shorthand, slips out. So many people are aware of the subtle “nuances” of language, value laden and so often crass. I have avoided the issue of Cub Scouts, just as I have [...]

By: This Week’s Top Posts

This Week’s Top Posts — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:34:50 +0000

[...] Autism does change everything I wrote last Friday—-looking over the topics of last week’s posts, it seems that a little bit of everything from lipstick to sushi to communication notebooks to psychoanalysis to services for autistic adults to fictional mercury-based substances to how many girls have autism was discussed. [...]

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:07:52 +0000

More information on that on this post; Edwards recently put up an autism platform, too.

By: Autismville

Autismville — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:01:20 +0000

Autism Votes is all about information for anyone and everyone. It won’t endorse a candidate. It will just provide you, the voter, information about what the individual candidates think about autism. (There will be a web site coming in the next few months I believe.)

As an autistic person, hopefully this will be a resource that will clarify which candidate would best represent you in the office of the presidency based on your individual priorities and beliefs.

By: Kassiane

Kassiane — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:43:32 +0000

So is this “Autism Votes” really “Autism Parents Vote”, or is it telling autistics 18 and over to vote for the candidate who wants to eradicate them? Because giving actual autistics ACTUAL information? HA.

By: Moi ;)

Moi ;) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:58:16 +0000

How can you expect anything more from an idiot who would condone ads like the ones Autism Speaks puts out????

Consider the source.

By: Autismville

Autismville — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:22:47 +0000

If you go to the AS web site you’ll see so much more than the family service grant program you refer to.

They are funding the expansion of the Autism Treatment Network. The are responsibile for the creation and continued push for support of the EPIAA. Autisms Votes is a new initiative they are coming out with that looks at the various plans presidential candidates have espoused. They were on capital hill this past week advocating for Medicaid support. They started a program this last year of Autism Response Coordinators, individuals in various geographic locations that are prepared to help those who need assistance. Insurance reform is a huge priority for AS. They funded the video library that was released this last year to help improve the possibility of early diagnosis. Their FLAP (Federal Legal Appeals Project) is working to make sure that IDEA is properly enforced in all parts of the US, not just in the northeast and California…

And that’s just the start…

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:06:50 +0000

What will be interesting to see in the future is if Autism Speaks keeps the same rhetoric of putting autism “into the history books” even while making changes to where it allocates funds—-1.7% on community outreach? A provider of group homes here in NJ has to raise $2 million a year to help pay for the staff (there are almost 100 adults that staff are needed for).

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:47:18 +0000

abfh said, “Autism awareness changes everything, all right. It sure as heck cured my naive belief that I was living in a civilized, enlightened society where I could never possibly be a part of a minority group whose eradication was demanded in national magazines.”

Ha! Of course, if it was only national magazines…

I’ll mention something for you, Mamoi, if you’re still reading. I would note that putting autism “into the world of history books” is, in the minds of many autistics, eradication, because it holds particular importance to personal identity and is valued. In fact, many consider it to not even justify the term disorder, but a condition that comes with positives and negatives, much like anything in life. So the effect of some of the statements which have drawn some, well, harsh criticism would sound vaguely like “I don’t want to put happy people into the history textbooks, I just want to put happiness into history textbooks like polio. Wouldn’t you want to know if you were going to have a happy child, so you could promptly eliminate that happiness?” For that reason, there’s a lot of charged reaction, because the feeling about autism are extremely different.

However, I’d also note that many of us are indeed interested in treatments (I’d be careful here; many people here are interested in terms of education, others in terms of treatment. The viewpoints here are varied). But the focus tends to stay away from biologically “fixing” autistics isn’t common among the regular posters (there are exceptions, like Harold, but Harold is, um, known for being in stark contrast with many here, which I’ve enjoyed).

I think, most simply, that people here have simply a different frame of reference. And while I share those views, I’d be more than happy to discuss those assumptions and consider them.

Cliff

By: Owl

Owl — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:04:13 +0000

I’m fine with research on autism and even with research on treatments. And I’m okay with probably most of their program. Just someone who claims to speak for me as a diagnosed individual (albeit on the mild side of the spectrum) ought to be concerned with the fact that almost all aspies or auties (or whatever) go through life being told they are defective human beings who deserve to be rejected by society and peers. If the focus is on how parents feel and prevention to keep the burden from spreading they should be called “traumatized autism parents speak.” Not that there isn’t legitimate trauma or that parents don’t need to be heard, but it is parent trauma, not mine. As an individual on the spectrum I’m much more concerned about the way myself and others like me are viewed because that changes how I’m treated. The way autism speaks talks, I’m a human scourge that shouldn’t have happened. They probably don’t precisely mean it that way, but rhetoric has a way of being influential and should be retoned to be more respectful of the trauma of those for whom they claim to speak.