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FedUpAsp
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23 Nov 2014, 11:54 pm

I don't know much about Autism Speaks except that it has a bad name in the autism community and is some kind of organization to help autistic children, run by parents.

Would anyone care to enlighten me?



PlainsAspie
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24 Nov 2014, 11:12 am

1. They don't have a single autistic person on their board of directors or in senior leadership. "Nothing about us without us" has long been the mantra of the disability rights movement.

2. Their advertisements are based on fears-mongering, patronizing, and dehumanizing rhetoric. This includes a mother talking about how she wants to drive her son off a bridge, comparing autism to cancer, etc.

3. They push the idea, which is widely rejected by the scientific community that vaccines cause autism. Granted, they do so in a wishy-washy way.

4. They have recommended the Judge Rotherberg Center, which uses painful skin shocks as a means of punishment.

5. They endorse excuses for parents who abuse and neglect of autistic children. The excuse being "lack of services".

6. They threatened to pull support for the Autism CARES Act if an amendment went through guaranteeing that a majority of public members of IACC were autistic.

7. They threatened to sue autistic people for making parodies of their organization.

That scratches the surface. Here's a few links.

http://www.boycottautismspeaks.com/why-boycott-1.html
http://thecaffeinatedautistic.wordpress ... ted-62014/
http://autismwomensnetwork.org/is-autis ... ate-group/



Kuribo64
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24 Nov 2014, 12:17 pm

All anyone needs to know is that they're responsible for this:


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FedUpAsp
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24 Nov 2014, 1:31 pm

PlainsAspie wrote:
1. They don't have a single autistic person on their board of directors or in senior leadership. "Nothing about us without us" has long been the mantra of the disability rights movement.


I wonder why that is? It promotes dehumanization; "You can't be called upon to lead or have anything meaningful to offer. We know better than you." Ugh....

Quote:
2. Their advertisements are based on fears-mongering, patronizing, and dehumanizing rhetoric. This includes a mother talking about how she wants to drive her son off a bridge, comparing autism to cancer, etc.


WHAT?! And this mother isn't in jail why?

Furthermore, autism is NOT cancer. It is nothing like cancer. I have known people who have had cancer, survived it as well as died from it.

Quote:
3. They push the idea, which is widely rejected by the scientific community that vaccines cause autism. Granted, they do so in a wishy-washy way.


I don't know whether or not vaccines cause autism, but if there isn't a clear link between it, they need to stop saying there is.

Quote:
4. They have recommended the Judge Rotherberg Center, which uses painful skin shocks as a means of punishment.


Wait a minute... you cannot use shocks on prisoners. It's a crime against humanity... but this Center is allowed to do so on autistic individuals? I smell something here and it isn't the roses.... Jesus, that's scary.

Quote:
5. They endorse excuses for parents who abuse and neglect of autistic children. The excuse being "lack of services".


Let's see if I have this right. The parents reach the end of their rope, harm or kill their child, and it gets excused as lack of services?

Quote:
6. They threatened to pull support for the Autism CARES Act if an amendment went through guaranteeing that a majority of public members of IACC were autistic.


Why are they afraid of autistics advocating for themselves and helping the community? That's just plain dirty.

Quote:
7. They threatened to sue autistic people for making parodies of their organization.


Oh for crying out loud.

Quote:


Thanks for the links.

This organization comes across as very insincere...



FedUpAsp
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24 Nov 2014, 1:34 pm

Kuribo64 wrote:
All anyone needs to know is that they're responsible for this:



That's just scary... and they don't focus on their children in that piece of propoganda other than "being autism."

I understand why people dislike and distrust this organization now.



Simmian7
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26 Nov 2014, 10:55 pm

the place i work for... on their website they have associated with Autism Speaks. I wrote to the higher ups and the supposed Dr. that works for us that specializes in mental health conditions (autism, bi polar...all of the above)... but i have yet to hear back from them. in my letter i mentioned quite a few of those points about Autism Speaks...and instead suggested they use this site and ASAN.


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