Autism Speaks

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I want to get informed about the orginization Autism Speaks, I need to inform my family about what exactly the autism community has against them.

Because its my family I need articles, Websites? links?

I'm looking for good articles that cites autism speaks' ativities too and most of what I've found is hearsay. I haven't found any either and I haven't had much help. Basically autism speaks demonizes autsism, only tries to represent low functioning kids, they like to show the kids when they are having a bad day to generate pity to get donations out of people, and their genetic research can only result in a genetic test that will result in autistic kids being aborted the same way prenatal testing caused a massive jump in the number of downs syndrome babies that are aborted. Autism speaks also does not recognize autism as a part of our identity and see it as something that needs to be eliminated from someone and replace it with being fake.

If you really are concerned, do your own research. Google is your friend.

Make up your own mind.

Go to Youtube.com and search for Autism Speaks. They run a video where a mom talks about her desire to kill her Autistic daughter. Autism Speaks also sued a 14 year old girl because of a parody about their organization.

You wouldn't believe how many people talk about their desire to kill their normal children (I think nearly everyone has passive homicidal ideation for their children at some point in their lives, even if fleeting). There's nothing wrong with talking about it or thinking it (it's actually a "release" in a productive way from frustration); only when it's done is when it's a problem (duh).

The owner of this site and others who talk out against Autism Speaks are just ignorant. You can't really blame them though, as they probably take the comment personally due to a lack of empathy (i.e., they can't see it from the perspective of the parent, only from their position of someone with an ASD; talking about wanting to kill said child is the same as people saying the same thing about them).

I totally understand. I myself have thought about the joys of committing genocide against certain WP members and at some points in my life NTs.

Autism Speaks does not speak for me. In fact, I have a payed job that I'm going to, in an hour and a half. I can speak and do for myself.

I disagree. I don't think Aspies and people on the spectrum who object to Autism Speaks are ignorant, I think they're objecting to being disempowered.

Yes, some people on the autistic spectrum are non-verbal, others may be unable to communicate their feelings, but why does the narrative about what autism is and how autistics should be treated belong to non-austic parents?

I mean, can you imagine the scenario if heterosexual parents of homosexuals 'owned' the gay issue in the way that NT parents 'own' autism? If heterosexual parents were considered the voice of authority and called homosexuality a disease and campaigned for a cure for it?

You say they can't see it from the perspective of the parent, but what makes the parents' perspective more valid than the perspective of those actually affected, the people on the spectrum? Why is there this perception that autistics can't speak for themselves, that their minds are feeble, they don't really know what they're talking about, or what's best for them?

You actually need to see it from both sides, not just one side. In today's society, you're a child till you're 18; parents can and will speak for their children. After 18, extraneous circumstances can make the individual with Autism be still legally classed as a child, and their parents can speak for them too.

In this case above, the individual needs constant care, whether it's by parents or government services.

Now, if you look at their description of Asperger's on their page, it mentions that many, or even most go on to live independently; in other words, they're "adults" for the simple reason that they can look after themselves (with a little help usually, but that's ok).

People seem to confuse "Autism" and "Asperger's".

One thing of note that they do do that's not sound, is when they use the 1 in 160 or so for "Autism"; only 1/4 of those 1 in 1 in 160 are of the Autism-type who generally function poorly. But then again, I see many people use this 1 in 160 for their own ends (even the owner of this site).

Yes, parents can speak for their autistic children. Whether they should--ethically--do so without asking their children what they think first, is another story.

Autism Speaks, incidentally, doesn't claim to "speak for" just children, but all autistic people, including adults. And, while doing so, they don't have a single board member with any kind of autism; they don't ask actual autistic people. The closest they will get is an NT parent of an autistic child--but never an autistic parent of an autistic child, which would be perfect for both perspectives in one person.

Autism Speaks is trying to solve the "autism problem" without any input from autistic people. I used to post on their forums, and I was often told, "That's nice, but you don't know what it's like to be non-verbal." Basically, I was told that because I could speak, what I said was irrelevant. That kind of attitude prevails at Autism Speaks.

The way Autism Speaks sees it, either you're helpless and they have to speak for you, or you're too high-functioning, so your words don't matter.

(Autism Speaks no longer has forums. They now have discussion groups by category--parents, professionals, etc. A category for autistic people is conspicuously absent.)

I don't pay much attention to adults who have children with autism posting and their single opinions that don't include anything but their perspectives (even multiple accounts that say the same thing); they don't make up the organization, do they? What they are doing is the typical response of any parent who only sees their side; they don't know the problems that children with Asperger's can have, because they don't see it. For example, regarding challenging behaviour in ASDs, Asperger's and Autism both can be just as bad as one another, even if they manifest a little differently.

Their page on Asperger's isn't too bad, IIRC.

As far as I'm aware, they're a charity that funds certain research fields; they've put out some videos, the ones that I've seen haven't been bad at all, even the "infamous" one (I like the one where they promote the vocational service for adults with ASDs).

Something funny: I can't remember what it was like to be nonverbal either, and I was. I'm sure most babies just born can't remember what it's like either.... I could walk, but I couldn't talk, nor respond; my mother had to speak for me, just like how mothers speak for their normal infants who can't talk.

Well, yes, actually, they do, along with business managers and professionals (child psychologists, that kind of thing). Just no autistic people.

My problem with that is that they fund a LOT of research that is looking for a pre-natal test to prevent us from being born. I don't know about you, but eugenic abortion doesn't sit right with me. And the rest of the research is all into autism cure. There's hardly any money being devoted to quality of life and education--questions like "How do autistic people learn best," or "Is there a better way to structure a workplace so that it's more autistic-friendly?" aren't even being considered by Autism Speaks.

I wonder if maybe that is because memory requires some kind of encoding--language, maybe--but pictures or internal video might do as well. It's necessary to divide self from environment to have episodic memory, I think, which could be somewhat problematic... Anyway, non-verbal people do communicate; it's just not in an abstract way.

I don't like their philosophy very mcuh. But I have no desire for them to stop existing or anything.

I think they overdo the idea that we are horribly flawed and imprissoned.

I do remember being non verbal because I had a very weird way this came about- when I was old enough to recall. I am sure it was a neurotoxin or an auto immune reaction. So I rememebr suddenly being able to not communicate anymore. Yes, it was horrible and I was imprissoned for a while, but trying to pull me out was SHEER AGONY. If someone had said, "You are goingto be different and you can manage this. YOu are not goig crazy, but your mind is going to work differently now....."

ANd then if they rehabbed my mind like a stroke victim and not try to force me into social situations and guage my recovery that way......like AS wants to do. Wants to make AUT's social, sexual, adjusted.

I would like to see more," Your brain will puick up on things and you must choose ones that will make a difference and please you, and avoid getting stuck on things that are irrellavent and stupid...."


Does any of this make sense? I don't mind them, but they look at us from outside ebcause they are dealing only with kids, mostly. Tey needs to look at us form the INSIDE, what is going on and how we can manage this in a good way,.

Not quite right.

The mother doesn't "talk about her desire to kill her Autistic daughter". She refers to one single situation, where she got the thought out of frustration - and she says that the thought scared her. That's not the same.
But maybe she shouldn't have said it when the girl was in the room...

Danielismyname, are you sure that it's about more "lack of empathy" than an NT could have? I mean, they do have empathy towards the Autistic kid, and similarly an NT maybe would have empathy with the mother, but not with the kid (so they eg. might not think about the fact that it might not be good for the girl to hear the mother say so - the mother apparently didn't think about that herself...). It's quite easy to imagine.
All people empathize more easily with people who are like themselves, I guess.

I agree with this sentiment.

Google "autism speaks doesn't speak for me" to get some interesting posts. But yeah, you need to do your own research and make up your own mind.

All disabled groups prefer to speak on their own behalf. Usually they need to start their own organizations separate from the parent and professional organizations.