It’s founded and ran by two boomers who have an autistic grandson and were very very upset he had autism. That’s the generation that would actively try to avoid diagnosis and help because they thought the label was worse than the disease, preventing an entire generation from getting assistance.
So its less about empowering people with autism, and more fearmongering how bad it is and that someone with autism shouldn’t have any agency or choice in their lives.
I didn’t dig very deep, but yeah, I could see how that organization does a bunch of problematic shit
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/14/biggest-autism-advocacy-group-is-still-failing-too-many-autistic-people/
Tldr:
It’s founded and ran by two boomers who have an autistic grandson and were very very upset he had autism. That’s the generation that would actively try to avoid diagnosis and help because they thought the label was worse than the disease, preventing an entire generation from getting assistance.
So its less about empowering people with autism, and more fearmongering how bad it is and that someone with autism shouldn’t have any agency or choice in their lives.
I didn’t dig very deep, but yeah, I could see how that organization does a bunch of problematic shit
Autism is not a disease.
Go tell the people that support Autism Speaks.
I’d say go tell Autism Speaks, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything.
If you want more info, just read the link.
I got my local grocery store to stop partnering with them for donations.
The first problematic thing it does is have the name Autism Speaks while not in any way providing a voice to autistic people.