Report on my progress at autism speaks

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i wish we could come to some type of conclusion to all.cant we establish some basic facts about autism speaks,asan etc....why must people go back in forth with the same arguements over and over again.i applaud aghogday for representing the viewpoints of the mid functioning so politely.in the past autism speaks defenders were rude and alienated everyone.aghogday keeps his arguements strong without being.i never knew an autistic was capable of such social grace.im not criticizing these posts from a mods perspective at all.but as a matter of personal opinion,where are these posts going.there all same.a high functioning aff deciple comes in and bashes A.S,then aghogday comes in to A.S's defense.its getting old,at least for me

idk. unfortunately they are the people who need to be convinced of our ideas because they are the ones with power.

thats why its vital that lower functioning people get speaking devices. so people can't put words in their mouths.

I'm trying my best to see both points of view.

While an autistic person may understand their autism better than anyone else, and some autistic people have a good grasp of how others experience autism. I have seen little to no evidence that autistic people, in general, understand non-verbal autistic children any better than the parents of those children.

It's not likely an autistic person who can speak understands an autistic child that cannot speak any better than the parent of that child, that takes care of that child 24/7. If autism is truly genetic in basis, it's likely that many of those parents have autistic traits.

I've been to the autism speaks facebook website, and while I'm sure the site is moderated for personal offense, there are still comments from autistic people that call the organization a cult, that still exist there on the site.

The comment was completely ignored, but ignoring a comment that is offensive is the best response possible. If there was active censorship of autistic voices that disagree with the organization going on, that comment would have been deleted along time ago.

Tambourine man from this website has presented a neurodiverse point of view, that is widely applauded, on the actual autism speaks website, from the parents that visit it.

Some of his peers in the autistic community shunned him, because he made an attempt to be part of the autistic voices of that organization.

There is no objective evidence that I have seen that any reasonable differences of opinions are being censored there. In fact there is more objective evidence that people are being censored for providing input there, within the autistic community on other websites.

And, I have personally been to other websites, that are supposed to support autistic people, and have been warned it's not a place I want to be, unless I agree with the opinions of the organization.

The welcome mat varies in extent, in differences of opinions on all websites. There isn't anything unusual that differences of opinions exist on websites.

However, within limits, however strict or lax they may be, if the standards aren't met the comments aren't allowed. From an objective standpoint, autism speaks moderation team, censors autistic voices less for differences in opinion, than some other self advocacy organizations.

Not sure if I was explaining my point well on what "Autism Speaks" means. It's not a literal statement. It's a metaphor, in reference to autistic individuals that can't speak.

It wasn't intended to literally mean or suggest that autistic people are expressing any verbal viewpoints through the site, and certainly wasn't designed for that purpose.

If the founders grandson had Aspergers, the entire mission of the organization would have likely been very different, if it focused on that one aspect of the spectrum, as some organizations do.

And there is no way they would have named it "Aspergers Speaks". That would obviously be seen as offensive, because a lack of clinically significant delays in speech is part of the diagnosis of Aspergers.

I think this is the core issue that many bypass. The actual phrase "Autism Speaks" was not designed to focus on people with Aspergers who have the ability to speak. It's Autism Speaks not Aspergers speaks. And people diagnosed with Aspergers really are not in much more of a position to provide a voice for autistic children that don't speak anymore than anyone else, particularly the parents of those children.

The organization was not built around the idea of self-advocacy, that some are enabled enough to provide for themselves, it was built around advocacy for those that do not have a voice or the resources to advocate for themselves.

It's a community based idea, that in practice, really doesn't exclude anyone that wants to be part of the mission of that organization. Just as autism self-advocacy groups really don't exclude anyone, if they want to be part of their mission.

For anyone that wants to enter into any of these organizations and fight against their basic missions, that's not likely to be well accepted by those that support the mission of the organization.

However, at least in the case of the Autism Speaks facebook website; there is evidence that this type of disagreement on the site is not censored, instead at most it seems to be ignored.

There are many parents there that do not support Autism Speaks pro-vaccine stance, but their opinions are freely allowed there, just as the comment that the organization is a cult was allowed from an autistic individual that didn't like their mission.

And finally regarding autism and communication, the recent effort to provide interactive communication devices, is technically what is meant by the Autism Speaks approach; enabling the children that have problems communicating and other difficulties to have a more productive life through research and the results of that research.

It's a different approach that the social model of disability, but when it results in measurable improvements in the live's of disabled individuals who do have problems with communication, it meets that objective, just as the social model of disability, meets objectives to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities, through changes in disability law.

Both efforts are vital, but cannot be fully provided by any one organization.

I see organizations like ASAN, AFF, WP, Autism Speaks, and literally thousands of other organizations, just in the US, all providing vital support in their own niches in the part of the world that is concerned about the Autism Spectrum.

If the spectrum wasn't as complex and varied as it is, the support wanted, needed and required wouldn't be nearly as complex and varied