Irish autism conference (Autism Speaks)

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Your not even diagnosed, so shut up. I have nothing against self-diagnosed people, but you shouldn't be complaining about something you don't even know if you have.

"I'm not racist but...here's an obviously racist comment"
"I have nothing againt gays but...here's something homophobic"

you trollin' boy?

It's more that you shouldn't be blaming all your problems on setting if you don't even know if that something exists, it's scapegoating.

true. and if he really is autistic he should know that being NT wouldn't magically get him laid.

you ain't autistic. you don't know what hate is.

haha true that. Besides being "cured" doesn't magically give you all the inherit knowledge of socialization and turn you into a highly successful individual. You'd still have to relearn everything social before passing off as NT. Even then, eccentricities would still appear via how your personality was shaped by past experiences. I don't get why people think it's as simple as popping a pill.

It depends what "holistic" means in this context. If it's at a conference organised by Autism Speaks then I think it's obvious that people are going to be very suspicious.

Again, it sounds like a pro-curebie event.

And, yes, a lot of this is political and sounds like Americans sticking their oar into Irish affairs. Again.

Holistic means they plan to kill us all in wood fueled ovens not oil fueled.

I understand where he's coming from. There is a pride mentality in this community, the whole "difference rather than disorder" thing. And when someone who only recently self-diagnosed themself comes along and claims AS is so bad they would be willing to give up one of their legs to be rid of it, it's rather irritating.

Agreed, plus it can come off as trolling by saying things like that too.

It does sound like something on the curebie spectrum. That and the headline "Autism on the increase according to conference - An international conference on autism has heard that the condition is on the increase" are what attracted my interest, especially as there seems to have been no epidemiological or survey presentation on which the headline could have been based.

The American-Ireland Fund and its less-obviously-named offspring The Ireland Funds support a wide range of art, culture and academic projects in Ireland.

I've seen a fair few posts around here saying that these "Austism Speaks" people are a bunch of gits, but still not quite sure why. Could someone please enlighten me?

Or even better, post some links to explain what it is they stand for, and why the general concensus here appears to be that these people are totally awful.

Would be much appreciated!

they spread misinformation, censor people, exclude autistics from discussions, back anti-vaccine conspiracy theory, and misspend money.

Because they're curebies funded with quite a decent sum of money. That spells danger for most autistics.

There is a schism between the parent- and professional-lead organisations like Autism Speaks and many people on the autism spectrum. Our challenging behaviours just get worse as we age, and we are terribly ungrateful! These organisations have a poor record of involving people with autism in any decision-making, and a history of promoting the parental motives of cure and normalizing therapeutic interventions, including some interventions that are unpleasant and / or harmful (chelation for your kids, anyone? http://www.autismspeaks.org/search/apac ... /chelation).

The position on genetic selection is unclear - which is a big problem in Ireland where Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is now available (http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0117/fertility.html), not subject to any regulation other than safety (http://www.rte.ie/tv/theafternoonshow/2 ... on876.html) and already covers a wide range of conditions including deafness (http://www.genesisgenetics.org/testing.html). The genetics of autism is a hugely important topic, but the research focus appears to be towards PGD, not diagnosis, aetiology and health interventions.

This conference appears to have a bias towards the same parent and professional focus (e.g. http://www.nuigalway.ie/psy/abaresearch.html), and virtually no involvement of people with autism, especially adults living with autism.

For those outside Ireland, there have been some traumatic court cases in which parents (Sinnott, O'Cuanachain) have sued the state for failing to provide suitable education for autistic children, but have insisted on one specific form of support (ABA), and cases where schools (Lucan Educate Together) have sued to uphold the right to reject autistic children. The state has probably spent more defending itself and pointlessly suing parents for the state's legal costs than has been spent on autism education. These cases, along with parental support for Andrew Wakefield, have been the defining face of any 'autism movement' in Ireland.