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Autism Speaks now has an autistic board member

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fiddlerpianist
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01 Apr 2010, 5:23 pm

I don't know if you've all heard, but John Elder Robison (author of Look Me In The Eye and fellow WP member) has been asked to sit on the Autism Speaks Advisory Board and has accepted.

It has long been a complaint of the autistic community that Autism Speaks is not represented by the autistic community at all. This appears to no longer be the case.

Is this merely a token effort of outreach on the part of Autism Speaks, or is this the first step in reconciliation with the autistic community to come to a greater understanding of each other?

EDITED to read Advisory Board. Thanks, Amanda!


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Last edited by fiddlerpianist on 01 Apr 2010, 6:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ImMelody
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01 Apr 2010, 5:35 pm

fiddlerpianist wrote:
Is this merely a token effort of outreach on the part of Autism Speaks, or is this the first step in reconciliation with the autistic community to come to a greater understanding of each other?


Yeah that. JER has never been ND inclined. He's stated for quite some time he thinks there should be a cure. Tokenism at it's best, imo.


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anbuend
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01 Apr 2010, 5:43 pm

He's not on the board of directors. He's on an advisory board. Not unless something has changed.

I've been on an advisory board of another organization for years where I've never been asked to advise anyone about anything, and never been asked to participate in any way.


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