Autism Speaks & Autistics: A Question

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Something I hear a lot about Autism Speaks is that they are reputed for rejecting people with an ASD diagnosis from being involved in their organization.

This statement seems too general. I would like to know the specifics of this: either official statistics, or specific cases that have made it into the media.

The only reason I ask this question is because if the organization is so dead set against autistic people taking part in it, then it makes me wonder how John Elder Robison managed to make it onto their board.

There is one autistic person on their funding board. The board of directors and everything else are all NT only.

Yes, but I'm just wondering how hard it would theoretically be for another autistic to get a place as staff at Autism Speaks.

There's a lot of protests going on against it, but to really make a difference in a huge organization like Autism Speaks, it is important to work from the inside, not from the outside, IMO.

Depends how famous you are and how desperate Autism Speaks' PR department are at any given time.

Hmm... I don't know about that to be honest. That holds true for public institutions (ie government), but at the end of the day, they are a for-profit private interest, and they're not going to let an "insider" influence them. Unless you are a major investor, they're simply not going to grant you any influence or power of any degree. Unless you're a millionaire or billionaire, you won't have any sway as an employee.

If they do something unethical or illegal, then your first option is to call them out and protest it. The second option is you can find something illegal that they did, and file some sort of charges against them. The third option is you can start your own organization and drive away interest from them.