Autism Parent Andrew Yang

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Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang made his second appearance on American talk show The View on Thursday and addressed everything from his support of recently fired SNL cast addition Shane Gillis and the controversial accusations from Kimberly Watkins, a former employee of Yang’s test preparation company, Manhattan GMAT.

Yang also spoke about how his son’s autism inspired his autism intervention policy and his belief in education for people with neurological difficulties.

“When my wife and I realized that he was autistic it was actually a huge relief because we were first time parents, and we were struggling, and we didn’t know what was normal, what wasn’t normal,” he said, later revealing that their initial struggles were confusing because he didn’t know if their son’s behavior was a result of their parenting.

The 44-year-old serial entrepreneur addressed the fortunate position he and his wife, Evelyn, are in to be able to take care of their son and get him the resources he needs. He contrasted it with single mothers he has met on the campaign trail that are not so fortunate
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“One message I have for the American people is that A-typical is the new normal.”@AndrewYang opens up about how his son with autism inspired his policy to fund autism intervention: “We need to build schools and systems that accommodate them at every stage.”

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and his wife Evelyn Yang stopped at a University Heights cafe Saturday to talk about something that intimately impacts their family.

"We are the first family to be running for president publicly embracing the fact we are a special needs family," said Evelyn Yang, sitting in Sidekick Coffee, "like so many millions of families across this country."

"I remember when Christopher was born and we were first-time parents, and it was a struggle," said Andrew Yang. "And when he got his diagnosis when he was about to turn four, it actually came as a massive relief."

The New York entrepreneur's discussion on autism is one of the last events on his five-day bus tour throughout Iowa and came as he released a plan to address care for people with disabilities.

His campaign reached out to the Iowa City Autism Community which helped put together a panel to bring challenges people on the autism spectrum face to the forefront. Co-founders Dina Bishara and Jessie Witherell, both parents of autistic children, talked with the Yangs about their experiences and opened up the discussion for questions.

The cafe, located at 1310 1/2 Melrose Ave, was packed with families, people on the autism spectrum, enthusiastic Yang Gang supporters and others just curious to listen to a presidential candidate up close.

Adam Wright, who is on the autism spectrum, said he came to ask Andrew Yang about his plan to help adults on the moderate end of the spectrum. He said he feels the conversation is often centered around parents and how to help their children.

"What are your plans to help those of us with moderate autism, to seek employment, seek living skills and seeks those ideals that give us a path to independence," he asked the candidate.

Andrew Yang responded by saying if you want organizations to hire people with autism, it needs to be made easier for them to hire people with autism. He proposed subsidizing the first six months of someone's employment.

"You could say, 'Hey, guess what? If you hire someone who's documented to be on the spectrum then we'll pay half their salary for six months, or we'll pay all their salary for six months,'" he said. "And I have a feeling that then many employers would figure out that that person has a lot to contribute."

Throughout the panel, Andrew Yang's comments on transforming society to adapt to the abilities of people on the spectrum often intertwined with his human-centered capitalism policy.

"We need to rewrite the rules of the economy to work for human beings," he said. "And the special needs families are at the forefront of this."

Tech entrepreneur and Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang will feature his wife, Evelyn, and their young child, who has autism, in a new campaign ad, which will focus on Yang’s health care plan and his universal basic income proposal.

The ad, which is called “Caregiver,” will highlight Yang’s proposal to give everyone $1,000 a month, which he has cast as the most ambitious proposed expansion of Social Security by any of the Democrats running for the party’s presidential nomination.

“The work of so many caregivers goes unseen, whether it’s caring for parents, or staying home with young boys, one of whom has special needs,” Evelyn Yang says in the ad. “If my husband Andrew Yang is president, he’ll fight for 'Medicare for All' with mental health coverage and for $1,000 a month for every American, including caregivers, because Andrew values what we do, not just for our families, but for our nation.”

It’s unclear how much money will be behind the ad or where it will run. The campaign announced the ad internally along with a memo from campaign chief Nick Ryan about the state of the race.

Yang has been among the biggest surprises of the 2020 Democratic primary, coming from being a relative unknown to being able to raise tens of millions of dollars.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has been discussing autism, a condition his son deals with that he wants to destigmatize. Reactions are mixed due to his lack of policy on the issue.

Jessie Witherell is one of the co-founders of the Iowa City Autism Community. She said she hadn't heard a candidate talk about autism this way before.

JESSIE WITHERELL: Autism is such a common condition. You know, so many of us know somebody who's on the autism spectrum. But yet we don't have leaders who talk about autism in a positive light.

SUMMERS: She drew a contrast between how Yang and President Trump talk about autism. Recently, Trump has mocked Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate activist who is on the autism spectrum. This week, Yang rolled out a new plan to fund research and support children with disabilities, as well as their families.

Ari Ne'eman welcomes some parts of Yang's plan, including his commitment to ending seclusion as a punishment in schools and expanded federal aid for disabled students. Ne'eman is a senior research associate at Harvard Law School's Project on Disability, and he's consulted on the plans of several Democrats running for president. But he also had some concerns, particularly the fact that Yang's proposal focuses only on children, rather than also including problems faced by disabled adults. We spoke over Skype.

ARI NE'EMAN: That's a sore spot in the disability community. You know, often, you will see the public very quick to talk about cute disabled children but, when those children grow up, being very reluctant to provide supports and services in order to have a life with dignity and independence.

SUMMERS: He said that Yang's plan has a lot of admirable goals but, so far, not a lot of specifics. One big question is how Yang's signature freedom dividend that would give every American a thousand dollars a month would work with the existing web of disability programs. Advocates are worried that the disabled could lose access to benefits and services unless Yang's plan is finely tuned.

Yang didn't get into specifics on which existing disability programs would stack with the freedom dividend in our interview, and it isn't something the plan his campaign released this week addressed. But Yang says that's not the point.

YANG: Human value and economic value are not the same things, and everyone has intrinsic value. That's one of the core messages of the campaign. We have to make a society that works for all of us, able or non, on the spectrum or no - or not.

SUMMERS: Yang acknowledges that campaigning for president has been hard on his family, but he says the things he and his wife have learned from advocating for their son are part of the reason he's in this race at all.

Juana Summers, NPR News.