Positively Autistic

[Odin2005]

I ran into a wonderful series of 4 videos of a CBC special on autism and autistic rights.

http://www.esteeklar.com/media/video-vault/positively-a...

Given the bigoted views of the anti-vax/pro-cure people like Jenny McCarthy and Autism Speaks it's good that autistic rights is in the news somewhere.

[pnwmom]

1. Forget the vaccine controversy. What if a segment of autism cases is determined

to have an environmental or other biological basis that can be treated?

Is it "bigoted" to want your autistic child to have the treatment?

[Odin2005]

2. Wanting "Normal" for "Normal's" sake IS bigotry.

That's what the Neurodiversity movement is about, We are not "broken" simply because we are different and do not fit in with how Neurotypicals do things. We want ACCEPTANCE, not a cure.

[pnwmom]

3. What about the people who aren't able to function in the world at the level

that you are?

The autistic people who can't speak with their parents or on the computer, either? Who can't use the bathroom by themselves, much less hold a job?

If some of the people on the autism spectrum have severe symptoms because of something that CAN be fixed, why not fix them? How is it any different from making glasses for someone who would be virtually blind without them?

And suppose some environmental toxin is found to be the cause of some cases. Should there be no effort to reduce exposure to environmental toxins? Is neurodiversity so highly valued -- even if, in some individuals, it is caused by a poison?

[Odin2005]

6. How do you know that those autistic people cannot communicate?

There are many Autistic people that were assumed to be severely mentally retarded until they found ways of communicating, and were then found to have perfectly normal intelligence, or even above average intelligence.

[pnwmom]

7. And think how many more are still locked inside themselves, because

no one has found a way to communicate with them.

I fail to see how that would be preferable to treating what can be treated.

[Feron]

10. Well...

There are disorders that manifest with autistic like behaviors, but are not autism per se.

But for the sake of argument, I have no problem administering chelation or another treatment to a child provided that there is a sound medical basis for doing so. Chelating a child in hopes that it will cure autism, on the other hand, is simply quackery.

Certainly no one in the autistic community is against therapies that improve functioning and work with the autistic person. For example working to exchange a harmful stim for a harmless one or to improve social skills. The autistic community is against hammer into anvil approaches that try to force an autistic child to act what is commonly referred to as "normal". The worst example would be the Judge Rotenburg center electric shocking autistics that stim.

As Odin2005 nailed it when he said that autistic people simply want acceptance. Unfortunately many groups such as Autism Speaks have successfully promoted the idea that people with autism always suffer,have no future, can't be happy, and that the autistic person is better off dead for not only his or her sake, but for the family's as well. In the UK, there's also the autistic person as killer meme.

Just wait until April when that dreck hits the airwaves in guise of "awareness". And autistic people are killed or abused (pilled up, chelated, etc.) in an effort to make them something they will never be. But remember, only the parents matter. Autistic people do not. :sarcasm:

Autistic people may act odd or need extra assistance, but that does not make them less worthy as human beings. And the parents deserve better than the fearmongering and hate these "awareness" groups dish out.

[Odin2005]

11. Excellent post!

:hug:

[aquart]

4. "We." "Neurotypicals."

Got your own bigotry thing going there, do ya?

Let's all exhaust our educational budgets teaching the "neurodiverse" but not spend a dime on making sure there are fewer of them in the future. Good angle.

Now that we've stopped locking the "neurodiverse" in attics with a keeper, they've organized and adopted slogans.

Super. And being deaf isn't a handicap, either.

You know what? That IS normal: to be so endlessly self-centered that whatever YOU happen to be is deemed the perfect image of God.

[Odin2005]

5. Wow, you want fewer of me, eh? Eugenics is NOT very liberal, you know.

[pnwmom]

8. Autism on the severe end is a severe disability. If it turns out to have some

toxic environmental causes that could be eliminated, it isn't eugenics to do so. You wouldn't be killing any autistic people, you would be eliminating a toxin from the environment that could be hurting people in other ways, too.

You could make your same argument about any physical condition. Why treat any physical condition -- why try to make anyone "normal" at all?

[KamaAina]

12. Some of my best friends are neurotypicals

:-)

Seriesly, it hardly exhausted any educational budgets to teach me -- except, of course, for my own, after the student loans from Yale kicked in.

And many Deaf people, do not, in fact, consider themselves to be disabled ("handicap" refers to the difference between my golf score and Tiger Woods').

[Odin2005]

13. +1. Disablism sucks!

[cap]

9. Interesting video

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