A “Wise Latina” model for autism policy-making

[Odin2005]

An excellent thread on an Asperger's/Autism message board I frequent.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor made two statements that could be extrapolated to autism (auties & aspies) politics

1. "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."

Try it on for size:

I would hope that wise autistics with the richness of their experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than an NT who hasn’t lived that life

The second statement

2. “there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives - no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging”

This statement offers the CAUSE (NT lack of perspective) with the logical EFFECT (autistics taking a stronger position) in defining autism for the next edition of the DSM, international policy making, and research funding, etc.

Any “autism organization” that does not have autistics making up at least half of the board should be suspect. Appointing a token autistic just won’t ethically be enough.

There are autistics in pertinent fields: I personally know speech language pathologists, an occupational pathologist, and surely there are autie/aspie psychs out there.

There are also self-educated autistics who, thanks to their intensely focused interests in the area of autism, are leading experts in the field.

What do YOU think?