Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Gadfly's musings on the election results
Obama has been re-elected. As far as a presidential administration's policies and actions on autism and what it means for autistic people, had it been Romney we'd be singing the Who song with the lyrics, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." In this case I guess we'll be saying the cliche, "same shit different day."
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
ASAN supporters think autism is awesome
The autism self-advocacy network is at it again demonstrating in Washington, D.C. against autism speaks. Their gripes are nothing new. They are pissed that there are no autistics on the board of autism speaks. They are forgetting John Robison's appointment to their scientific advisory committee in spite of the fact he's a high school dropout with no knowledge of science.They are pissed that so much of autism speaks' money goes to scientific research and not to so-called community funded services. Also, their claim (with no evidence whatsoever) that autism speaks primarily engages in "preventative research". This is in spite of funding of brainwave studies and even the half million grant the Mottron group received to study how well autistics can find an embedded figure and other extremely useful projects such as the studies showing that autistics have different reactions to optical illusions than neurotypicals.
The above-linked article also lauds ASAN's efforts to find jobs for persons with autism. I'm not sure what this is comprised of other than ASAN's partnership with Freddie Mac to help secure internships(which may or may not be paid employment) for extremely high functioning people with autism who live in the Washington, D.C. area. Again, as I've mentioned in a previous blog post, it's interesting neurodiversity proponents would partner with a company that has cost the federal government about 170 billion bucks and probably was a major factor in creating the worst economy we've had since the great depression.
What was new was that some of ASAN's supporters were waving placards declaring that autism is awesome and that autistic people are perfect the way they are.
I'm not sure what is so awesome and perfect about being fired from multiple jobs, not being able to make a living, not being able to find a significant other, having motor coordination problems, and being a bedwetter as a child (as apparently a number of persons on the spectrum seem to be from the traffic my post on bedwetting has received). However, I have it good compared to most persons on the spectrum. There are others who can't speak, who self-injure themselves, have intellectual impairments and die in accidental drownings and traffic deaths. I'm not sure what is so great about autism. I wish these ASAN supporters would be more specific. It is quite clear to me what is bad about autism. I don't see anything great or awesome about it.
The article also quotes one ASAN supporter as stating:
The only people [who] can really speak to the autistic experience are autistic people. It is important that people understand what we want and need,”
Again, ASAN seems to want to speak for all autistic persons. I wish they'd let me speak for myself at least once in a while.
The above-linked article also lauds ASAN's efforts to find jobs for persons with autism. I'm not sure what this is comprised of other than ASAN's partnership with Freddie Mac to help secure internships(which may or may not be paid employment) for extremely high functioning people with autism who live in the Washington, D.C. area. Again, as I've mentioned in a previous blog post, it's interesting neurodiversity proponents would partner with a company that has cost the federal government about 170 billion bucks and probably was a major factor in creating the worst economy we've had since the great depression.
What was new was that some of ASAN's supporters were waving placards declaring that autism is awesome and that autistic people are perfect the way they are.
I'm not sure what is so awesome and perfect about being fired from multiple jobs, not being able to make a living, not being able to find a significant other, having motor coordination problems, and being a bedwetter as a child (as apparently a number of persons on the spectrum seem to be from the traffic my post on bedwetting has received). However, I have it good compared to most persons on the spectrum. There are others who can't speak, who self-injure themselves, have intellectual impairments and die in accidental drownings and traffic deaths. I'm not sure what is so great about autism. I wish these ASAN supporters would be more specific. It is quite clear to me what is bad about autism. I don't see anything great or awesome about it.
The article also quotes one ASAN supporter as stating:
The only people [who] can really speak to the autistic experience are autistic people. It is important that people understand what we want and need,”
Again, ASAN seems to want to speak for all autistic persons. I wish they'd let me speak for myself at least once in a while.
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