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Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

There was a fascinating article in the New York Times yesterday about autism advocacy. There is a movement afoot, led by autistic people, to value the unusual traits conferred by autism as intrinsically personal characteristics rather than something to be abhorred and eradicated. This notion "is rooted in a view of autism as an alternative form of brain wiring, with its own benefits and drawbacks, rather than a devastating disorder in need of curing."

People in this group often view themselves as a set minority group, and point out that homosexuality was once thought to be a mental disorder of which people needed to be "cured," and to me, this comparison is the most striking point of their argument: regardless of what society as a whole may think, how loud must a set group of people become before they are allowed to set their own place in that society and decide their own futures? Many have asked to be referred to as autistics, not people with autism.

I was intrigued by the NYT story How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading, so I looked around some of the web sites run by autistics mentioned in the article. I found some fascinating stuff. Michelle Dawson, quoted in the article is one heck of a writer.

Is this NY Times story political? I don't know. But, to be honest, the voices of the kids and adults in this article move the hell out of me in a way that makes me think so.

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

'm pleasantly surprised that the mainstream media is finally picking up on this -- autistics fighting to change society, instead of having society change them.

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

...a view of autism as an alternative form of brain wiring, with its own benefits and drawbacks, rather than a devastating disorder in need of curing.

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Every family has its challenges and every family is unique. Every family has a different attitude towards disability. It is only destructive and divisive to make assumptions about anyone's experience based on a diagnostic label, or on the extent of a parent's willingness to portray their parenting experience in the most devastating terms.

It is important to remember that a key feature of autism is language delay - not an absence of language or a permanent impairment of language, although many autistic people have that.

These people never had to be taught to speak; it's empathy that the lack, not the ability to express themselves; the ability to put themselves in the shoes of another is sadly what is missing. They can only empathize with people who they view as like them... I am tired of these people calling themselves autistic as if they share the same disorder as my children.

Being told that your very nature makes you a disease, a plague, a disorder is the emotional equivalent of being beaten up every single day.

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

The way we think about, classify, and treat in the syndromes is changing rapidly. Increasingly we speak less of "deficits", "disabilities", or "slowness", and think more in terms of a different way of perceiving and reacting to the environment.

Blog commentary and ensuing discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

This autism verses Aspergers debate is no longer a parlor game of pin-the-label-on-the-dorky. Serious harm has been done and those who give aid and comfort to the impostors are misguided and ought to be ashamed for the harm they are helping to inflict.

Discussion thread about "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading"

I hold you fully responsible for your contribution to my and others' lack of services by claiming that "intelligent" and "articulate" autistic people (such as your perception of me) do not have problems with self-care skills or self-injurious behavior, and your implication that we are liars if we say we do.

Letters to the editor of the New York Times

Reminds me of the mutant issue as explored in X-Men, or eugenics as seen in the Star Trek series. Very similar issues.