Autism Speaks. It has a pro-eugenics mindset, so you’d think everyone would be boycotting it, right? Nope, in fact it’s partnered with the Jim Henson company.
It’s founded and ran by two boomers who have an autistic grandson and were very very upset he had autism. That’s the generation that would actively try to avoid diagnosis and help because they thought the label was worse than the disease, preventing an entire generation from getting assistance.
So its less about empowering people with autism, and more fearmongering how bad it is and that someone with autism shouldn’t have any agency or choice in their lives.
I didn’t dig very deep, but yeah, I could see how that organization does a bunch of problematic shit
Autism Speaks. It has a pro-eugenics mindset, so you’d think everyone would be boycotting it, right? Nope, in fact it’s partnered with the Jim Henson company.
Can you elaborate on the “pro-eugenics mindset” at all?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/14/biggest-autism-advocacy-group-is-still-failing-too-many-autistic-people/
Tldr:
It’s founded and ran by two boomers who have an autistic grandson and were very very upset he had autism. That’s the generation that would actively try to avoid diagnosis and help because they thought the label was worse than the disease, preventing an entire generation from getting assistance.
So its less about empowering people with autism, and more fearmongering how bad it is and that someone with autism shouldn’t have any agency or choice in their lives.
I didn’t dig very deep, but yeah, I could see how that organization does a bunch of problematic shit
The first problematic thing it does is have the name Autism Speaks while not in any way providing a voice to autistic people.
I’m guessing they encourage screening for genetic markers of autism.
how is this different from screening for any other illness?
That was my confusion as well. Genetic screening isn’t worthy of condemnation but “pro-eugenics” has a pretty broad spectrum.
It’s more like screening for left handedness than it is like screening for cerebral palsy.
Autistic people, as they define it, are not just differently abled. They started the foundation where that word didn’t include people with mild cases.
If you could screen out non verbal, low functioning autism, that would be a good thing, just like screening out downs and whatnot.