Happy Week 5! Congrats on being halfway done with the fall quarter! We hope midterms are going well :)
During this week's general body meeting, we introduced the article, “Autism Speaks is the Largest Autism Organization — So Why Don’t Autistic People Like it?” by Tori Morales. They are an autistic college student and news writer/copy editor for the Washington Post. The article explains the harmful and negative view of the organization, Autism Speaks, by discussing its poor history and lack of including autistic voices within the organization. It highlights the organization's notion of seeking a 'cure' for autism, which explains why they are not supported by many autistic people. Autism Advocacy at UCLA does not associate with Autism Speaks. If you would like to read more about Tori Morales's experiences, check out their other articles!
Notable quotes from the article:
- "So knowing that autistic people view their autism as part of themselves, attacking autism, demonizing it, is attacking autistic people.”
- “The biggest problem with the puzzle piece logo is that it implies that there is something missing, that autistic people are somehow incomplete.”
Discussion Questions:
- What have you learned about Autism Speaks? Do you have a better understanding about why so many autistic individuals and allistic allies don’t support the organization?
- What misconceptions/misunderstandings did you have about ABA before reading this article? What have you understood now?
- The idea of “autism for parents” versus “autism for autistic people” keeps coming up in all of our conversations. Is there a balance to be found, and if so, how?
Thank you for reading this week's blog post! I hope you learned something new. Please feel free to take some time to reflect and leave any questions or comments down below. Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss out on upcoming blog posts!
