Has Autism Speaks Abandoned Severely Autistic Persons and Their Families?

I am not an Autism Speaks basher.

I have criticized specific decisions it has made such as the funding of research by Dr. Laurent Mottron who believes that the idea of curing autism is nonsense. I am appreciative though of the great work Autism Speaks has have done in raising awareness of autism around the globe including its work, in conjunction with the State of Qatar, in creating World Autism Awareness Day. A couple of days ago I thanked Autism Speaks on this blog site for the I Am Autism video which speaks some of the harsher truths about autism, particularly the severe ... and original ... autism.

But Jonathan Mitchell, at Autism's Gadfly, and Roger Kulp, who commented on this site, are correct. Autism Speaks has "kowtowed" to the Neurodiversity movement led by a gentleman with Aspergers and some Aspergers and High Functioning Autism followers. Autism Speaks has removed the I Am Autism Video from their main web site pages.

The barely autistic have once again succeeded in suppressing free expression about the harsher truths of autism, the harsher realities confronting those who would be classified as autistic BEFORE the DSM definition was expanded to include those with good or excellent intelligence, good command of language and who can have good social skills. These are the people who rise up in protest and condemn parents such as those who actually created the "I Am Autism Video" ... because they dared speak the truth. They are the people who do not want the world to know about the original, now barely visible, autistics with severe autism challenges.

Autism Speaks did not stand behind the parents who created the Autism Speaks video. By "kowtowing", as Autism's Gadfly put it, Autism Speaks has taken a huge step toward abandoning the severely autistic and their families. I have been a supporter of Autism Speaks but that support is beginning to fade as this once helpful organization aligns itself with those who do harm to the interests of the severely autistic that Autism Speaks once helped.

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Does Exclusion of Low Functioning Autistics from Autism Research Distort Public Understanding of Autism Disorders?

Why are Low Functioning Autistic persons excluded from autism research as in the recent study purporting to show that autistics solve some problems faster than non-autistic persons? To me it seems like "cherry picking" the participants as Roger Kulp called it in a comment about the Soulières Mottron Dawson study:

"could someone remind me what they mean by "additional neurological condition"? Seizures? Nonverbal learning disabilities? Sterotypy or self mutilation? Developmental delay ?You don't have to be low functioning,you just have to be a nonaspie to be excluded from a lot of these studies.

By cherry picking your subjects like this,you can exclude and distort all you want.

In both the articles about this study,and the ones about the 2007 study,they make a point of saying that at least 40-50 % of all "autistics" are not learning disabled,and imply we should focus on the ones that don't.There is an obvious neurodiversity/aspie bias in the media."

Roger's comment suggests that the exclusion of low functioning autistic persons from autism research might be done, intentionally, to misrepresent the nature of autism. In essence Aspergers is substituted for "autism". The many low functioning persons with Autistic Disorder can now be considered to have separate co-morbid conditions which are not really part of true "Aspie" autism.

The exclusion of low functioning autistic persons from autism research is followed by their exclusion from research press releases and from the public understanding of autism. Perhaps that is the ultimate goal of researchers Soulières, Mottron, and Dawson when they cherry pick participants for their "autism" research.

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