Comments on: ‘I’m autistic: I can speak for myself.’

By: cyberscan

cyberscan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:22:17 +0000

Here is a good website: http://www.nomyths.org

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:48:42 +0000

I am sick an tired of all these morons speaking condesently to anyone who does not look or think like them!

One can not stop human stipidity!

By: cyberscan

cyberscan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:13:49 +0000

A lady I know, Helen Ezell, has done exactly that. She has formed an organization called the Autism Education Center in Panama City, Florida. She has four sons all with Autism or Aspergers Syndrome(related). She has a website called http://www.autismeducationcenter.net . She plans to run it as a nonprofit organization that will educate not only people like me but also educate neurotypical parents and hopefully, neurotypical children about autism. She also wants to provide treatments and therapies. I am an autistic advisor that will be on staff to mentor parents and teens.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:14:45 +0000

“i have never had a blog before. but i think maybe this is healthy and refreshing at the same time. i sometimes feel sick when i think about ben’s future. ben is my two yearold son, who was diagnosed with autism about 4 months ago. funny now he is getting a lot of services and i have yet to see a real improvement. in fact in some areas i think he is worse. in my mind i thought that once ben started getting treatment he would magicaly start talking and be fine. it wasn’t until recently when i started to realize that this was him for the rest of his life. and maybe he won’t ever talk to me and maybe he won’t ever move out. i laugh because i really thought that he was going to just “poof” be better. but now i am not so sure. i take things day by day and i try not to think about what will happen tomorrow. but i’ll tell you one thing i keep repeating to myself is “god will only give you what you can handle”.

http://autism-blog.com/never-had-blog

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:45:58 +0000

This is all too often the case. So called disability advocacy groups many times end up doing much more harm than good. I happen to be blind, and I can relate. For decades we had sighted “experts” telling us what our capabilities were and were not. It was only until we organized for our selves were we able to effectively chalenge the ancient supersticians forced upon us by the so called professionals who knew more about blindness than did the blind.

For those fighting AS, let me make a suggestion. Many of these thoughts might be unnecessary, as I don’t know what efforts currently exist. However, if you don’t like the dominant organization, create your own. Organize. Run the organization like AS should be run. Use the failure of AS to truly represent the needs of people with autism as a springboard to launch your organization, but don’t make that your primary focus. Make your primary focus helping autistic people, overthrowing negative stereotypes, and educating parents with autistic children. Creating parody shirts and web sites is a good start, but don’t let it end there. If AS must go, then make it happen.

For a historical overview of how the blind did it in the US, I suggest you read the book Walking Alone and Marching Together. It is available in print or online at http://nfb.org/legacy/books/books1/wamtc.htm

When I went to the site, I was prompted for a username and password for some reason, but I just hit cancel and the page loaded ok.

Good luck.\

By: Leslie

Leslie — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:44:51 +0000

Autism Speaks should let the public know that there is overwhelmening reseaerch over the years that some non-famililal autism is caused by older fathers in one generation or another. A drive to educate the public about the paternal age effect is indicated.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23849196-5000117,00.html Genetic clock ticks for men Article from: comment Les Sheffield

June 12, 2008 12:00am – MOST men would have been surprised to read that overseas researchers had found the death rate of young adults was higher if they had been born to older fathers.

This is no surprise to me. It has been scientifically established that genetic changes occur more often in the sperm of older fathers than younger fathers.

As men age there is a higher chance of changes in the genes in the sperm.

These changes can cause genetic conditions in their offspring, such as birth defects, autism and schizophrenia.

Their partners can also have an increased risk of miscarriages.

The presumed reason for the increase occurrence of all of these conditions is that they are all due to a new genetic change in the sperm of the older father.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23849196-5000117,00.html

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:14:21 +0000

“I am a thirty something wife of a wonderful man and mother to two beautiful boys. I am a Johns Hopkins educated family therapist with a current case load of one, my son Chandler who has autism.”

“If AS first priority is squelching criticism of their organization by people with autism, there is a much cheaper way to do that. Stop looking for a cure and don’t teach people with autism how to talk. That way, you save money on both ends, you don’t have to spend it on research and speech therapy now, NOR do you have to spend it on lawyers to get them to shut up later!”

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2008/07/autism-speaks-supresses-free-speech-of.html

By: Autism : Autism Speaks Supresses the Free Speech of People with Autism

Autism : Autism Speaks Supresses the Free Speech of People with Autism — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:55:28 +0000

[...] to speak at their events, even though their name is “Autism Speaks”), AS instead threatens to sue them. Even for legal parodies, even for t-shirts that say, “Autism Speaks can go away. I have autism. I [...]

By: JB

JB — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:56:26 +0000

I have to say as an average Canadian I had very little idea on what Autism actually was until I saw a Horizon Documentary on Temple Grandin “The Woman Who Thinks Like A Cow”. To say it really opened my eyes is an understatement, not only the about the condition but the people affected by it. Its sad to see that an organization supposedly dedicated to helping and supporting people who have autism actively trying to shut them up for trying to tell their own stories and ideas in their own way.

The sad part is many organizations such as the one mentioned above and other often have their own vision of how they should be helping the people they supposedly support, but rarely take the time to actually ask the people they support what they actually want/need.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:50:59 +0000

I am not autistic myself. I don’t know much about autism period. Regardless, it burns my blood that any human being (especially in my home country!) would stoop so low as to refer to someone who learns and develops in a different manner as retarded. What college is this? I need to make sure that anyone I know never attends that institution of “higher learning”.

By: cyberscan

cyberscan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:40:11 +0000

I deal with the type of discrimination xforce talks about all the time. I am a “high functioning” autistic who is ineligible for any social service but too different to be treated the same as everyone else in many cases. Xforce if you are in the Police States of Amerika, you might have a case under the Americans with Disabilities act. I have also been called retard many times even though I’m twice as intelligent as those who are doing the name calling.

By: xforce

xforce — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:29:13 +0000

I have Autism as well, not the full blown Autism but I have Asperger’s Syndrome. My college knows about this, it has been well documented but I get attacks from cause of this. In fact I have been expelled from my college which they reason was “to be help me” which is utterly ridiculous and not much of an excuse. They don’t give any other reason, I believe this is because I have Asperger’s and a learning disability. All this mess began when I complained to the Dean that my English teacher had told to me “I hate retards” after I gave her a sheet notifying her of my disability and Asperger’s. People need to be educated.