Autism rights movement: Encyclopedia II - Autism rights movement - Issues

Autism rights movement - Issues

The movement has a number of issues that range from challenging the way autistic people are treated by others to challenging the way autism is portrayed.

Autism rights movement - Ethical challenges to autism treatment

There are many programs available intended as treatment for autism. However, autistic rights activists feel these treatments do not actually help autistic people but instead harm them. In particular, applied behavioral analysis (ABA), mental institutions, and drug therapy have been challenged. Michelle Dawson is one such person who has challenged ABA in the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004.

Autism rights movement - Opposition to eliminating autism

Some people have the goal of eliminating autism completely, and want there to be a future with no autism. Since those in the autism rights movement see autism as a natural human variation and not a disorder, they are opposed to attempts to eliminate autism. Autistic self-advocates have referred to the possible elimination of the autism genotype as "genocide" and "eugenics" [20].

In particular, there is opposition to prenatal genetic testing of autism in unborn fetuses, which some believe might be possible in the future if autism is genetic (see Heritability of autism). On February 23, 2005 Dr. Joseph Buxbaum of the Autism Genome Project at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine said there might be a prenatal test for autism in 10 years. The genetics of autism have proven to be extremely complex, however, bringing some relief of autistic self-advocates. In any case, the Autistic Genocide Clock was started in response to this, which counts down to 10 years after Buxbaum made this announcement [21].

The public has started to debate the ethics involved in the possible elimination of a genotype that has liabilities and advantages, which may be seen as tampering with nature and natural selection in particular. MSNBC has an article titled "Would you have allowed Bill Gates to be born?" which deals with this issue.

Autism rights movement - Opposition to an alleged insulting view of autism

It is the opinion of autistic rights activists that many people present an insulting view of autism. One of the goals of the movement is to expose and challenge those claims they find offensive.

Some things autistic rights activists find offensive are (1) the comparison of autism to a national tragedy or fatal disease, (2) statements such as "autism is worse than cancer and 9/11 combined", and (3) claims that autism is a death sentence. Michelle Dawson has protested the statement "autism is worse than cancer in many ways because the person with autism has a normal lifespan" [22]. Even some pro-cure advocates believe some of these statements go too far.

Dr. Boyd Haley, chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, recently termed autism "mad child disease" in speaking about children whose autism was allegedly caused by mercury poisoning. This term offended some autistics as well as some parents of autistic children, and the "petition to defend the dignity of autistic citizens" was started by Neurodiversity.com in protest.

Autistic rights activists also reject terming the reported increase in the autistic population as an epidemic since the word epidemic implies autism is a disease. The autism epidemic idea is controversial in any case; anti-cure activists propose that the reported increase in autism may be due to the fact that more people are simply being diagnosed as autistic and that historically, more people went undiagnosed.

Some autistic adults find the puzzle piece ribbon offensive. Autistics.Org has a button that reads "I am not a puzzle, I am a person." Oddizms has created a rainbow moebius ring to symbol autism awareness and replace the puzzle piece ribbon.

Autistic rights activists find offensive a trend where people attempt to make people aware of autism by discussing how much money autistic people allegedly cost (forgetting to mention how much it would cost to have to do without the findings and inventions of people suspected of having the condition e.g. Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, William Shockley etc). These campaigns give the impression that autistics are a burden on tax payers and a waste of money, and activists compare this to arguments Nazis used to support Adolf Hitler's T-4 Euthanasia Program and also the American eugenics movement [23]. Plus some autistic activists believe these campaigns fail to account for what they see as valuable contributions the autistic phenotype has made towards the advancement of the human race.

Autism rights movement - Adult issues

Adult inclusion

Some in the autistic rights movement believe the status quo of autism issues focuses too much on children and parents, and tends to exclude autistic adults. They point to various autism organizations like Autism Society of America that have a child as a logo and parents having more power than autistic adults in autism organizations. Michelle Dawson believes that the Autism Society of Canada excludes autistic adults [24]. Autistic people oppose this because they feel autistics, not non-autistic parents, should be the primary focus of autism organizations. They also believe there are a lot more services for autistic children and their parents than for autistic adults, and some advocates of adult inclusion believe that the services and resources that are claimed to be for autistic children are really just for the parents (such as respite).

Accuracy of information about autistic adults

Autistic rights activists believe many people considered autism experts publish false information about what happens to autistic children when they become adults. They claim that while some autistic adults in the autism rights movement have significant difficulties in life, many of the pessimistic predictions that had been given to them when they were children did not come true. Because of this, autistic rights activists believe pessimistic (from their point of view) things autism experts are saying to the parents of autistic children of today are also false.

Adult diagnosis

Autistic adults claim that the definition afforded in an autism diagnosis is designed for children and not for adults, which makes the parameters unworkable and difficult in maintaining/obtaining a proper diagnosis. Because adults are different than they were as children, they no longer fit the model of an autistic individual. In addition, autism diagnosis is sometimes taken less seriously when it is made in adulthood rather than childhood, because some people claim if autism were "severe" it would have been noticed in childhood. Some autistic adults respond to this by claiming that when they were children there was much more ignorance about autism than there is in the present.

A common reason for autistic adults to seek a diagnosis is to obtain services and/or accommodation for difficulties associated with autism. Some, however, only seek a diagnosis for the sake of a personal identity—as a confirmation of why they feel "different" in a neurotypical society. Sometimes autistic adults find a self-diagnosis to be sufficient for this purpose (even though some prefer to get an "official" diagnosis for a credible confirmation). Those who have diagnosed themselves as autistic would not necessarily be seen as autistic by doctors.

Services and accommodation

The autism rights movement desires more services and accommodations for autistic adults. They also desire autistic adults to have equal opportunity in employment and in education.

Autism rights movement - Misconceptions of autistic traits

Autistic rights activists believe many characteristics described as being autistic traits are really only misconceptions [25] [26]. People in this movement desire to educate the population about what they believe are the real reasons these alleged misconceptions occur.

It is considered characteristic of autism for autistic people to lack a "theory of other minds", that is, for autistic people to be unaware that other people do not necessarily think or know the same things that they do. Many people feel that autistics are only perceived to lack a theory of mind because autistic people do not necessarily communicate with others in the same ways neurotypicals do. Not only would this prevent others' knowing whether autistics have a theory of mind or not, but lack of communication might make autistics less likely to have knowledge of other people's thoughts and knowledge. Autistics often believe neurotypicals are insensitive to their perspective and write parodies based on this that neurotypicals lack theory of other minds [27] [28].

It is reported that 75% to 85% of autistic people are mentally retarded. Some people believe autistics are incorrectly diagnosed with mental retardation because of lack of an ability to communicate what they know, and due to fundamental flaws in intelligence testing. According to the original definition by Aaron Rosanoff (as a segment of temperament in his "theory of personality", published circa 1915), it is also a factor that it is quite possible to be strongly autistic, physically normal, and highly intelligent, thus escaping diagnosis as children, and consequently not appearing in current statistics ^[29]. Gifted children sometimes have autistic traits, which may suggest an association.

Although some people believe autistic people have no emotions and no sense of humor, some autistic people reject this and report that they do experience a range of emotions. The perception that autistics are emotionless comes largely from the fact that autistics are relatively likely to keep their emotions to themselves, for example not laughing when they find something funny. Autistics also often have different emotional reactions from what neurotypicals expect, and neurotypicals may therefore perceive a general lack of emotion due to an actual lack of some specific reaction that they were expecting. Autistics may also be amused by things that non-autistics would not find funny. Autistic adults such as Jerry Alter and Jessy Park report being greatly amused by concepts "such as eating roads or flowers are growing on a telephone", which are reminiscent of Monty Python-type British absurd humor.

Autism rights movement - Functioning labels

The autistic rights movement has contributed to controversies about functioning labels in the autism spectrum. In particular, autistic rights activists are concerned with the functioning labels making it more difficult to get services for difficulties associated with autism, and they believe the terms are used as an excuse for their opponents to ignore the viewpoints they do not like.

Autism rights movement - Status as a social minority group

It has been proposed that the Autistic community are a social minority group and therefore should be considered as such by the United Nations. This would give certain protection against the forcible use of cures and therapies, either now or in the future. They say that if the fact that people on the autistic spectrum are different in their own right was accepted worldwide, instead of their being regarded as simply a faulty version of "normal" people, it would provide greater freedom to the whole community. Without the stigma or pressure to communicate in the same way as neurotypicals, autistics would be enabled to form social bonds in ways that best suit them. It is sometimes the case that typing or signing is easier than talking for autistics, and there is a large autistic community on the internet, many of whom are socially isolated locally. The statement from the autistic community on recognition for minority status is at [30].

Some claim that the proposal that the Autistic community be classified as a minority group by the United Nations has divided the autistic community. Some autistics believe it is self-defeating to receive special status when they are capable of achieving things for themselves as successfully as neurotypicals.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Issues", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki