Do Not Support Autism Speaks

This was the first speech I created for my GS 1003 glass. The main gist is that we had to make a 5 minute speech and the main bodies of supporting information had to come from other sources. So basically, only the parts not quoted. Also, it had no title, so I came up with one to put on this website :)

I loved reading this out, it made me feel very powerful for some reason. I do agree with the professor, that I didn't include any audience specific details.

You are doing a disservice to the autistic community when you support Autism Speaks. The organization has no interest in improving the quality of life to the majority of the autistic population, constantly uses hurtful rhetoric and is more focused on filling executive’s pockets than ‘looking for a cure’.

Lee Beaudrot, a writer for the Florida State University Newspaper points out problems with the organization’s choice in research subjects.

“Because Autism Speaks focuses on awareness rather than acceptance and puts most of its research funding towards biological indicators rather than quality of life studies, the conversation has been about how to prevent autism rather than how to make life easier and more accessible for autistic people. Many autistic individuals deal with sensory processing issues which make certain common facets of everyday life like fluorescent lighting or loud noises difficult to deal with.

The issue comes down to how we view autistic people, either as burdens or as people with differences in how they process the world. Autistic people are working on shifting their public perception away from just being adolescent white boys who are either savants or dangerous, and towards the lived reality of autistic people across spectrums of gender, age, and race. Autistic people don’t disappear once they reach adulthood. They continue to rely on the resources available to them which all but dry up once they’re older, the direct result of Autism Speaks’ focus on the parents of autistic kids rather than autistic individuals of all ages.”

[source]

Autism Speaks doesn’t care about the lives of autistic children after they grow up. When you support this group, you are telling Autism Speaks that they should continue to perpetuate the stereotypes of young boys obsessed with trains as the only form of autism, hurting the chances of other autistic people getting the support they need.

Disability advocate Sara Luterman explains the harmful rhetoric perpetrated by Autism Speaks,

“As the largest nonprofit related to autism, it spent years promoting ideas and information that furthered stigma and misunderstanding about the condition. In 2009, Autism Speaks released an ad titled “I Am Autism” that portrayed autism as a silent and sinister killer. The ad claimed that autism “works faster than pediatric AIDS, cancer and diabetes combined” and ensures that marriages will fail, financial ruin will ensue and that it will “rob [parents] of [their] children and dreams.”

Autism Speaks’ goals have seemed to change little. [In the summer of 2019], it partnered with Sesame Street to promote a tool kit for parents of newly diagnosed children that, among other things, compares autism to leukemia and suggests that mourning is a normal response to learning of an autism diagnosis. There is an entire section of the tool kit that walks parents through the Kubler-Ross stages of grief.

'Many parents must mourn the loss of some of the hopes and dreams they had for their child before they can move on,' the guide notes in the section on sadness. Autism is neither a degenerative nor a fatal condition. No one dies of autism. But the rhetoric in the tool kit made autism diagnosis sound as though a child has died."

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Autism Speaks meets the FBI’s criteria for a hate group, and the rhetoric the organization uses to describe autism plays into that categorization. If you support this organization, you are adding fuel to the fire that is the stigma against autism.

A student at the Phillips Exeter Academy looked into Autism Speaks’ Consolidated Statement of Functional Expenses, to see where the ‘not for profit’ company spends its money.

In the … the breakdown for their expenses in [2018], “salaries and related benefits” totaled to [over 20 million dollars.] By contrast, Autism Speaks’ main contributions to activism—scientific and familial grants, awards, and research, as well as conferences and events—altogether totaled a [little over 10 million dollars].

That is less than half the amount it spends on “salaries and related benefits.”

Well then, is it possible that Autism Speaks just has a large staff or cost of operation? Sure. But Autism Speaks’ total expenses in 2018 were [over 75 million dollars]. So only 13.6 percent of their total expenditures actually went to autism advocacy.

But there are even problems with the money it actually spends on activism. Over the past year, several of Autism Speaks’ funding grants have gone towards “groundbreaking new genetic discoveries” with the hopes of finding a genetic component to autism. As for that famous blue puzzle piece logo? It’s the “missing piece,” meant to represent the missing cure to autism that Autism Speaks has been looking for"

[source]

When you donate to Autism Speaks, you are directly putting money in the pocket of someone who doesn’t care about the quality of life of autistic people. The hurtful rhetoric employed by the organization adds to its qualifications as a hate group. You are doing a disservice to the autistic community when you support Autism Speaks.