> Autism Speaks is a hate group of abusive parents.
It's an indicator of the current state of affairs in the social media autism space that the only organization focusing on reducing the suffering of individuals with higher levels of dysfunction (i.e. requires lifelong support for basic needs) is demonized to this degree. Though it also makes sense as the most disabled autistic individuals do not post online.
It’s understandable that people with a milder form of autism would find it reprehensible that people want to “fix” them rather than simply accept a different type of person exists, but this really just ignores people at the harshest end of the spectrum who might be able to live an independent life if a cure were developed.
That’s kinda the whole argument behind more subgroups. Mild autists don’t need a cure. A subgrouping would help explain this.
There are plenty of conditions which are just “part of who you are” that still probably should be cured if possible, if for no other reason than to improve their quality of life.
This is a complete lie. Autistic advocacy group care a lot about people with higher needs.
Meanwhile autism speaks spends money for anti-scientific research to find out whether vaccines cause autism and how to find a "cure" for autism. Such a cure can not exist. Autism is something you are born with and that is part of you.
If you knew anything about autism then you would know that we speak about levels of care needs, not "low/high functioning". So either you are ignorant or did choose to use hurtful language.
> Such a cure can not exist. Autism is something you are born with and that is part of you.
Signs of autism generally show up in early childhood, but it has not been proven that it is something a person is born with. Vaccines have been studied enough to rule them out, but there are still a zillion other things that babies today are exposed to that could be a factor, from antibiotics to endocrine disrupting chemicals to microplastics to viruses or even something we're not even considering medically today.
Also, tons of birth defects and inborn diseases can be cured. We cure cleft palates and spina bifida routinely. We manage diabetes and Phenylketonuria effectively enough that patients can live regular lives. Here's a paper published in the prestigious Cell journal covering 700 different genetic disorders which can be treated today: https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(25)00110-7
It's possible that in the future autism will have a cure, a preventative measure or a highly effective treatment.
It's an indicator of the current state of affairs in the social media autism space that the only organization focusing on reducing the suffering of individuals with higher levels of dysfunction (i.e. requires lifelong support for basic needs) is demonized to this degree. Though it also makes sense as the most disabled autistic individuals do not post online.