Published November 11, 2009 @ 07:40AM PT

By Ari Ne'eman, ASAN President.  We'll be gathering at Seventh Avenue and 57th Street, 154 West 57th Street in New York City from 6 PM to 8 PM this coming Tuesday, November 17th, to hold up signs and hand out flyers to Autism Speaks sponsors going in to their New York City concert with Bruce Springsteen and Jerry Seinfeld. Come join us! Please RSVP to aneeman@autisticadvocacy.org or go to the facebook event page here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=205191180125 Please distribute to your friends, contacts and listservs! WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? 1. Autism Speaks talks about us without us. Not a single Autistic person is on Autism Speaks' Board of Directors or in their leadership. Autism Speaks is one of an increasingly few number of major disability advocacy orga... Read More

Published October 22, 2009 @ 09:24AM PT

By Paula Durbin-Westby, ASAN Board Member and East Coast Regional Director.  Join ASAN and allies as we protest Autism Speaks at their "Walk for Autism" on Saturday, October 31 at the National Mall in Washington DC. Autism Speaks' recent choice to use fear, stigma, misinformation and prejudice against autistic people as a fundraising tool does real damage to people with disabilities and to the cause of disability rights. We protest the agenda of Autism Speaks and the organizations that have merged into it, including Cure Autism Now and the National Alliance for Autism Research. Comments by co-founder Suzanne Wright include a call to "eradicate autism for the sake of future generations," ignoring autistics who are here now and our families and communities. Although Autism Speak... Read More

Published October 21, 2009 @ 09:24AM PT

By Andrew De Carlo, ASAN New England Chapter Director.  On Sunday, October 18, ASAN-New England members and other disability rights advocates protested Autism Speaks' Walk for Autism, held at Suffolk Downs in East Boston. Although 15 individuals RSVPed, inclement weather kept all but 7 from attending. The first choice of protest location, as well as the location that the Suffolk Downs staff recommended, were both too far removed from the walk to be effective. Instead, we went inside Suffolk Downs, and we went onto the track to protest once the walk had begun. We were on the track for an hour before the weather forced us inside. We chanted and held up posters that said: - I am a person, not a puzzle - Nothing about us without us - Keep $$$ local, do not donate to Aut... Read More

Published October 12, 2009 @ 11:17AM PT

By Meg Evans, ASAN Southwest Ohio Chapter Director.  ASAN Central Ohio/Ohio State University protested an Autism Speaks walk on the OSU campus on Sunday, October 11th, along with other disability rights advocates objecting to Autism Speaks' lack of self-advocate representation, advertising campaigns that promote fear and stereotypes, and taking funds out of local communities for cure and prevention research while providing very few services. There is a YouTube video of the protest, and more details and photos can be found on the ASAN Central Ohio blog. I came from the Dayton area to take part in the protest, which was a drive that took me a little more than an hour, and I found several ASAN members and supporters already on the site when I arrived. The protest site was located acr... Read More

Published October 09, 2009 @ 09:01PM PT

By Melanie Yergeau, ASAN Central Ohio/OSU Chapter Director.  Please join us as we protest the Autism Speaks walk for autism this Sunday, October 11 from 8:00am to 12:00pm. We'll be meeting at the corner of Fred Taylor Drive and Borror Drive, right by the 4-H Center, and this is where we'll carry out our protest. We are actively looking for volunteers and fellow protesters. Our protest has been sparked by, among other things, Autism Speaks' recent PSA, titled "I Am Autism," which presents autistic individuals as kidnap victims, burdens, and inhuman. In the video, autism is presented as a soul-stealing entity that ruins marriages, causes bankruptcy, triggers embarrassment, and erodes morality. Please join us (even if only for a short while) as we speak back to Autism Speaks... Read More

Published October 08, 2009 @ 08:19PM PT

By Ari Ne'eman, ASAN President.  More than 60 national, international, and local disability rights organizations have signed onto a letter condemning the organization Autism Speaks for exploiting those it purports to help. The letter was released on Wednesday, October 7 by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), the leading advocacy organization run by and for Autistic youth and adults speaking for themselves. The letter's signatories include the Arc of the United States, TASH, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the National Council on Independent Living, and it calls on Autism Speaks' donors, sponsors, and supporters-including Toys ‘R Us, Home Depot, Fox Sports, and Lindt Chocolates-to end their support for the organization. The joint letter highlights a p... Read More

Published September 25, 2009 @ 09:17PM PT

By Meg Evans.  Disability Scoop has just published an article on the widespread condemnation of the "I Am Autism" video by Autism Speaks throughout the cross-disability community. Numerous advocacy organizations either have signed on to a joint letter prepared by ASAN President Ari Ne'eman or are reviewing the letter and considering doing so. The open letter--soon to be released--calls on Autism Speaks' donors, sponsors, and supporters to end their involvement with an organization that uses fear and stigma as fundraising tools and, instead, to find other groups more worthy of their support. The article further reports on Autism Speaks' defensive response to the criticism of "I Am Autism," which the organization--only days after it presented the video to much fanfare at a highly p... Read More

Published September 24, 2009 @ 09:06AM PT

By Ari Ne'eman, ASAN President.  As many of you are aware, Autism Speaks sunk to a new low yesterday - even for them! The "I am Autism" campaign repeats the same tired old lies as the NYU Child Study Center's Ransom Notes ads, which our community successfully stopped in 2007, and goes even further, presenting Autistic people as useless burdens on society, on our families and on the world at large. "I am autism. I have no interest in right or wrong. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams....And if you're happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails. Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain," says the video campaign. Full text is available here. As we did in response to the "Ransom Notes" ads, we are preparing a ... Read More

Published September 24, 2009 @ 08:55AM PT

By Melanie Yergeau, ASAN Central Ohio/OSU Chapter Director.  On the afternoon of Monday, September 21st, the Ohio State chapter of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) worked a table at the student involvement fair, a community event that boasted over 500 student and community organizations. The members of ASAN-OSU distributed informational handouts during the event, including a flyer entitled "Why Autism Speaks Does Not Speak for Us," authored by Meg Evans of ASAN-Southwest Ohio. Members also solicited signatures for a petition against the upcoming Columbus Walk for Autism Speaks and OSU President E. Gordon Gee's continued support of the walk. In keeping with themes of self-advocacy and protest, on display at the ASAN table was a poster with prominent slogans such as nothing ... Read More

Published September 03, 2009 @ 10:19AM PT

by Sarah Ross As an ASAN supporter, I'm pleased to be blogging for ASAN.  I'll be cross-posting this to my other blog, Cat in a Dog's World, which I encourage all readers to check out. I love reading, and have a particular interest in autism books, so for my first post here I thought I'd post a book review for a recently released book.  Parents discovering the neurodiversity movement often ask for guidance in how they might best parent and help their autistic child in a respectful and neurodiversity-positive way.  While there is much useful information online, and of course I always suggest that parents form relationships with autistic adults, both online and off, until recently there hadn't been a physical book for parents to use.  I often look at the autism bo... Read More