Hey there, Change.org and the corporate world! My name is Ofelia Cohen-Odiaga. I'm 16 years old and a proud autistic person, and, after an attempt to convince two Broadway stars of the same, I am here to ask various entities of the corporate world to stop supporting Autism Speaks and start supporting charities and organizations that actual autistic people like and support! (More on that later!) While Autism Speaks is the so-called "leading autism charity," taking in millions of dollars every year, most autistic people strongly dislike the organization because of the way it spends its money and the messages it sends about who and what autistic people are.

According to their 2014 financial report, just over 21 million dollars (about 18.2% of their budget) goes into their research program (mainly in the form of grants), which they define as "research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism." However, most experts agree that autism is a genetic condition which can neither be cured nor prevented, so these millions of dollars are practically being thrown away. As for autism "treatment," while Autism Speaks does not provide such "services" itself, the organization supports and promotes “therapies” such as Applied Behavioral Analysis or ABA, which is promoted as a wonderful evidence-based system of positive and negative reinforcements, but, as resources written by professionals, parents, and, most importantly, autistic people who have been through the process will make clear, in many cases, ABA truly is more like obedience school for humans which aims to "cure" the "symptoms" of autism and make autistic people appear "normal” (occasionally by intrusive or even violent means), which is not what autistic people want. In general, autistic people are proud of who they are and do not want to change, be treated, or be cured; rather, they want acceptance from the world around them.

If this weren't bad enough, 63.5% of Autism Speaks' funds—almost 73 million dollars—goes into their "awareness" program, mainly in the form of advertising (which, incidentally, receives nearly 47 million dollars, more than double the money of the entire research program), and this is arguably far more dangerous than the research because of the messages these awareness campaigns convey. Their 2009 "I am Autism" campaign compared autism to terminal diseases and claimed that autism will ruin marriages, families, and, "most importantly," the autistic people themselves. The idea of autism’s being a ruiner of lives, a demon which must be destroyed, helps nobody except those profiting off of those messages. Even the families, for whom Autism Speaks claim to care so much (despite the fact that only 4% of their money goes directly to families) are hurt by these messages, for they seek to turn human beings in their homes into monsters. If anything is ruining a family, it's the demonization of the people within it, not the people themselves.

And yet, despite this flushing of money down the pseudo-science drain, despite their spreading of this chilling message about what autism "is" and "does," Autism Speaks still receives millions of dollars every year, draws attention to itself (and not to us) every April with its "Light It Up Blue" campaign, and, as you surely have ascertained by reading this petition, has many, many, many corporate sponsors.

Corporate world, I know you mean well. I know you want to help autistic people. But, as an autistic person myself, I can tell you that, with an agenda of marketing fear and funding a lost cause, overseen by a board with only two autistic people and a history of autistic people resigning from said board because they felt ignored, Autism Speaks does not speak for me. It does not speak for my fourteen-year-old best friend who is in an ABA program right now. It does not speak for my friend’s autistic classmate who is humiliated by his teachers for being himself. Rather, Autism Speaks has silenced autistic voices time and time again, and I urge you to redirect your energy, your effort, and your money to an organization which does not, such as the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network or ASAN, a group which is led only by autistic people under the motto “Nothing About Us, Without Us.”

As for the rest of you here on Change.org (especially those of you who signed the #Ham4AMs petition a few weeks back!), I ask that you join me in telling the corporate world that autistic people want ACCEPTANCE by signing this petition and sharing it on social media with #InvestInAcceptance.

We are here. We are autistic. We are not going anywhere. We can speak for ourselves, and we will not be silenced.

Thanks and best wishes,

Ofelia Cohen-Odiaga