Day 23: Political Issues Around Autism

To me, a political issue is one that involves disagreements between two parties In large portions of the public. There are many in the autism community

• Identity or person first language – some autistic people or parents prefer “identity first” language (I am an autistic person) versus “person first” (I am a person with autism). The former feel that autism is an integral part of their being, the latter feel that they are a person, first, and autism is just one aspect of their identity. There is even a third, nominal way to refer to a person with autism (or an autistic person): an autistic. This also has adherents and detractors.
• Funding for autism research – should autism be cured? Is it something that can be cured? Some would disagree and want research to go into help autistic people get on better in the world or raise awareness.
• Vaccines – Some still adamantly believe that vaccines or part of their makeup cause or help bring autism into being.
• Benefits – should autism be considered a condition for which one gets benefits from the government, private insurers, or employers? It is not consistent in all 50 states, nor is the belief that one should.
• Autism Speaks – some autistic people despise this organization because they refuse to deny the idea that vaccines cause autism and because they search for a cure.
• Civil Rights – speakers like John Elder Robison believe that the move to integrate autistic people into education, the workplace, and society is a civil rights issue on a part with any other in the last century.
• Autism Moms – the autistic communities that I listen in to on Facebook and Twitter get outraged at certain mothers in the public eye, such as Judith Newman, author of “To Siri, With Love.”

Whatever the issue is, I try to keep an open mind and listen to both sides. There are some that I come down squarely on one side or the other, but on others I am content to sit on the fence and adapt to whatever group I am speaking with at the time.