I didn’t want to cook for myself tonight, but I read somewhere that the place I started ordering from is a sponsor of Autism Speaks.
Before placing the order, I tried to go on the AS website to check it out but I kept getting distracted by the stream of donation alerts that popped up at the bottom of the page.
It took me an additional five or so minutes to review their partnerships because it was so overstimulating.
Hi! I got here from the “everything” tab, while I don’t have autism myself I want to support those with autism as best as I can. I have often seen that Autism Speaks is problematic, but I don’t fully understand why, can someone please explain it to me?
Just a few points, you’ll find much more just putting “autism speaks controversy” into the search engine of your choice.
They view autism as a disease that needs to be cured.
They made videos saying autism will destroy your marriage, your family and your life.
They advocate to develop prenatal testing for autism with the goal of having women abort their supposedly autistic babies.
Thank you!
They treat autism as a disease to be cured, which is a disgusting way to think about it. Their founder also claimed that it’s “possible” that autism is caused by vaccines, which is scientifically disproven. There are also no autistic members of their board, which means no actual representation for the people they claim to want to help.
Thank you!
There are a lot of reasons, but I think this article does a good job of listing the main criticisms: https://www.themarysue.com/the-autism-speaks-controversy-explained/
But in a nutshell:
Thank you!
Well, donation/purchase popups are already a very big red flag in itself. Scam sites use them to drive FOMO. I have never heard of Autism Speaks so I don’t know about this particular case.