Please do not do this. Not if you know someone who's autistic, not if you have an autistic child, not if you're autistic. Autism Speaks is a terrible charity.
They create content designed to portray autism as frightening and awful. For example, this video, "Autism Every Day":
(Note: This video is not something you want children overhearing, particularly if they're autistic.)
The entire thing is shocking and heartbreaking, but the part that stuck with me was when Alison Singer said she'd contemplated driving herself and her autistic daughter off a bridge so she didn't have to enroll her in a special school, and the only reason she didn't was because she has another child.
As if saying this with her autistic daughter in the same room wasn't bad enough, this woman used to be one of Autism Speaks's executives.
According to them, autism is a "crisis," something that causes children to "go missing." Even their logo is a puzzle piece to show that autistics are "missing a piece of the puzzle," and that autism is a puzzle to be solved.
We are not puzzles. We are not missing. We're right here, and we're just as complete as you are.
Autism Speaks does not have a single autistic person on their board of directors. They're speaking about us without us. A lot of their board members have autistic children, but not a single one has autism themselves.
How, exactly, can you call your charity "Autism Speaks" and not have even one autistic person speaking alongside you?
Autism Speaks aims to prevent and cure autism. Right on their about page, it says they're funding autism prevention and cures.
Well, autism is hard-wired into the brain. The only way you could remove it would be to transplant a brain, which isn't possible - and even if it could be done, you'd lose the entire person, not just their autism.
The only way to prevent autism would be to make sure that autistic people aren't born. The only way to cure autism would be the murder of autistic people.
Oh wait - that's already happening, all the time.
Autism Speaks has an alliance with the Judge Rotenberg Center. This is a facility that does such disgusting things I don't even feel comfortable typing them out.
The JRC uses electric shocks not just to remove problematic behavior (although that would be bad enough), but also to eliminate harmless stimming, and for completely normal behaviors such as crying, saying "no," and getting up without permission.
They leave people in restraints for prolonged periods of time, withhold food, and cause severe psychological damage. They treat autistics in ways not fit to treat a dog, and have caused multiple deaths as a result.
Here is the beginning of a four-part series written by a woman who survived the JRC program. It is stomach-turning and extremely difficult to read. For many autistics who have done nothing to deserve it, it is a reality.
Autism Speaks spends less than 1/20 of their annual budget on family services. According to their 2010 990 Tax Exemption Form, 21% of their budget went towards "awareness and advertising." 5% went to paying salaries and other administrative costs (some salaries are upwards of $400,000 a year). Meanwhile, just four percent went to family services.
Oh, and let's not forget the time they rescinded a job offer because the woman they wanted to hire asked for accommodations for her autistic son. (The kicker? She was asking to get off early one day a week, and offered to make up the hours another day or take a pay cut.)
"Lighting it up blue" erases autistic girls. Autism Speaks has gone on record as saying that they use the color blue to represent boys with autism because "Autism Spectrum Disorders are almost 5 times more common among boys (1 in 54) than among girls (1 in 252)." So are approximately 20% of autistics out there not worth considering? Is it worth disregarding the fact that they exist because there aren't as many of them? Apparently, as far as Autism Speaks thinks.
Do not light one single thing up blue tomorrow.
Let's celebrate autism ACCEPTANCE, not awareness.
And in celebration of autism acceptance, let's support the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, and leave Autism Speaks in the dust.
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