TV Report on Adult Autism

In The Politics of Autism, I write about pushback against the disease frame:

Another signal was a 2013 public apology by Easter Seals after it sent out a mass email using the disease frame:  “On Tuesday, we sent you an email about autism and we owe you an apology. We called autism an epidemic and some of you called us out on our language. You're right. Autism is not an epidemic. Autism is not a public health crisis.”  In the same vein, Los Angeles Times journalist Michael Hiltzik walked back from language that he used in a 2014 story.   “I have been taken to task, properly, for referring to autism above as `a terrible condition for its sufferers and their families.’ That's a narrow and ill-informed way of looking at a condition that many people on the autism spectrum feel has benefited their lives.” 

At WNDU-TV in South Bend, IN, Maureen McFadden reports:

We’re spending a huge amount of money on how to make sure that people like us don’t exist,” explains Julia Bascom. 

Julia is the executive director at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and thinks our work with autism is misguided. 

“Autistic life can be a good life. It’s a life worth living. But, we spend a shockingly disproportionate amount of money on cure and prevention, as opposed to on services and support,” she states.