To give a timeline, April 2010, iPad + Wifi was unleashed upon the world; Daniel turned 6 yrs old; and what was to come was still unknown. In June, Shannon Rosa wrote on BlogHer about the iPad and her son Leo. Shannon had had the amazing luck to win an iPad through a school fundraiser. From then, I researched and researched as much as I could about the iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone and the apps to go along with that help children with Autism. My husband and I also sat down and decided this year for Christmas he was going to have something to help him. We researched all of our options.

Then the last quarter of this year started. We realized that we were going to have to move out of my mom’s house. The environment had not only become unhealthy for he and I, but also for Daniel and Stephen. So all the money we had saved had to go to the move. While it was the best decision I ever made, it was also the most difficult as it came down to spending the whole of our Christmas savings. So I started searching for other options. I contacted Julie Liberman, SLP through Twitter, despite knowing her in real life, about if certain grant programs would fund an iPad. The resounding answer was “NO!!!!”

Julie didn’t stop looking and listening for a way we could get an iPad. Then one day, Shannon Rosa posted A Guide to getting your Autistic child an iPad. She first pointed to HollyRod4Kids iPad Fundraiser (think about donating to this worthy cause). I scoured their website and realized we didn’t qualify. Daniel was verbal, and living on my husband’s income, we didn’t make under the $35k/yr required. But hope was not lost. Shannon detailed that there were sites that you can fund raise on your own. I looked at both she recommended and chose our option. I talked to my husband about it, and he said that he was okay with it.

Thanks to my readership here, my contacts within our local Autism community, plus good ol’ fashioned friends and family, we started to raise money. We started with $25, then $45, before we knew it, we were above $200! I tweeted, I blogged, I updated my facebook and wrote “Note” after “Note”. I was surprised at the people who took notice. There were so many along the way that retweeted, posted the story to their news feeds. I was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of those in the Autism community that reached out.

Then the best news yet, iHelpforSpecialNeeds added me to Twitter. At first I thought it was an app, so I went to research. They’re better than the best app! They are a start up company helping families raise funds for an iPad for their Special Needs child. It wasn’t limited to nonverbal, or income, or Autism, Downs or MR. I wrote in and told them of our efforts. As we kept exchanging emails, it was decided that Daniel would be their Featured Recipient. Through Jennifer, the wonderful lady behind this start up, we will be able to get Daniel his iPad for Christmas! Thanks to GoodKarma Applications, we will have the First-Then App to load onto it. And in the weeks to come, we will get more apps to help Daniel through each day.

And as the title says, this is only the beginning! We will sit down with the Special Ed staff the first week back to school to train them to use the iPad for easy transitions. We’ll help him learn to navigate it over the rest of our break. Don’t worry. We will have plenty of pictures of him opening it on Christmas morning. And I will keep everyone updated on his progress with it. What an amazing journey, and this is only the beginning!

In my last blog, I spoke of our accident, our move, and how thankful I am for what I have. But the grim reality is setting in. We have next to no money for Christmas as all the money we saved now has to go for the apartment. The move is very needed because of tension brewing within my mother’s house. With the boys both slightly regressing, my need for more therapy, and many other things, we decided it was more important to move out than to have a large Christmas.

The one thing we were hoping to get for my Daniel was an iPad or other tablet. We had already spoken to his teachers and the principal, and they all gave the thumbs up for him to bring it to school and use it as part of his program. This was a huge hurdle we managed to jump over to now have no way to provide him with the tablet.

Many of you may have read Shannon Rosa’s blog on how the iPad has helped her son Leo. As well, there’s a wealth of other articles (some chronicled on our fundraiser page) on the benefits of having an iPad as there are many applications for social skills, sensory skills and even adaptive curriculums. Most prominently known are the Augmentative and Assisted Communication apps as well. There are groups who are raising money for iPads for those with AAC needs (see Holly Rod Foundation and Danny’s Wish), but for children like Daniel, who is verbal but could use the help for transition, social and sensory needs, there is no place for families to turn.

Shannon Rosa’s latest blog suggests setting up your own fundraiser campaign. While I normally don’t like to ask other people for money, with our current situation being as it is, and how much I *know* the iPad will benefit Daniel, I have chosen to create a fundraiser. For those of us on the Spectrum, we know what technology has done for many of us. We are better connected, feel more at easy, and even more productive and independent. With the amount of apps created for those on and off the Spectrum, I know we will be giving Daniel those same tools to succeed.

Stories2Learn helps create Social Stories. iWriteWords gives a simple interface to learn to write correctly (and much in the same form as Writing without Tears). First Then Visual Schedule gives an easily recognizable visual schedule so that there is no “unknown” variable to what’s coming next. iRewardChart helps teach doing chores and creates a reward system that is fully customizable for each child’s needs. I could probably keep going for paragraph after paragraph with all the apps that have been created, but I think I will leave it at these.

If you feel you want to and CAN donate, please visit our GiveForward donation page. Or donate straight from the widget on the right side of the screen. Thank you for anyone and everyone who’s taken the time to read this, whether or not you are able to donate.

My last post was about disagreements with NTs that leave me feeling inadequate. Today, I had a great conversation with a wonderful set of moms who I don’t always agree with and who sometimes don’t agree with me. To me this is significant because it was a support & networking meeting of other parents with kids on the spectrum. I like to go because I do my utmost to show respect their view points as they often show the utmost respect to mine. I want to thank them for this because in the Autism community, as we all know, there are so many sides, that if there is constant in-fighting, we never can show others what we all know.

So today, I want to address the people who don’t always show that respect, for whatever reason. I’m doing this because I’ve been trying to pinpoint for so long what it is that causes these rifts among our groups.

1. I am not disagreeing with you because I don’t care. In fact, we all very much care about the future for ourselves and our children. If we did not, then we would not be so involved. The people who do not care so much are not the ones present, but those who remain outside the circle for whatever reason. I care so much about the future of those with Autism because I have been where they are at now, and do not want to see the heartache in their lives that I experienced in mine. I was homeless. I dropped out of college. I became a single pregnant woman. I went in and out of mental wards. And I have 2 years of my adult life that I don’t remember over the 11-12 yrs of my childhood that I have no memory of. I have been there, done that, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen to a single other person. I don’t talk about these things because they are hard memories (or sometimes the lack thereof) to handle. But if you were in my position, having gone through what I’ve gone through, wouldn’t you do the same thing?
2. I am not arguing with you because I like to argue. I hate arguing. It’s emotionally, mentally and physically draining. I argue for the greater good, because I feel all the pain and suffering I go through arguing, if I can make one person understand, I have done my job. My husband has had to cradle me in his arms on numerous occasions because I literally cannot handle the after affects of these disagreements. If I had no support, I would be in a ball in a corner, but I’m lucky to have what so many others like me don’t have. Support. I wish I could thank my husband enough for what he gives me. And I know that this doesn’t excuse the arguing. In fact, if I knew how to, I’d stop the arguments. I just don’t have that, and as much as I try to learn that skill, it’s just not there yet.
3. Be understanding that I don’t have your theory of mind. If you can forgive your own child’s differences and difficulties, please try to do the same to me. I know how difficult that is as we all try to fight with professionals, and teachers, and administrators each day to make them understand our children’s invisible disability. It’s hard to look past my typing and demeanor, my physical appearance of togetherness, to see that there is a disability in there. I stay in my comfort zone, where I  know that with the supports I have in place, we can pick up the pieces.
4. Please don’t tell me what path I should take with my kids. We are all different, and we all do our best. I’d especially like to ask that you don’t keep telling me what path to take when you can see my path is working for my kids. I chose the path I did because of what I said in #1. If you would like to understand more about what we do each day for my two boys, and can see the progress they have made, please do ask. If you chose not to take that path, that is fine. But in the end, your path is not working like you expected, please refer back to #3. I cannot understand why you continue to tell me to chose a different one, when my path is working and yours isn’t. I’m not saying you’re not doing enough, or that you need to switch to my path, I’m just suggesting you look at what you’re doing to figure out why it isn’t working.
5. Helping Autism is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Someone I know keeps using this phrase, and I keep picking it up. But it really is. The needs of an Autistic individual are always changing, and you need to keep looking at what you’re doing so that you can change accordingly. If your path (#4) isn’t working, find people who HAVE been successful on your path and get their feedback. I know that this is not what I’m ‘supposed’ to say. I’d much rather everyone take my non-evasive way, yes. But if you chose not to, there are those who have been where you are, and have had children come out on the other side with good, great or brilliant results. Find those people. They can help guide you on your road. And if at once you don’t succeed, try try again. But always remember, the sign of insanity is doing the same thing the same way every time and expecting a different result.

I hope this has helped some of you understand me. And for those who are parents on the Spectrum, I do apologize that this was not as useful to you as it was to those from the outside looking in.

I had an argument on a parent list that I’ve been a part of for just over a year. I love the organization’s leader as she’s also Aspie and great to bounce ideas on. But this recurrent theme that I keep seeing keeps leaving me in tears.

Without going into detail about the specifics, I feel that the theme is very important to touch on.

It’s about educating, training, accommodating then allowing a person to live independently. As Autistic adults, we know how hard all of these things can be. For myself and many of my known readers, we all are pretty permenantly disabled for one reason or another. We made it through our teen years some easily, others much more difficultly. This is the nature of the Autistic life.

When I drive home the three A’s of Acceptance, Accommodation and Accessibility, the recurrent idea is that these things are not happening. General population acceptance of our disabilities is definitely not there, but that’s something we will continue to work on.

What I find difficult is that within parent circles, it’s okay to be accepting of your children’s differences, but when it comes to an adult, especially another parent, there is far less acceptance, to the point of personal attack on the person. When I attack an ideology, an organization or other such things, I am not attacking a person. Yet, when I do attack these things, I find myself more often than not insulted in one or more ways. Either because I don’t “represent” the “true” “reality” for many Autistic adults, or because I “attack” or “complain” too much and am not willing to “do anything about it.” If it’s not that, then I am accused of attacking someone personally even if I was very direct in criticizing a group or ideology with no personal flings.

This is difficult enough for me to handle. But then to be further insulted that just because you live with someone with Autism, means that you automatically know what it means to live with Autism. Independence is very difficult for many of us. If I did not have my husband, I would not be considered “independent.” So when you’re supporting financially, emotionally, and/or physically, an Autistic child, it is not nearly the same thing as we “independent” adults live with every day. What happens when you’re gone? How are they going to support themselves?

Many of the programs out there cost exorbitant amounts of money to train your child only for them to live and work in a sheltered program. Is this what you want for your child, or would you rather they be “independent like me?” I know I’m preaching to the choir. But why in one breath are we Autistic parents seen as extraordinary, then in the other unrealistic in what we want to see out of programs and services to address our brethren?

I really want to understand this. My husband says I never will because I’m working from the idea that everything is logical. (He’s right, by the way.) If you want your child to be independent, to not want to worry about what happens to your child when you are no longer around, or no longer able to take care of them, why do you scoff at our ideas? Is it so much to ask that instead of training a person to work in a sheltered workshop, that you instead give the supports to work in a normal workplace? If they are having a hard time coping with certain work situations, why are you taking them out of the workplace and putting them else where? Wouldn’t 1) Emotional and Job support, 2) Life Coach or 3) Job liaisons help the person stay where they are qualified to be as well as give them the skills to take it to another place?

In the end, if they can no longer work in the sheltered workshop, where will they go? Most likely to a group home or institution if you as parents are no longer able to support them or be there. How is that helping the person? And do you truly think about these things when you set up the “great” programs? Or are you just looking for the next year or two?

It keeps going round and round. And until someone stops to think, I do not think it will ever change.

When I first left for college, I thought things would be great. Then I moved in with my first roommate who scared and intimidated me beyond belief. We rarely had a working relationship, even when it came to bills. By the end of the first semester, she had found a new roommate, had me transfer all the bills into my name, and left. What I didn’t know is that nothing had been paid. And as my parents had just been foreclosed on, I had no where to turn. Such started my bad credit streak.

This was a hard time in my life, and because I was unable to keep stable employment, or even stay stable enough for classes. By the end of my first year, I was homeless, on academic probation, and hopelessly falling into extreme anxiety. By the end of my second year, I had had several trips to ERs and Psych wards from dissociations and my actions during them. This is not something I normally share, but I think there’s important things to learn from my experiences.

Having married a wonderful man, who also had a period of bad financial times, we are now working tirelessly, on one income, to try to correct our mistakes. It’s difficult to do, or should I say impossible to do. I’ve finally decided my husband is right, the debt is too great for our meager income. And with no possible break, we are going to do something I’ve dreaded. In the end, our credit will be no better, but we will have much more plausible chance to rebuild from here and actually find a place of our own.

But what lessons have I learned?

1. I cannot do things by myself. I have to rely on support, both mentally and physically. What lead me to such a dark place before is that I didn’t have a good support structure around me.

2. I need to always realize it’s okay to ask for help. If I had done this sooner when I was younger, I probably could have gotten a lot more help. I waited, and I don’t want anyone else to wait if they feel they can’t do something. In some cases, it could truly mean life or death.

3. I have to accept what has happened. If I cannot accept the choices (and nonchoices) I have made, then I cannot move forward. I have been able to do this with some things, but not so much with others. I am working on it though.

The morning started out with the keynote address by President Obama staff. I was very enthused by the fact that Mr. Lee Grossman, president of ASA, wants to reframe perspective from just medical issues with Autism, but to a whole life, whole person approach. What did not leave me nearly as enthused was the actual keynotes. I was upset by the generalities with no real precision on what the plan is for those of us living with AS. With a mental health system that’s not equipped to handle us rampant throughout the US, housing issues, along with job issues. You’d think some more concrete plans were being laid. Instead, it just showed how ill-equipped this presidency is to help our population. I wish I could work, I really do, but as of now, I can’t and a lot of it has to do with poor social services plans.

I made my “escape” early from the keynotes, when they started asking questions. The poor acoustics plus the frigid air left me in utter pain. Luckily, earplugs handed out during the workshop the day before kept me in there for that long. I’m really glad that by Day 3 they had most of these acoustic issues worked out, but the air stayed frigid throughout the conference. Shortly after the key notes, I found my way to some comfy chairs. I received a tweet from Alex Plank, creator of Wrong Planet and keynote presenter of Day 4, saying to call him. He was doing interviews, but I sadly never got around to giving one. I also met Lindsey Nebeker, who has just opened up her blog Naked Brain Ink which talks about relationships for those on the Spectrum. Along with Jack Robison, John Elder Robison’s son, and Autism Talk TV representative, Alex, and Lindsey, I sat in the lobby and chatted as 4 Autistic people do. I think we may have looked odd to the ‘outsiders’ as one lady got up and walked away at the congregation started. Lindsey did a really awesome interview for Autism Talk TV with Alex. I was particularly amazed at her presentation as she looks quite suave.

Following the 3 hour discussion between the three of us, it was off to view panels I had highly anticipated for the month following up to the conference. First stop was with “Anxiety, Depression, Post-Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Bullying on Individuals with ASDs”. I knew going in that I was not their target audience. Having experienced Bullying and abuse from those in my life, I was very pleased with the way they presented it for teachers and therapists who had not thought about it. I think they did leave out a few things, such as bullying from siblings and parents. Things such as bullying from teachers, which my brother suffered, to where it’s difficult to come forward with the abuse. From other students, but not realizing it for years later. I suffered from this kind of bullying. Being naive and innocent, it does not help when you look back on your life. Ignorance is not bliss, and I think they made that pretty clear. Many of the strategies that I am doing with my therapist were the same that they gave example to. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which means so many things, is definitely the psychotherapy of choice that I will continue to use, and if ever needs be, I will have my boys do.

Unintentionally after that panel, I walked around the Exhibition Hall for 2.5 hrs. Like I said, unintentionally, it was however worthwhile. I made a lot of great contacts and got lots of information for pet projects that I’m contemplating. One company, gave me information on creating boundless and sensory playgrounds, which is something within the next few years I really want to do. I spoke with the Director of Programs of ASA for quite some time and some of her pet projects would be incredible for the adult community. I really hope that the rest of the board will some day hear those ideas and pick them up. I will not go in depth for obvious reasons that they are not even on the playing field yet.

Many of the companies that publish books were there. I really wanted to approach one, but did not. So I listened. I was very happy to see Bittersweet Farms there. They gave me information as well. They are hoping to expand their style of adult care across the nation. I think this would be wonderful as it seems like the type of place that my oldest could really flourish. I will be speaking with some local people about that. If you happen to be in the Dallas area and would like to understand more, please contact me.

That evening, while at the Exhibit Hall Opening Reception, I kinda, sorta, bumped into (not physically) Lisa Jo Rudy who has just released a book Get Out, Explore, and Have Fun!: How Families of Children With Autism or Asperger Syndrome Can Get the Most Out of Community Activities. She had given a presentation during the morning hours that I was sitting with the other bloggers. While I had been so disappointed that I did not get to her panel, I was extremely happy to see her. We ended up talking until they closed the Exhibit Hall down. Her most helpful tip that I will definitely be using next summer, is to buy membership for the different museums. That way when someone is about to meltdown (adults or kids in our case, lol), you can leave and not feel you’ve spent a terrible amount of money for only 30-60 minutes. You will be able to go back and enjoy it again and again. Please check the book out. I know I will be!

That was the end of Day 2. And while it wasn’t filled with many panels, I was very happy with how the day progressed. I will be wrapping up my post for Day 3 within the next few days. I hope you all can learn a little bit more.

My good friend at the Dallas Morning News Mom Blog created a post today about a set of Special Needs catalogs. It got me thinking about all the catalogs I have found over the years. I haven’t posted a blog in quite some time and for that I apologize, but I hope this one will be helpful to some of you.

For those unaware, most Special Needs catalogs have whole sections of products for Sensory Integration. Everyone suffers somewhat from sensory issues, and most of us Spectrumites do quite a bit. I often dream of making a sensory ‘floor’ on a 2 or 3 story house. One for each member of the family attuned to their sensory needs.

To that end, I have decided to share my ‘stash’ of Sensory catalogs I have come across. All of them you can request catalogs from for free. There are some that will keep you on their mailing list and send you a catalog each new season. Each one you can get roughly the same products from, but each has it’s unique items you can’t find elsewhere. All links go to their Request Catalog page as they can sometimes be difficult to find, but keep in mind, most if not all have their catalogs available online as well. I just prefer copies I can take with me to write or put stickies in.

• School Specialty (formerly Abilitations and Integrations) gives various options depending on what you need. I get the Special Needs catalog as well as the Sensory, Learning & Behavior Solutions catalog. My favorite product, which is from their own line, we ordered from them is their Gel-E-Seat as it’s multipurpose. It serves as a weighted lap rest, a movement seat and a fidget. After two years, including a move across country, two very rough preschoolers, it still serves it’s purpose, though has lost some gel. I would still recommend if you have a sensory room. I found it calming as a fidget, my boys used it for it’s other two purposes.

• Southpaw Enterprises, similar to School Specialty creates it’s own line of products. We have yet to order anything from Southpaw, but that’s not saying a lot. We try to find things locally. However, I’m relatively confident that the wonderful therapy center we take the boys to uses their products.

• Therapro, Inc while I’m not aware of their own product line, I am impressed with the items they do have. It’s all well arranged and you can find things in their catalogs that I haven’t seen in any others. I very much recommend their catalogs.

• Flaghouse catalogs are the ones that Leigh was speaking about on her blog. I would recommend reading her blog for information. I have requested my catalogs from them and may update this post later.

• Fun and Function found me today on Facebook. I immediately looked at their digital catalog and found an item I want. They have several types of weighted clothing, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a weighted cap. Their multisensory section while it has some large dollar signs give great ideas on how to create a soft ambient room for calming.

What I typically do is keep these around and refer to them to teachers, therapists and other professionals. I’ve given old copies away to new therapists as they often don’t have their own collection yet. You can also pretty reasonably find gifts for friends and family in them as well. You obviously need to be attuned to their sensory issues, but they make very personal gifts. Of course, they are also great to refer to if someone doesn’t understand quite what to get for you as well (only kidding!).

A month ago we were celebrating the boys’ birthdays. Subsequently, we also had to plan for their yearly IEP meeting. All of those events went well and as planned. Since then though, I have noticed my 5 yr old (the youngest) has become much more impulsive. It’s really been building up. He already has sensory issues, his ASD diagnosis, but it’s becoming ever so clear he is definitely ADHD.

He has no patience. He used to be really good at waiting the 5 minutes for us to stop what we’re doing before attending to his needs. Now he has a hard time waiting more than 30 seconds.  If he doesn’t get what he wants, he lashes out then immediately apologizes. So he knows what he’s doing is wrong, but doesn’t seem to have that process time before he does the action.

So my choices are many. We’re going to implement a ‘Good choices, Bad choices’ system. For every good choice, he gets so many tickets which can be redeemed for things he wants. They use this in the floortime group we have him in and it works for them.  When he makes bad choices, he gets tickets taken away. So he can always do lots of small ‘good choices’ to gain tickets back for a bad choice he did. We need to get a new sensory diet in place as his sensory needs have changed. I really want to try everything before looking up psychiatrists and neurologists to take him to.  We are also thinking about ways to add caffeine to his diet in very small doses. He generally doesn’t like most things with chocolate, won’t drink any drinks that typically have caffeine, so it will be difficult to add it. We’re hoping to see some of his more nervous energy tempered a little. I just don’t want to give him any medication if we don’t have to.

What changes do you think would help? I’m at a loss of where the sensory issues begin and end, where the Autism issues begin and end, and where the ADHD issues begin and end. I can relate to my older son much better because he and I come inward when we get overloaded, but sadly, that is not the case for my younger son.

April is Autism Awareness Month

April in my household means 3 things. It’s the start of the Autism year. It holds both boys’ birthdays. It is the start of Spring. Although, depending on your family history, you may also see it as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, Stress Awareness Month, Alcohol Awareness Month and a host of others. Does anyone else find it odd that Autism Awareness shares a month with the three I’ve listed?

With the fear campaigns that go along with Autism, you’d think they picked it just for the three above. They try to show increase in child abuse in families with Autism because of a ‘lack of services’. They definitely say it’s more stressful to be a parent of an Autistic child. When you mix all of those together, surely you get an increase in Alcoholism.

But I digress.

April 2, 2010: Light It Up Blue

World Autism Awareness Day.Org

“They” will be starting tonight. Across the US, the Light It Up Blue campaign started by Autism Speaks in honor of their World Autism Awareness Day has encouraged major buildings to turn blue for Autism. I know AutSp’s puzzle piece is blue. They have also asked that people wear blue on Friday April 2, 2010 to show their support. To me, this just shows support of AutSp’s mission. I have made sure to tell everyone I know not to wear blue tomorrow.

Instead, a variety of suggestions have been tossed around for those of us that want to show our support to Autistic people (including ourselves). I have chosen to generally ask others to wear a Spectrum shirt, ie something with rainbow colors. I know rainbow usually signifies Gay culture, but it is also a spectrum that signifies the Autism Spectrum. Conversely, you can choose to Infinity Symbol (like above), the Autistic Pride Flame, the “I’m not a Puzzle” shirts, so on and so forth. The key idea is to stay away from puzzle pieces, puzzle ribbons and solid blue.

As this month goes forward, my goal is to attend as many of the Autism Awareness events I can. Make sure the ND presence is known off the internet. And of course, execute a well planned birthday party for my two Autistic kiddos and their non-Autistic classmates. Integration works!

Three things have happened in the Autism world. Parenthood started airing on NBC last week. Last night was the second episode. The episodes are also available to watch online if you’re like me and don’t want to admit you’ve watched it. One of the three families has a son that was diagnosed with Asperger’s in the first episode. A lot of parents of Asperger’s kids said they really identified with the parents. What became apparent was that Asperger’s children are still seen as not having acceptable ‘behaviors’ to stay in their placement. The boy was being kicked out of a private school in the same episode. Just another place where Asperger’s is not accepted and accommodated.

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Next up is the character known as Michael E Robinson, Jr. (link to original article) He is an acquaintance and all of his ‘facts’ are what he professes to be true. As you take a look at the article, the fact checking shows that most if not all his facts to be false. He has great zeal and passion about what he’s doing. The problem is, he has been alleged to have scammed money from parents, taking others work as his own, and tends to over-embellish his abilities. His numerous claims identifying him as an ally to the Neurodiversity community are false.

It does leave the question, why would he do such things?

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Lastly, Autism Speaks has nominated John Elder Robison to their Scientific Advisory Board. J.E. Robison is most famous for writing the memoir Look Me In The Eye: My Life with Asperger’s. On the surface, this looks promising. Autism Speaks is finally accepting a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder into their community.

But what looks good on the surface is not so widely accepted by the Neurodiversity community at large. Mr. Robison states in his acceptance:

Research into causes of autism is important, but I want to see more research aimed at remediation of specific components of autistic disability.

While he sees remediation as a goal, the troubling part is that he wants to still research in causation. The subject has been rehashed again and again. The only true reason to research causation is to find a cure. A cure many do not want for themselves.

To go on, this is just one appointment. The Scientific Advisory Committee has 30 members. He can make an impact in the committee. Perhaps another 5% of research grants will go to Quality of Life research. This does not help their Awareness campaigns that show Autistics to be trapped and hopeless. They do not preach Acceptance. If they did, more than just one Autistic person would have been nominated. They continue to take desperately needed donations out of the communities. What little they do for the Adult Autistic community is hold online “townhalls” that cost $100s to get into which circumvents most Autistic Adults attendance!

This is very displeasing to many. To try to work from within is a noble cause, Mr. John Elder Robison, but the naivety that just one man can change the whole of a community so rooted in fear, anger, deceit and hate could be damaging for us all.