This is exactly my reasoning.
FUCK Autism Speaks.
Unpopular opinion coming up.
There are many people with autism who cannot speak—literally. My younger sister, at ten years old, is among them. She’s the perfect victim for anyone who would want to abuse her because she can’t tell anyone if someone hurts her. She also has zero concept of danger and frequently puts herself in harm’s way without realizing it.
My sister is not the only autistic person who acts like that, I’m sure. That’s why I think that if a cure could be created, it should be available. However, forcing it on people? That’s obviously not right. I’m autistic myself, and I wouldn’t want a “cure.” But I certainly would want it for my sister, just so she can at least tell us, “I love you.” There is also genius in everyone, but how will we be able to know what that genius is if someone cannot even express themselves?
Bolding added. This pretty well illustrates the point of how frequently it’s assumed that the wants and needs of family members are more important than the wants and needs of autistic people.
There are many ways a nonverbal person can let you know that they care about you, and express themselves in general—if the people around the nonverbal person are placing value on nonverbal methods of communication, enough to learn to interpret it. Even among people who do speak, nonverbal communication is supposed to make up the majority of what they’re actually getting across.
This is not meant to be personal at all (none of these comments are, actually), but just fits into a theme that crops up a lot: what if the person starts speaking and doesn’t say they love their family members? What if their relatives don’t like what they do have to say verbally? It’s easy to develop odd expectations and project all kinds of things onto someone if you don’t think they’re communicating in meaningful ways already.
Another theme: the vulnerability to abuse one, which frequently verges on victim blaming. The huge problem there is not that a potential victim can’t tell other people about the abuse, but that we are living in a society where disabled people—and children in general—are seen as prey and frequently abused (including in treatment settings, as that page points out). Even when they can talk about it.
From another source:
Insisting that someone cannot communicate in any meaningful way is emotionally abusive, in itself. Organizations such as Autism Speaks are promoting abusive attitudes.
Again, none of these observations are meant to apply to anyone’s personal situation in particular.
Reblogged for duyukdv’s commentary. Also, when someone says “unpopular opinion,” most of the time they actually mean “quite popular and rather problematic opinion.” :|
For duyukdv’s comment, and itssciencefriction.
(via fyeahautismspectrum)
Source: aspergersissues
