: Re: Infantilizing Autism - it's not looking good for adults with AS

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

has added this article to the ASPIRES website.

You had also mentioned that you intended to write letters to autism

organizations in regards to the imbalance in the representation of autistic

adults versus children, in autism awareness and fundraising advertising. How is

that going?

I equate this imbalance in both the advertising and services provided for those

with adult autism, with the " cancer industry, " which draws in big dollars for

research, and their fundraing ads that portray child cancer survivors. However,

though this does not get much media attention, adult cancer survivors, though

" cured, " often have a changed quality of life, and discover rehabilitation and

support services for daily living are very limited.

Similar to cancer, we do need more research to find out why autism is so severe

in some. However, the needs of autistic adults, who require diagnostic or

vocational rehabilitation services have to be met, too. Autistic children become

autistic adults. They don't just vanish when they reach the age of majority.

We hope that things are going well in your own support community. I recall that

funding was being reduced or cut from local support services for children and

adults. Are you able to give us an update on that yet?

, you are one of the " bright lights " in " our " community, I still talk about

your radio show with , you represented us all so well.

- Helen

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> Hi all..

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> Yesterday during the Greater Chattanooga Aspies Advisory Board meeting, an

article was passed to me. The article, entitled " Infantilizing Autism, " was a

research study done about the face of autism (in general). Ninety-five percent

(95%) of the time, a face of a child was on the homepages of regional and

national local support organizations. Characters depicted as autistic were

children 90% of the time in fictional books, and 68% of the time in narrative

films and television programs.

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> The link to this most interesting article can be found at

http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/1675/1596.

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> I bring this article up, because it goes to show the lack of attention about

adults who are on the autism spectrum, AS or otherwise. That is one of the

reasons I created the GCA Advisory Board in the first place - so that the

Chattanooga community will become more educated as the ever increasing number of

adults who become diagnosed with any form of autism in my local area (as well as

elsewhere around the world). I don't know if organizations just have this

simple notion about children and totally forget that adults exist or something.

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