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Today, Autism Speaks Listened to Me for the First Time

Submitted by Landon Bryce on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 13:10
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It's been quite a birthday in Autismland for me.  Today, for the first time, someone from Autism Speaks actually listened to me.  I had a lengthy talk with Kathy Streng, who is the Southeast Regional Director of Something That Is Not Exactly Clear to Me.  And she was very nice, and very interested in listening.

And that has never happened before.

So thank you, Kathy.

And thank you, Jennifer.

Also thanks to the Autism Science Foundation, who let through my question today to Dr. Peter Gerhardt, another thing that has never happened before:

Does it concern you that autistic people are usually left out of organizations that study us and claim to help us? Any ideas about what could be done to improve that situation?

Peter Gerhardt: It does bother me and it should be a focus of advocacy on behalf of the ASD community. I think OAR can do more in that direction as well as any number of other organizations. I am glad, however, that Ari is now on the IACC as that is the source of much funding.