Canadian researcher Michelle Dawson, who studies autism at the University of Montreal and is herself autistic, was recently interviewed regarding her efforts to improve ethical standards for autism-related science and advocacy. Her studies focus on cognitive science and neuroscience. She is an author of several papers published in professional journals. On the importance of accuracy in autism research, she says:
“The point is not for you to be right and for your side to be right; the point is to try to do the best you can to understand autism and to make it possible for autistics to have good outcomes. To do that you need accurate information.
“Accurate information is always good for autistic people. It might not be good for advocates, it might not be good for lawyers, it might not be good for lobby groups, it might not be good for various vested interests, it might not even be good for researchers, it might not be good for funding bodies, but it is always good for autistic people.”
Let’s hope more people will pay attention to these words of wisdom!
Comment by Dan Danforth — April 8, 2008 @ 1:13 pm
The point left by Michelle is that vested interests – including the interests of self-professing groups – may not be in the best interests of the group as a whole. Thus, the very people identified and funded to assist the group, have a survival need that skews the focus in favor of the needs of the funders not the group. Obfuscation becomes a political tool for survival and accurate information is tempered to meet survival goals.