Aspergian Pride

Alex Plank, one of the founders of the popular Wrong Planet web community, sought to fill the need for useful online resources for people on the autistic spectrum when the site was created in 2004. In addition to the Wrong Planet forum, which has a large number of regular visitors, the site also provides a collection of articles on various helpful topics and a blog focusing on autistic civil rights advocacy.

A student at George Mason University who majors in film and video, Alex often speaks and writes about neurodiversity and explains why he finds the concept of recovery from autism to be offensive. He was featured in a Chicago Tribune online article discussing why many autistics find the concept of cure objectionable.

Check out Alex’s hilarious April 1 blog post: Wrong Planet Acquires Autism Speaks.

After taking part in community service work while preparing for his bar mitzvah, Ari Schneider-Gans of Evesham, New Jersey, decided that he wanted to do more. He formed a group called The Spectrum of Helping Hands, whose members are all teenage boys on the autism spectrum. Since the group began in December 2006, its members have completed several community service projects.

The boys organized a fundraising walk around a lake to benefit the New Jersey Audubon Society, cleaned up the lake shore, sent packages to troops overseas and to hospice patients, and collected items for a food bank. Ari’s father, Rabbi Gary Gans of Congregation Beth Tikvah, said in an interview that he is very proud of Ari’s organizational skills and social responsibility.

Nine-year-old Jonathan Anderson’s mother was driving him to school, traveling at 70 mph on a busy highway, when she suddenly blacked out. Jonathan, who has an Asperger diagnosis, grabbed the steering wheel and managed to avoid colliding with other vehicles as he steered the car off the road. Although he could not reach the brake, the car eventually bumped into a tree and stopped. Jonathan and his mother were uninjured.

The Daily Mail reported that Jonathan’s bravery impressed the paramedics who treated his mother:

Paramedics Pete Holden and Ray MacFadden praised Jonathan’s quick thinking.

Mr Holden said: “We were incredibly impressed with Jonathan’s brave actions to save his mother’s life.

“It must have been a very frightening experience but his level head and quick thinking prevented a much more serious accident that could have been potentially life-threatening for both mother and son, as well as other road users.”

Jonathan is to receive a bravery certificate from the South Western Ambulance Service.

When Aspergian college student Heather Kuzmich auditioned for the America’s Next Top Model reality show, although she sometimes lacked confidence in her ability to succeed, she persevered because she saw her appearance on the show as an opportunity to demonstrate that she wouldn’t let herself be limited by stereotypes and arbitrary barriers. As Heather told reporters afterward:

“I was hoping to be a role model to girls who really weren’t told they were beautiful at first and do have a little bit more problems than the girls who do have confidence and really do want to do modeling.”

While on the show, Heather received a great deal of public attention and became a fan favorite. She was praised for taking some of the best photos, and she hopes to have more opportunities in modeling. She now feels more confident about herself and believes that she succeeded in inspiring others to pursue their goals, as well.

Self-advocate Ari Ne’eman, who is studying political science and economics at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County as a Sondheim Scholar of Public Affairs, has put together an impressive list of accomplishments in the political realm even before receiving his university degree. He is the founder and president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit organization that works to improve society’s perception of autistic citizens while also providing social and support services for adults and youth on the autism spectrum.

Ari serves as the Policy Workgroup Leader for the Youth Advisory Council to the National Council on Disability and as the Public Policy Chair for the New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the New Jersey Olmstead Implementation and Planning Advisory Council (a policy group that deals with de-institutionalization issues).

Recently, Ari has taken the lead in coordinating an effort by numerous disability rights organizations to urge New York University’s Child Study Center to withdraw an offensive advertising campaign entitled “Ransom Notes,” which stigmatizes autistic children and others with disabilities by portraying them as hopeless and tragic kidnap victims. (To find out how you can help stop these ads by writing to the people responsible for them and by signing a petition, please take a look at Ari’s joint letter, which I posted on Aspergian Pride’s forum.)

Update, December 19, 2007: The offensive ads have been withdrawn, chiefly in response to Ari’s efforts to unite the disability community in demanding their removal. Thanks Ari for your great work!

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!

Leland Coats, a high school student in Charleston, West Virginia, recently received a community service award for rescuing his relatives from a house fire. While staying overnight with his cousin’s family, he smelled smoke. Everyone in the house was still sleeping, and he woke them up and got them safely outside.

Leland, who did not talk until he was nine years old, attends an autism program at Capital High School. He enjoys playing musical instruments and computer games. After he graduates from high school in May 2008, he would like to work as a caregiver or in some other career that involves helping people.

Although he feels embarrassed by all the praise he has received, his mother says that he deserves it and that he has made her very proud.

This year’s United Way fundraising campaign in Greater St. Louis features Tyrin Rencher as a spokesman for autism services and awareness. Refreshingly, the campaign has a positive tone, with the tagline “Autism is a trait, not a debilitation,” and it stresses that Tyrin, who is a junior at the University of Missouri St. Louis and is studying business administration, leads an independent and rewarding life.

Tyrin credits his participation in United Way’s autism services programs, including his work at a restaurant operated by the Illinois Center for Autism that provides vocational training and employment opportunities, with helping him to gain skills and confidence. When he gets his degree, he plans to open his own restaurant.

When his teacher, Madonna Kenser, had a severe asthma attack during class and collapsed, nine-year-old Brendon Garman knew what to do. He immediately found her inhaler and gave it to her. If he had not done so, Ms. Kenser’s doctor told her, there was a chance she would have died.

Brendon said that he knew what to do from watching a movie. Holly Brantley, a journalist who reported on this story, wrote that “Kenser and Brendon’s mother hope others will see autistic kids, like Brendon, are full of potential and capable of incredible things like saving a life.”

Indeed, many of us share that hope!

Bev Harp, who blogs at Asperger Square 8, got involved in online autistic civil rights advocacy in March, and she already has had a great deal of impact in changing the way people think about neurological differences.

Some of Bev’s posts are written in a dialogue style, as if she were having a conversation with an acquaintance and explaining why she speaks and behaves in certain ways. Her matter-of-fact explanations, written in basic terms to which most people can relate, go a long way toward demystifying autistic traits.

In addition, she is an outstanding graphic artist, has a great sense of humor, and often illustrates her posts with wickedly funny cartoons that show the absurdity of today’s prejudices against the autistic minority population. One of her cartoons was featured in an article in Slate Magazine not long ago.

Bev did not know anything about autism until she was an adult, and she writes frankly about her past self-image as a misfit and her struggles with depression and alcoholism. She chose to identify herself as an Aspie, she says, because she wants to see “a time when I don’t need to ‘take pride’ in who I am, because there is no stigma attached to begin with.”

Discovering her Aspergian identity motivated Bev to go back to school and enroll in a social work program, which she will complete in December. She plans to go on to graduate school and to study the needs of the autistic population, promoting fair and objective thinking from an autistic viewpoint. Best wishes for your new career, Bev!