This is Autism Flash Blog..

This is going on today! Please go on over and check it out.  If you have something to contribute-please do.  There are many voices that need to be heard.

"This is Autism" Flashblog

Last Monday, Autism Speaks told the world that autism is:

 . . . living in despair

 . . . fear of the future

 . . .exhausted, broken parents

. . . lost, helpless, burdensome children

. . .  a national emergency

If that's not what autism is to you, join us on Monday November 18th for the "This is Autism" flashblog.

What is it?

A flashblog is a day when a group of people share their thoughts about a single topic. You can post something on your own blog and let us know about it or you can submit your contribution here and we'll post it for you. Then we'll share everyone's posts throughout the day on Monday, here and across the web using Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to get the word out.

What Should I Submit?

Tell us what "This is Autism" means to you. You can write a paragraph or a blog post, contribute a poem or a video, make a comic or a graphic. Use your imagination. Let's tell the world what autism is in the words and works of autistic people and those who love and support them. 

Who Can Participate?

Everyone! The flashblog is open to autistic individuals as well as parents, family members and allies of autistic people. 

Great! I'm in! How Do I Submit?

Submit your contribution by addding it to the Google Document or emailing it to thisisautismblog@gmail.com.

What you should include in your submission:

• A link to your contribution or the full text of your post. If you send a link, let us know if we should: link to it, reprint it with a link, or link it with a short quote. We will embed videos, comics and other graphics unless you tell us not to. 
• How you want to be credited.

Please be patient, we will be scheduling posts all day on Monday, November 18th until every submission has been posted.

Thank you for making the "This is Autism" flashblog a success!

** Special thanks to Alyssa at Because Patterns for the Tumblr/Twitter avatar. 

Excerpt from Lydia Brown.

A must read by Lydia Brown. On April 18, 2012, I wrote about a statement I pushed for Autism Speaks to issue denouncing the center. To read that they are now de facto endorsing the center, in addition to Suzanne Wright's "call to action," is disgraceful and completely unacceptable. What happens at the center in the name of treatment is nothing less than torture. And to call autistic individuals MISSING is an abomination. --Kim Wombles.

An Unholy Alliance: Autism Speaks and the Judge Rotenberg Center

Trigger warning/content: Ableism, violence, murder, torture, abuse of disabled people, electric shock, aversives. 

An Unholy Alliance:

Autism Speaks and the Judge Rotenberg Center

Lydia Brown

Autistic and disabled activists, as well as our allies, have for years criticized Autism Speaks' long history of dehumanizing rhetoric about autistic people, irresponsible financial practices, and unconscionable claim to represent autistic people without including any autistic people in their leadership — in direct contradiction to the principles of the disability rights movement. I have written numerous times on the myriad of reasons why autistic people, writ large, not only decline to support Autism Speaks but also actively condemn their goals and practices. 

Given Autism Speaks' history of damaging PSAs that exploit autistic people and our families, as well as their continual refusal to meaningfully include autistic people throughout their leadership and decision-making process, I am rarely shocked when new information arises about their projects and programs. I was not shocked at their latest PSA, an over twenty-minute-long mini documentary ostensibly about non-speaking autistic people who type to communicate, but which in reality faced sharp criticism from high-profile non-speaking autistic Amy Sequenzia, who types herself. I was not shocked at their announcement of a policy summit in Washington DC this week that will in all likelihood ignore the concerns of real autistic people about education, employment, housing, healthcare, or community living. I was not shocked (though I was deeply saddened) to read founder Suzanne Wright's message yesterday in advance of that policy summit, which once again resorted to fear-mongering language like epidemic and national health crisis, to objectify autistic people as burdens on their families or tragedies for society.

But I was shocked and profoundly disturbed by the revelation that at Autism Speaks' Walk Now for Autism in Washington DC, the city where I live, they chose to host and feature the Judge Rotenberg Center as one of their exhibitors at a resource fair.

Let me reiterate that one more time in case the prior sentence was not sufficient to jar your conscience:

Autism Speaks featured the Judge Rotenberg Center as a resource for autistic people and their families.