They have a very outdated, paternalistic, rightwing view of autism. They mostly view it as a disease on the level of cancer that needs to be cured, versus the “neurodiversity” view that most autistic autism activists have, and they have almost no (openly) autistic people in leadership positions (in stark contrast to many other autism advocacy groups). Also held on to the “vaccines cause autism” myth for a long time.
My exposure to autistic people has been very limited.
Autism is a much larger spectrum than you might have been led to believe from popular media depiction and social stigma, and you probably have met a few people in your life who had some degree of autism but you thought “they seem normal?”
I do agree that it doesn’t necessarily come naturally to autists, but it seems to work fine for all the autist-led autism advocacy groups. Lots of autists have substantial skill in social masking, anyway - doing it around the clock is damaging to them, but it’s not like non-autistic leaders are always their fully authentic self in public, either. A good advocacy group enables, where possible, the participation of people who are directly affected.
As a prominent example for leaders of activist groups with autism, consider Greta Thunberg.
They have a very outdated, paternalistic, rightwing view of autism. They mostly view it as a disease on the level of cancer that needs to be cured, versus the “neurodiversity” view that most autistic autism activists have, and they have almost no (openly) autistic people in leadership positions (in stark contrast to many other autism advocacy groups). Also held on to the “vaccines cause autism” myth for a long time.
Genuine question: can an autistic person be a leader?
My exposure to autistic people has been very limited.
Autism is a much larger spectrum than you might have been led to believe from popular media depiction and social stigma, and you probably have met a few people in your life who had some degree of autism but you thought “they seem normal?”
I do agree that it doesn’t necessarily come naturally to autists, but it seems to work fine for all the autist-led autism advocacy groups. Lots of autists have substantial skill in social masking, anyway - doing it around the clock is damaging to them, but it’s not like non-autistic leaders are always their fully authentic self in public, either. A good advocacy group enables, where possible, the participation of people who are directly affected.
As a prominent example for leaders of activist groups with autism, consider Greta Thunberg.
Greta is pretty controversial, but thank you very much for the well elaborated answer!
Lots of people are controversial and most of them aren’t openly autistic … she certainly inspired and mobilized people.