FAAAS, Karen Rodman, and the Autistic/Asperger Meltdown Stereotype

Many of us think that we have no problem recognizing ignorant, prejudiced stereotypes when we see them. I discussed a particularly egregious example when I wrote a post last week about a newspaper article that claimed, without any factual basis whatsoever, that autistic individuals were prone to sudden fits of rage. The article even went as far as to quote Karen Rodman of the Massachusetts hate group FAAAS, who advocates exclusion of autistic children from the public schools, for the proposition that an autistic adult would be likely to explode in sudden rage if "you gave them the wrong sandwich."

As I also mentioned in my post last week, this stereotype has been conclusively debunked in the scientific literature. Statistical analysis has shown that autistics are no more likely to commit violent acts or violent crimes than their non-autistic counterparts (Murrie, Warren, Kristiansson, & Dietz, 2002; Barry-Walsh & Mullen, 2004). Let me say that once more, just to make sure there's no one who has missed the point.

Fact: Autistic people are no more violent than anyone else.

So why haven't we been able to bury this ugly stereotype? Is it because the haters are too strong and have the power to spread it everywhere, no matter what we do? Well, no, that's not really what is going on. To find the primary culprit, the autistic community needs to take a good hard look in the mirror.

All too often, when we get upset because we can't do something that a non-autistic person would take in stride, or when an autistic child gets upset for reasons that the parents may not understand, these behaviors end up being characterized as a "meltdown" or as an "autistic meltdown." Many people within our own community take it as gospel that it is a uniquely autistic trait to lose one's temper in everyday situations. Some of us even write blog and forum posts that describe anger issues as an "Asperger symptom" from which we suffer, or similar language.

And that's just plain wrong. To become upset and frustrated when struggling with difficult situations is not a uniquely autistic trait. Rather, it is a characteristic of the human species as a whole. Such behaviors happen just as often in the non-autistic population, but because the triggering events often are different, our society does not look at them in the same light.

Here's a brief scenario to illustrate the point: Let's say a mother takes her two young children, one of whom is autistic, with her when she does the grocery shopping. The autistic child starts crying because he is overwhelmed by the bright lights and the busy, crowded, noisy environment. The mom grabs a few groceries and hurries to the checkout. Then the non-autistic child starts whining and crying because the mom wouldn't buy her a toy. The mom pays for the groceries and angrily marches the kids out to the minivan. When she gets home, she's still fuming, and after sending the kids to their rooms to take a nap, she goes to an Internet support forum and vents about her son's "autistic meltdown" for the next half-hour or so.

All three people in this scenario lost their temper because they had trouble handling a stressful situation. The autistic kid hadn't yet developed the coping skills needed to deal with the sensory difficulties of the supermarket; his sister didn't know how to manage her frustration when she was not given the toy she wanted; and the mom got upset because of the noise the children were making and, perhaps, because of the embarrassment of being in a public place with two noisy children. But only the autistic kid was described as having a "meltdown."

Instead of using such negative and inaccurate language to describe our own behaviors and those of our children—which has the effect of stereotyping ourselves and giving the haters the rope to hang us with—we should take a proactive and non-stigmatizing approach and recognize that these problems are situational, rather than specifically autistic. When stress becomes a problem, we should consider what changes to our environment would help to reduce our stress. And—last but not least—from now on, let's reserve the word "meltdown" for circumstances where its use is more appropriate.

Such as, for instance, Chernobyl.

John McCain on Disability: You Cost Too Much

The panelists at the National Forum on Disability Issues had a discussion about how to improve disability services when there are so many competing budget priorities. (A video of the event can be found here.) Enabling people with disabilities to work and contribute to society should be regarded as a long-term investment that would reduce public costs and increase tax revenues over the years, they said. Another point raised during this discussion was that the cost of services would not be used as an argument for excluding other groups of people from full participation in their communities.

Later in the program, Senator John McCain took the opposite view when answering a question from moderator Judy Woodruff about the Community Choice Act, which would provide supports and services to allow Medicaid recipients with disabilities to live and work in their communities. Senator McCain said that he does not support the Community Choice Act because he thinks it would cost too much.

In my view, it's totally illogical to argue that keeping people in nursing homes and institutions for a lifetime is somehow cheaper than it would be to provide the services needed to turn them into productive taxpayers, earning wages and contributing to the economy. But, at the same time, I have to disagree with the claim put forth during the panel discussion that similar arguments would not be made to exclude other minority groups.

We don't have to go back very far in history to see that those in positions of power and privilege have repeatedly complained about the cost of extending equal rights to other groups. Opponents of school desegregation claimed that it was too expensive to build new integrated schools to replace the run-down, rat-infested structures where black students previously had been sent. Employers objected to the cost of keeping jobs open for women on maternity leave. When women first entered universities and workplaces that had been exclusively male, there were some men who complained about the cost of building women's lavatories. Those who didn't want to see a menorah next to a crèche in municipal holiday displays said that it was an unnecessary expense. And if we go back a bit farther, a common argument made in favor of slavery was that it would be prohibitively expensive to free the slaves and pay wages to them. In short, the argument that we can't afford to integrate various groups into full community participation has been made throughout American history by scoundrels and bigots.

Now, I don't mean to imply that Senator McCain is prejudiced against people with disabilities. His grasp of economic issues is poor, as he has himself admitted, and it's possible that he may genuinely believe that it is cheaper to keep people in institutions than to enable them to live in the community and earn wages. However, it is an unfortunate fact that Senator McCain is not in good historical company in making that argument.

Michael Savage in Deep Doo-Doo

A lot of people have been wondering what the heck Michael Savage was thinking last week when he said, among other offensive remarks, that autistic children were really just brats who needed more discipline. I'm inclined to believe that the potential consequences of his rant never even crossed his mind. If he thought about it at all, he probably figured that—given the extent of the ugly, dehumanizing language so often used to describe autistic children in recent years—there would be no consequences whatsoever.

After all, "combating autism" is now an official policy of the United States government; some of our politicians and autism charities have given the impression that they're competing to see how many times in the same speech they can revile autistics as a devastating burden to society; and people calling themselves autism advocates have used language such as train wreck, tsunami, empty shell, etc., to describe autistic children for the past several years with apparent impunity. Michael Savage probably thought the language he used was comparatively mild.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Land of Easy Laughs. Instead of shrugging off Savage's remarks as just more of the usual melodramatic language often used about autism, millions of people reacted with disgust and outrage. Disability rights groups, autistic self-advocates, and parent groups joined together to denounce Savage's bigotry and to call upon his sponsors to pull their ads from his show. Advertisers and radio stations are now abandoning his show in droves, and Savage's career is in serious jeopardy. (To put a few more nails in his coffin, visit the Autistic Self Advocacy Network for a list of advertisers to contact.)

What happened here? How did an ignorant rant about autism on a talk show that regularly features plenty of ignorant rants suddenly snowball into a career-destroying controversy? I suspect it has to do with the fact that, unlike previous insulting statements from politicians and charitable groups, Savage's rant clearly was intended as nothing but entertainment. Parents who cringed at the language used in fundraising campaigns might have been willing to ignore their qualms about it, reasoning that it was at least intended to raise money for services that their child needed. However, they were not at all willing to give a free pass to a hate-spewing shock jock.

I hope that this incident, whether or not Michael Savage ends up getting fired, will prompt more critical reflection by people who might have been inclined to overlook insulting language in the past. Politicians and fundraising campaigns do not need to demean autistic children in order to accomplish the goal of providing services. It's time for advocacy that focuses on our kids' potential contributions to society, rather than on devastation rhetoric.

Vancouver Sun Prints Bigoted Article on Adult Autism

Although a Sunday article in the Vancouver Sun entitled "Researchers pulling back the veil on adult autism" contained a large number of offensive stereotypes and generalizations, actual cites to research were conspicuously lacking.

The author gave as an example of an autistic person an "office clerk who beat up a woman on his way to the bus stop one morning for the simple reason she was in his way." She further stated that "their social skills are disastrous" and suggested that autistic adults often receive a diagnosis after "they're reprimanded at work for making an inappropriate comment, or charged with harassing or stalking."


canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=ea98c743-7305-439e-9ae8-3d32c3224f92


Karen Rodman, founder of FAAAS, was quoted as an authoritative source for such pronouncements as "There's no rhyme or reason (to an autistic person's behavior)." Here's a little background on FAAAS: The acronym originally stood for Families of Adults Afflicted by Asperger's Syndrome, but the second "a" was later changed to "affected" as a bid to improve the group's public image when FAAAS was booted out of the International Asperger's Year event because of its reputation as a hate group. Its membership is composed largely of spiteful ex-wives involved in bitter custody disputes with autistic men, and it has a long history of inventing imaginary psychological syndromes and throwing around nasty and groundless stereotypes.

Several autistic self-advocates wrote to Patricia Graham, the Sun's editor-in-chief, to express our concerns about the article. She replied that she did not believe there was anything wrong with it but that she would consider a correction if specific inaccuracies were pointed out.

So we provided some data. We cited the US statistic that only 4.5 people per year assert autism as a defense in a violent crime case, out of almost 1.5 million violent crimes per year (source: Autism Society of America). We pointed out that research studies have proven that autistics are no more likely than non-autistics to commit violent acts or violent crimes (Murrie, Warren, Kristiansson, & Dietz, 2002; Barry-Walsh & Mullen, 2004).

Unfortunately, we got no reply to that, and no retraction or correction was printed. I suspect that when Ms. Graham told us that she would consider a correction, what she really meant was "I'll consider it if I get some complaints from normal people, but I don't give a rat's patootie about anything you freaks have to say." Or something along those lines.

We need united action to make it crystal clear to Ms. Graham that prejudiced articles of this sort are totally unacceptable. Letters and calls from parents, professionals, and other allies are needed, as well as letters from autistic self-advocates. Also, if you have the time, please write blog and/or forum posts about the article and copy Ms. Graham's contact information, listed below:


Patricia Graham, Editor in Chief, Vancouver Sun
Address: #1 - 200 Granville Street, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3, Canada
Phone: 604-605-2318
Fax: 604-605-2668
E-mail: pgraham@png.canwest.com


In the wake of the Michael Savage controversy, there's a reasonable likelihood that Ms. Graham may be amenable to issuing a correction/retraction and a public apology if we can put enough pressure on her. Bigoted statements about autistic people can have real consequences in the form of lost advertisers, as Mr. Savage has discovered.

Adi the Caped Crusader

Today's featured autistic superhero (just in time for the new Batman movie) is a woman known as Adi, who fights for truth and justice and accurate representation of autistic people in South Africa's Western Cape region.

She recently blogged about a controversial fundraising event held by a charitable organization, Autism Western Cape (AWC), which runs a small school for autistic children and two group homes for autistic adults. The fundraiser was a Jail4Bail event in which AWC executive director Gerhard Pieterse sought donations by occupying a mock jail cell in a shopping center until the "bail" amount was raised. Although the event had the well-intentioned goal of funding services for autistic people, the advertising created negative and misleading images of autism. A photo of a young child behind bars was originally used in promotional materials, thereby suggesting that autism was like a prison for children. After complaints from Adi and others, a picture of Gerhard Pieterse was substituted.

As Adi points out, although the photo was changed and the event is over, the underlying problem of lack of meaningful involvement of autistic self-advocates in making decisions that affect the lives of autistic people in the Western Cape still remains. When autistics (and people with disabilities generally) are not consulted and do not have any authority in the process of making significant decisions, the inevitable result is misinformation and inadequate understanding, no matter how well-intentioned charitable groups and others may be.

Consequently, Adi seeks to organize self-advocates to speak out on issues of concern to the autistic community and to ensure that their views will be heard in the future. A properly conducted fundraising campaign, she says, should be designed to "better the life of autistic people and… ensure that the lasting image of autism left in its participants' minds furthers the acceptance and inclusion of autistic people in society."

Better Than It

Back when women first started to attend universities, the fortunate few who got admitted were often praised for overcoming the mental frailties of their gender and for learning how to think like a man. Everything that a successful woman accomplished was inevitably contrasted against the presumed intellectual inferiority of her gender. Charlotte Whitton, the first woman mayor of Ottawa, Canada, described the struggle of these female pioneers as follows: "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good."

I was reminded of this unfortunate history while reading a San Francisco Chronicle article that spewed the usual high and low functioning autism stereotypes and quoted ignorant pronouncements from Bryna Siegel about social deficits. I never post active links to this sort of bigoted crud, but here's a partial URL for those who don't mind copying and pasting:


sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/07/13/BAJC11J9AU.DTL


The author interviewed an autistic university student named Andrew Van Etten and praised his ability to socialize and make friends, which he attributed to his frequent participation in clubs and activities:


"They are ways to show myself that I can be beyond this diagnosis," he said. "I can choose a life path that says I've defeated it. Or I'm better than it."


One might wonder what Andrew Van Etten was thinking when he said this, but I can make a pretty good guess. He probably grew up hearing that autism made a person inferior, mentally deficient, a burden to society, and so forth. Most likely, he internalized that view and learned to despise his own kind, like so many people before him who belonged to the "wrong" race or gender or religion and who thought they could never succeed in life without first denying what they were.

It was an ugly heap of prejudiced garbage when other groups of people had to contend with it, and it's an ugly heap of prejudiced garbage now. And yes, Andrew, you are better than it—better than the stereotypes of inferiority that have come to be associated with an autism diagnosis. So are all the other 50 or 60 million autistic people on the planet. I hope that one day you'll learn to see your experiences in historical perspective and to understand that you are not so different, after all.

Florida Advocates, Make Yourselves Heard

After the autism blogging community made the world aware of the mistreatment of a young autistic boy, Alex Barton, in a Florida school in May, more parents in the state came forward and spoke about their own concerns regarding their children's education. The office of the Florida Attorney General has now taken notice. As reported by the Port Saint Lucie News, the Attorney General's office has launched a statewide investigation into the treatment of autistic students in Florida schools and has established a citizen services hotline to take comments at (866) 966-7226. (Thanks to jypsy for the link.)

Dennis Debbaudt, a resident of Port Saint Lucie who is an expert presenter of training seminars about autism to police and first response professionals, has issued the following statement urging advocates in the autistic community to respond to the Attorney General's call for comments:


As autism advocates, it's not every day that opportunity comes knocking. Especially when it comes in the wake of, to put it mildly, an unfortunate situation such as Alex Barton's.

But what an opportunity.

Our stories need to be heard and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum wants to—needs to—hear them.

Bill McCollum's office has set up a toll free number to do just that: (866) 966-7226. His office is also organizing a day to hear from us in person.

While it may be difficult to travel to attend a hearing, writing a letter or putting your story on videotape may be an option for some of us. Others yet may need the assistance of an interpreter. Please take the time and effort necessary to get your story to the attention of the Attorney General.

Write the letter. Ask for help to translate your story. Ask your friend with a video camera to record your comments. Best of all, plan on attending the live event to share your story.

However the medium we choose, now is the time to be heard by the chief law enforcement officer in the state.


Many thanks to Dennis Debbaudt for getting the word out! Although the Attorney General's call for comments refers specifically to parents, if you are an autistic self-advocate who attended or is currently attending Florida schools, I encourage you to contact the Attorney General's office with your story. Public officials need to know that we can—and do—speak for ourselves.

The Squeaky Wheel

The way that the presidential candidates decide where to make their campaign appearances is interesting. They don't have the time to visit all of the places they're invited, so their campaign staffers decide which events have the potential to generate the most votes, based in part on the level of enthusiasm shown by those who want the candidates to attend. When a candidate's campaign headquarters gets a lot of phone calls, e-mails, etc., in support of a particular event, the candidate is much more likely to show up there.

Now that I'm back to a regular work week after the Independence Day holiday, I've been fantasizing about what it would be like if a major labor shortage occurred and the corporations were forced to woo potential employees in much the same way, rather than having the luxury of discriminating against anyone who doesn't fit their fossilized norms.


Imaginary Employer: Please, pretty please, come and work for our company! We're so very thrilled that you are considering us! You can leave early every Friday, and it's just fine with us if you take blogging breaks during the workday. Just let us know if there are any accommodations you would like; we don't care if you have a diagnosis or not, because we want all of our employees to be as comfortable and productive as they can be.


Yeah, okay, it's a fantasy. But maybe we'll get there in 50 years or so, after all of the developing countries are fully industrialized, birthrates fall drastically all over the world, and the corporations discover that there are no more desperate peasants grateful for the chance to work for pennies.

In the meanwhile, there's a presidential campaign event that can help to raise the candidates' awareness of what it's really like for many workers with disabilities in today's abysmal economy. The National Forum on Disability Issues, which is sponsored in part by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and The Autism Acceptance Project, is scheduled to take place in Columbus, Ohio, on July 26, 2008. To make sure that the candidates show up, we need to contact their campaigns and make sure they understand the importance of addressing disability issues. Here is the contact information:

Sen. Barack Obama
Obama for America
P.O. Box 8102
Chicago, IL 60680
Call: (866) 675-2008
Fax: (312) 819-2089
Email: Alyssa Mastromonaco, amastro@barackobama.com (Chief Scheduler); Heather Higginbottom, hhigginbottom@barackobama.com (Policy Director); David Plouffe, dplouffe@barackobama.com (Campaign Manager)

Sen. John McCain
John McCain 2008
P.O. Box 16118
Arlington, VA 22215
Call: (703) 418-2008
Faxes: (703) 752-2515, (703) 413-0740
Email: Steve Schmidt, sschmidt@mccain08hq.com (day-to-day operations); Carla Eudy, ceudy@mccain08hq.com (National Scheduler); Doug Holtz-Eakin, dholtz-eakin@mccain08hq.com (Deputy Policy Director); Donna Jones, djones@mccain08hq.com (National Coordinator, Americans with Disabilities for McCain Coalition)

For those who are planning to attend other campaign events in the next two weeks, holding up signs about the disability forum at those other events also would help to get some attention.

Also, Sen. McCain's campaign needs to be contacted regarding the Community Choice Act, which will give states much more flexibility in providing community services to Medicaid recipients who might otherwise have no options but institutional care. At present, Sen. McCain opposes the Community Choice Act, and he needs to be made aware of the error of his ways.

Sen. Obama is a co-sponsor of the Community Choice Act and has spoken about its importance to the civil rights of people with disabilities.

Edit, July 10: Those who write to Sen. McCain regarding the Community Choice Act should do so SEPARATELY from any communications about the disability forum, as we would not want to give him the impression that it would be an unfriendly forum.

Workplace Bullying Costs Employer

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced the settlement of a disability discrimination and retaliation suit that it had brought against London Manhattan Corp., a meat distributor. The suit was brought on behalf of an autistic employee who was repeatedly bullied by his coworkers and was fired when he complained to management about a hostile work environment.


The harassment included tying the employee with masking tape, putting gel in his hair, littering his work area with pornographic pictures and wrapping his legs with plastic with a meat-wrapping machine…

The lawsuit was resolved by a consent decree signed by Judge Laura Taylor Swain on June 16, 2008 in New York. In addition to paying the victim $70,000, London Manhattan must also take substantial steps to prevent future workplace harassment. The company is required to: post and maintain EEOC remedial notices and posters; provide training to all employees regarding federal laws prohibiting discrimination; and adopt and maintain an antidiscrimination policy and complaint procedure. London Manhattan is also enjoined from discriminating against any individual on the basis of his or her disability and from retaliating against anyone who participated in the EEOC's investigation or litigation of this case.

"Employees with a disability have a legal right to work in an environment that is free from harassment and abuse," said EEOC New York District Director Spencer H. Lewis, Jr.


Although the United States' antidiscrimination laws often do not go far enough in protecting autistic workers from employment discrimination, workplace bullying is one situation where there's a reasonable chance of an employer being held liable for failing to prevent the harassment. With a few more lawsuits like this, maybe employers will start getting the message that tormenting the "nerd" isn't funny or a game—rather, it's illegal discrimination and can result in legal liability and negative press coverage for the company.

Here's a big YAY to the EEOC for recognizing that workplace bullying is a serious problem and for kicking some prejudiced employer butt!