Autism Street

Do yourself a huge favor, and invest the 22 minutes to watch and listen to this

Ted Talk by Aimee Mullins

about facing adversity. Carefully consider her message, and the potential impact of adaptation - you might just gain new perspective on “disability” along the way too.

My favorite quotes from the talk:

“We have to make sure that we don’t put the first brick in a wall that will acutally disable someone. Perhaps the existing model of only looking at what is broken in you and how do we fix it, serves to be more disabling to the individual than the pathology itself.”

“I think the greatest adversity that we’ve created for ourselves is this idea of normalcy. Who’s normal? There is no normal. There’s common. There’s typical.”

What were yours?

There’s an interesting discussion going on.

By now, many are aware of the proposed changes the DSM for autism that will subsume Asperger’s and PDD-NOS.

Some have expressed the view that this is a good thing, yet others seem to feign agreement while also expressing some degree of contempt.

Amidst the apparent concerns of a few, there are voices focused on the ethical and human rights implications of opposing the DSM changes. Particularly, please read Angry Aspies, Please Go Away by Bev over at Square 8.

On a side note: I know Bev to be a person who diligently promotes acceptance and human rights for all autistic people, and she’s apparently an early adopter of the pending new definition - she’s already changed the title of her blog and description of its purpose (it used to be Asperger Square 8).

If you’re interested in a little more background, check out Conversations by ABFH over at Whose Planet Is It Anyway?.

In addition to Bev and ABFH’s places, more discussion can be found over at Left Brain Right Brain, where Bev’s post also caught Kev’s eye. While I was perusing the comments at LBRB, this comment from Daedalus2u stood out. It’s empathetic at first and thoughtful throughout, but if you ask me, it succinctly points out what is right in this whole thing as a conclusion.

Read more…

Liz over at I Speak Of Dreams is keeping a list of several blog responses.

Visit the following link for more:

tinyurl.com/yz3vpor

I’d written long ago about my take on the Queen song, “Under Pressure“. I still love that song, and crank it up when I hear it. To me, it communicates the weight of acceptance in society for many.

I ran across this video  from the guys at Tranquil sometime last year while surfing the web. Sure, it’s a rough take (and admittedly so by them) in spots, but I love the song (and their cover), and I dig the basement collaboration.

If you have a favorite song about acceptance, please mention it in the comments.

The James Randi Educational Foundation’s TAM7 meeting took place in Las Vegas last week. This year’s meeting included a panel discussion entitled, “Anti Anti-Vaccination”. As scienceblogger, and panelist Orac notes in a recent post about “Enablers of the vaccine-autism manufactroversy“:

One of the issues that came up over which there was somewhat of a disagreement is exactly how to deal with prominent antivaccine activists, people such as Jenny McCarthy. The majority opinion seemed to be that being too blunt or hurling insults is ineffectual if we want to change their minds.

Another point to consider

While hurling insults probably is ineffectual, there is an important point underlying something that was brought up.

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At the end of this past week, I was fortunate to be invited back to the USD Summer Austism Institue to participate in a presentation with other Autism-Hub bloggers. The most memorable couple of hours for me, without a doubt, were the ones spent at dinner on San Diego Harbor with fellow bloggers Steve D (One Dad’s Opinion) and Bev (Asperger Square 8).

At USD, and with some updated content, we were given the opportunity to talk about the Autism-Hub. Steve D provided some background about the hub and blogging in general, as well as opening with some excellent selected pieces (my humble opinion of course):

Read more…

More information on USD’s 2009 Summer Autism Institute available here.