<p>Hello, fellow CCers! </p>
<p>Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday! :)</p>
<p>So, I became interested in this organization called Autism Speaks, and I would like to start an initiative at my school. Is anyone familiar with starting an Autism Awareness Student Club through Autism Speaks? I'm quite lost, and I'm a freshie :) I just wanted some insight from fellow CCers. </p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>
<p>It doesn’t necessarily need to be through the Autism Speaks Organization. :)</p>
<p>Autism Speaks is not the type of organization you want to support autism through. In fact a lot of members of the autistic community have held protests against autism speaks and what they stand for.</p>
<p>^Indeed, as someone diagnosed with high functioning autism, I think Autism Speaks promotes a view of the condition that inhibits the potential of autistic individuals.</p>
<p>I feel that my autism is more of a “difference” than a “disease,” so to speak. The fact that autism, to many people, is more synonymous to mental retardation than, say, savant syndrome, is something that makes the entire situation worse.</p>
<p>If you approach autism with the intent of “curing” it, you don’t understand it in the first place.</p>
<p>The reason people think autism is like savant syndrome is because there’s something like a 50% rate of overlap.</p>
<p>^^ It also doesn’t help that no one involved in their organization is actually autistic.</p>