STATISTICS AND FACTS
The Full Story of Autism Speaks
There are many resons you should not donate to autism speaks. First, they don't even have any people with Autism running it, so how would they know anything about how our lives are, they are also a "charity" that barely helps people.
They have been known to only spend 4% of their multi-million dollar income on actually helping autistic people. Since 2015 the charity has been extremely quiet on how much they have spent on helping autistic people. They are due to publish their financial report for 2018 very soon, but it is likely that they will combine the percentage with awareness and advocacy to make it seem like they have been spending a larger percentage on helping people, as if they had changed, it'd be good and they'd talk about it for publicity.
A relatively large minority of their money is also put towards research into "interventions" in Autism (it's basically how to cure it, we know this because until 2016 they said in their mission they wanted to cure autism). They claim to have found 18 autism-related genes. If they have, then that's great, but with it being in their hands and them saying before that they want a cure, imagine what that could do to the world. Many people, who just want to be themselves might be forced to change to fit society's norms. It's like autistic people being forced to light themselves on fire to keep others warm when there are coats very close-by. The way Autism speaks is conducting their research is inhumane as well, as three people are known to have died from it.
Autism Speaks also insults people with autism, having called us burdens and depicting a part of who we are as an evil monster that has "come for us" and "robbed us of our voices". They have said that our lives are "desperate", "in crisis" and "barely living". They have even made an advert showing a mother talking about how she contemplated killing her autistic daughter right in front of her.
Autism Speaks? It's time to listen to us.
It's time to listen to the ones living with Autism.
It's time to listen to the people you hurt.
We do NOT want a cure- We want to be ourselves.
Our lives aren't miserable- they are amazing and complicated like any neurotypical, just with a twist.
We do not want awareness- we want ACCEPTANCE.
Accept us before you eradicate us. Please.
