01-09-2005, 11:07 AM
http://www.telegraph .co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/09/nalf09.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/01/09/ixhome.html
Autistic Liberation Front fights the 'oppressors searching for a cure'
By David Harrison and Tony Freinberg
(Filed: 09/01/2005)
It is the latest freedom movement for an "oppressed" minority: the Autistic Liberation Front. You can wear a badge, buy a mug or don a T-shirt proclaiming the movement's goals - to celebrate autism, stop the search for a cure and "defend the dignity of autistic citizens".
The movement, which uses the clenched fist as its logo, was founded recently in America but has rapidly won support in Britain. Adherents compare themselves with gay liberationists, fighting for their "human rights".
Their badges declare, "I am not a puzzle, I am a person" and, "Here we're silenced. Parents don't speak for me."
Supporters argue that scientists' efforts to cure autism, a developmental brain disorder that typically appears during childhood and affects the areas controlling language, social interaction and abstract thought, are like attempts by previous generations to cure homosexuality or left-handedness, and are doomed to failure.
They see autism as "an alternative form of brain-wiring" with its own benefits and drawbacks rather than as a disorder in need of a cure. "We need acceptance of who we are and what we are," said one campaigner. "You have to get out of the cure mindset."
Their move mirrors that of some campaigners for the deaf who recently complained about 'oralist' attitudes that victimise deaf people. Paddy Ladd, the deaf writer and campaigner expressed frustration in his 2002 book Understanding Deaf Culture that deaf people were treated not as a 'linguistic minority' but as group of people needing to be 'cured'.
The movement is causing anxiety, however, among British parents concerned by their children's unpredictable, often aggressive behaviour. They believe that intensive behavioural therapy is the best way to ensure that children with autism can make a contribution to society and lead lives that are as fulfilling as possible. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of attempts to use dramatic medical interventions for people with autism.
One such treatment involves injecting them with secretin, a hormone obtained from pigs' intestines. When the treatment first became available in the late 1990s, scientists believed that they had discovered a cure but doctors now caution against the use of secretin, which researchers at the University of North Carolina have concluded "may be no more effective than salt water".
Many British autistic people are backing the movement to fight the "tyranny" of the advocates of a cure. David Downes, a successful London artist with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, said that he "totally sympathised" with the liberation front. "I think it's fantastic," he said.
"It speaks directly to a dilemma I've been having – explaining how I am different, both from 'normal' society and other people with Asperger's or autism. People who know me well understand that I can't be cured, even if I can adapt to the world around me."
Mr Downes, 33, who lives in north London and whose work has been exhibited at the Royal College of Art in London, admitted that Asperger's "had its drawbacks" but said that it had also given him immense positives. "Part of my artistic ability - especially the obsessive attention to detail and my ability to remember views from above - comes from my Asperger's," he said.
Some parents of autistic children also expressed support for the liberation front. Charlotte Moore, from Hastings, East Sussex, who has two autistic boys, aged 13 and 14, said: "The comparisons with homosexuality and left-handedness are fair. Neither is a disease and nor is autism. You have to accept the condition, try to minimise aspects of it that cause problems and celebrate the positive sides of autism. You should not try to make an autistic child normal because you can't."
Mrs Moore disagreed, however, with the front's suggestion that autistic people should be left to their own devices. "There are therapies and interventions that can help to alleviate symptoms that are distressing to autistic people and their families or carers."
More than 500,000 people in the UK are autistic, with boys four times more likely than girls to have the condition. Children with autism are 20 times as likely to be excluded from school as other children and 40 per cent of all autistic children wait more than three years for a clear diagnosis.
Vernon Beauchamp, the chief executive of the National Autistic Society, Britain's largest autism support group, with 11,500 members, endorsed the front's goals.
"Autism is a spectrum disorder and therefore people with mild forms of autism who are high-functioning and intelligent can get annoyed at being viewed as if they have a disability," he said. "They don't want to be patronised but do want people to recognise their condition - not to try to 'cure' them but to recognise that they have a different outlook."
He added, however, that there were "a hell of a lot of people out there who do have serious types of autism and really do need help".
Keith Lovett, a director of Autism Independent UK, a smaller autism charity, said: "Many of the therapy programmes used by parents to try to make their children 'normal' really don't work."
The liberation front was inspired by an increased focus in America on finding a "cure" for autism, at a time when a record number of Americans - one in 200 - are being diagnosed with the condition. The movement circulates petitions on websites such as autistics.org and neurodiversity.com. There have also been demonstrations, including a recent march in New York, where 10,000 people turned out to raise money for research.
Many British parents are unconvinced. Faced with the difficulties of raising autistic children, such as their shifting moods and sometimes violent outbursts, they say the idea of "freedom" for all autistic people is "pie-in-the-sky".
Samantha Hilton, from Crowborough, East Sussex, who has three autistic sons, aged five, seven and 11, said that it was absurd to say that all autistic people should be left alone. "It all depends on the level of autism," she said. "The people who organise demonstrations and such like must be very high-functioning autistics and so could probably cope by themselves. But their autism is making them insensitive to the many autistics who are not so high-functioning and would find it very difficult to be 'liberated' in this way."
Mrs Hilton said it was inaccurate to compare freedom for autistic people with gay liberation. "Being gay does not stop you having a job and getting on with daily life. Autistic people don't have a choice."
Autistic Liberation Front fights the 'oppressors searching for a cure'
By David Harrison and Tony Freinberg
(Filed: 09/01/2005)
It is the latest freedom movement for an "oppressed" minority: the Autistic Liberation Front. You can wear a badge, buy a mug or don a T-shirt proclaiming the movement's goals - to celebrate autism, stop the search for a cure and "defend the dignity of autistic citizens".
The movement, which uses the clenched fist as its logo, was founded recently in America but has rapidly won support in Britain. Adherents compare themselves with gay liberationists, fighting for their "human rights".
Their badges declare, "I am not a puzzle, I am a person" and, "Here we're silenced. Parents don't speak for me."
Supporters argue that scientists' efforts to cure autism, a developmental brain disorder that typically appears during childhood and affects the areas controlling language, social interaction and abstract thought, are like attempts by previous generations to cure homosexuality or left-handedness, and are doomed to failure.
They see autism as "an alternative form of brain-wiring" with its own benefits and drawbacks rather than as a disorder in need of a cure. "We need acceptance of who we are and what we are," said one campaigner. "You have to get out of the cure mindset."
Their move mirrors that of some campaigners for the deaf who recently complained about 'oralist' attitudes that victimise deaf people. Paddy Ladd, the deaf writer and campaigner expressed frustration in his 2002 book Understanding Deaf Culture that deaf people were treated not as a 'linguistic minority' but as group of people needing to be 'cured'.
The movement is causing anxiety, however, among British parents concerned by their children's unpredictable, often aggressive behaviour. They believe that intensive behavioural therapy is the best way to ensure that children with autism can make a contribution to society and lead lives that are as fulfilling as possible. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of attempts to use dramatic medical interventions for people with autism.
One such treatment involves injecting them with secretin, a hormone obtained from pigs' intestines. When the treatment first became available in the late 1990s, scientists believed that they had discovered a cure but doctors now caution against the use of secretin, which researchers at the University of North Carolina have concluded "may be no more effective than salt water".
Many British autistic people are backing the movement to fight the "tyranny" of the advocates of a cure. David Downes, a successful London artist with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, said that he "totally sympathised" with the liberation front. "I think it's fantastic," he said.
"It speaks directly to a dilemma I've been having – explaining how I am different, both from 'normal' society and other people with Asperger's or autism. People who know me well understand that I can't be cured, even if I can adapt to the world around me."
Mr Downes, 33, who lives in north London and whose work has been exhibited at the Royal College of Art in London, admitted that Asperger's "had its drawbacks" but said that it had also given him immense positives. "Part of my artistic ability - especially the obsessive attention to detail and my ability to remember views from above - comes from my Asperger's," he said.
Some parents of autistic children also expressed support for the liberation front. Charlotte Moore, from Hastings, East Sussex, who has two autistic boys, aged 13 and 14, said: "The comparisons with homosexuality and left-handedness are fair. Neither is a disease and nor is autism. You have to accept the condition, try to minimise aspects of it that cause problems and celebrate the positive sides of autism. You should not try to make an autistic child normal because you can't."
Mrs Moore disagreed, however, with the front's suggestion that autistic people should be left to their own devices. "There are therapies and interventions that can help to alleviate symptoms that are distressing to autistic people and their families or carers."
More than 500,000 people in the UK are autistic, with boys four times more likely than girls to have the condition. Children with autism are 20 times as likely to be excluded from school as other children and 40 per cent of all autistic children wait more than three years for a clear diagnosis.
Vernon Beauchamp, the chief executive of the National Autistic Society, Britain's largest autism support group, with 11,500 members, endorsed the front's goals.
"Autism is a spectrum disorder and therefore people with mild forms of autism who are high-functioning and intelligent can get annoyed at being viewed as if they have a disability," he said. "They don't want to be patronised but do want people to recognise their condition - not to try to 'cure' them but to recognise that they have a different outlook."
He added, however, that there were "a hell of a lot of people out there who do have serious types of autism and really do need help".
Keith Lovett, a director of Autism Independent UK, a smaller autism charity, said: "Many of the therapy programmes used by parents to try to make their children 'normal' really don't work."
The liberation front was inspired by an increased focus in America on finding a "cure" for autism, at a time when a record number of Americans - one in 200 - are being diagnosed with the condition. The movement circulates petitions on websites such as autistics.org and neurodiversity.com. There have also been demonstrations, including a recent march in New York, where 10,000 people turned out to raise money for research.
Many British parents are unconvinced. Faced with the difficulties of raising autistic children, such as their shifting moods and sometimes violent outbursts, they say the idea of "freedom" for all autistic people is "pie-in-the-sky".
Samantha Hilton, from Crowborough, East Sussex, who has three autistic sons, aged five, seven and 11, said that it was absurd to say that all autistic people should be left alone. "It all depends on the level of autism," she said. "The people who organise demonstrations and such like must be very high-functioning autistics and so could probably cope by themselves. But their autism is making them insensitive to the many autistics who are not so high-functioning and would find it very difficult to be 'liberated' in this way."
Mrs Hilton said it was inaccurate to compare freedom for autistic people with gay liberation. "Being gay does not stop you having a job and getting on with daily life. Autistic people don't have a choice."