#AutismSpeaks does not Speak for Me

Autism Speaks in 2013 spent less than 14% of all donations on Autistic people and their families, the rest they pocketed as compensation. See for yourself: Form 990 2013. This compensation is 5x the amount that a public relations person in a non charitable organization would receive as a salary and money that could be used for the principle reason it was donated in the first place, Autism needs. Autism Speaks only gives cents off every dollar to Autism related issues.

Autism Speaks claims to be a voice for the voiceless but their ultimate goal is the continual question asking of why people are born this way instead of investing into the people they serve by therapies that would better the human lives of the Autistic community. Why would anyone want to give money to an organization using the people they “serve” as a meal ticket. We are not taking it anymore, not all Autistic people are nonverbal and we have the ability to speak for ourselves.We are not broken, busted, a puzzle, or disaster we are human beings and your lack of respect for our community both verbally and in actions leads us to ask you to stop. Stop lying to the world that you are advocates for Autism, stop stealing money people who could use that money to feed their own families and doing this in the name of Autism. Stop speaking for us because you don’t.

We do not need awareness as you like to campaign we need acceptance. The picture that you have painted to us in the media describes a group of people that are neither able to care for themselves or are disastrous cases amongst humanity and we are not either one of those things. The spectrum being as wide ranging as it is, requires a person to person look at what the needs of each individual would require to have and maintain a normal life. We are not behaviorally challenged or your project to fix, we are human beings who are entitled to all the human rights declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are entitled to our dignity and respect, we are your fellow human being and demand to be treated as equals.

Your inability to except us yourselves should be an example to the public as to whom you actually serve as an organization, your wallet. From your board member to your blue light campaign (The owner of Home Depot is a Board Member of Autism Speaks and is the seller of the Blue Light) all that money returns to you and you are doing a disservice and injustice to the Autistic community. We estimate that in 2013 $57,000,000 went into the pockets of employees board members, staff and contracted personnel. They grossed $65,992,738.