Like others mentioned, I have gone there once. I was not impressed and I hated the atmosphere.
It's SO dumb to argue on a public forum! This is the place for open discussion and sharing of opinions and experiences and some people will tear apart everything you say line for line just to try and look intelligent. You could say "The sky is blue" on some forums and I guarantee someone would argue with it. Pointless...i replied to one thread b/c the mom seemed to be feelling "alone" with
her new diagnosis. other than that i am just "watching"
LI do not have the time to go to a board sponsored by an organization run by a family who has lost site of the most important things in life...Love, family, communication, support, agreeing to disagree if needed, etc., etc. I think that the Wrights' should be ashamed of themselves...So much money that can do so much good and they lower themselves to this level...Wasn't the whole point of starting AutismSpeaks to HELP CHRISTIAN and ALL of the CHILDREN!!??? Looked at it once and won't bother again. Agree that is was unpleasant and non-informative.Can someone PLEASE tell me about this 'AUTISMSPEAKS' and why it is so controversial? Thanks!
Here is an article about the Wrights, their organization, and their family rift:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20070618/ZNYT02/7061806 59
Autism Speaks is a very divided community. The mother of the boy who inspired the support group feels that the group should be used to more support the parents while the grandparent who actually started the group is organizing for research and giving $ for reasearch.The Autism Speaks message board I have not found to be very user friendly. I often go onto dailystrength.org. It is a anything having to do with mental or physical health message board and the people are very friendly. The members reach as far as europe , united states and canada. The Autism Community is huge!Wow- I read the article, and that is so sad! I applaud the Wrights for founding Autism speaks and all the good they try to do- but to have such public dissagreements about the cause of autism with their own daughter is so sad- especially for their grandson who is the affected one in all of this. Poor thing- I hope he doesn't get caught in the crossfire.Also, a lot of autistic adults look unfavorably upon Autism Speaks b/c the org does not allow/invite autistic adults to participate in its charity events or to serve on its board.I emailed them and told them that it was a disgrace with all the fighting and that they should be ashamed of themselves!
Gail
Autism speaks is a lightening rod in the autism community and I'm not surprised there's a lot of infighting going on. Has anyone been on the new Autism Speaks message boards? I went on to take a peek and it wasn't pleasant at all. People are arguing like crazy and there wasn't any good info. like there is here. Maybe because they're new? I'm sticking to this one - there's no comparison.I went. OnceWhile I do agree that the political nature of this rift is unfortunate, the