Thread by @ekverstania

Here are some of the things I want rather than having people spend money on a cure for autism: tania.co.za/imagine-money-…

https://twitter.com/radiantbutch/status/1384236823287721990

Evidence that most autism research is not done or funded by people who care about autistic people's actual needs.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1372814220564254723?s=19

"But you're high-functioning. We care about the severe cases."

Oh, really? Then why don't you listen to them?

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1274075282861891593?s=19

Autistic people want treatment, but when we tell you what WE want treatment for, you...

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1299369767632019456?s=19

#NotAllReasearchers😉

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1369948625099497473

The researchers in the megabucks autism-treatment-'n-cure projects like AIMS-2 don't even know what severe autism is from the inside. They're piddling around with eye contact and sociability. Excuse me, but THOSE ARE NOT THE PROBLEMS, DUDES.

You can't keep saying that you care about the autistic people who don't speak if they try to tell you what they want, but you won't #LISTEN. You're not 'speaking for those who can't speak for themselves'. You're silencing them.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1361752166839554055

You silence nearly every SPEAKING autistic person (the ones you say are merely quirky, as though their problems are necessarily slight just because they use mouth words); so it makes sense that you would want to silence the 'severe' people too.

Can I just talk about Bill Shat (@WilliamShatner) for a moment? Bill is one of those people who does fundraising for Autism Speaks, because he purportedly cares about the 'severe cases', the people who wear diapers. (For some reason, they always bring incontinence into it.)

So along comes a 'severe case', an autistic man who spent many years of his life unable to speak, abused and institutionalised, and who is... incontinent. And this man tells Bill that he isn't being helpful.

Bill Shat is enraged and accuses the autistic man of being a money-grabber and all sorts of other horrible things.

Anyway, this so-called money-grabber, who has high support needs, is in need of a wheelchair and Bill certainly ain't gonna be contributing, so if you have some dollars, pounds or Euro to spare, please donate!

https://twitter.com/slooterman/status/1383941851124621315

If ir bothers you that Cal who is alive right now, isn't getting the support he needs, while people find it in their soulds to donate money on cures for our lack of eye contact and smalltalk, then link up to other activists who are fundraising for Cal, using the hashtag #FreeCal.

Here are some of them.

https://twitter.com/kerima_cevik/status/1384520287190978560

Remember how this thread started out, though? It's about autism cures. Cal, who is multiply disabled and definitely in need of medical support, wrote this.

Whaddya think, are donations towards a cure for autism the thing that autists like Cal need most?

communicationfirst.org/dear-parents-w…

Cal is also the person whose testimony on #ProneRestraint was featured in this short film. It was difficult for him to relive those countless incidents of restraint, each lasting several hours. He wants others to be spared the same suffering. #FreeCal

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1361752166839554055

Cal also wrote this:

"Atypical behavior is not autism. It is a consequence of autism. It is surface markers by which what is underneath may be suspected, diagnosed, and investigated. Altering behavior doesn't alter autism."

#FreeCal

thinkingautismguide.com/2019/05/autism…