A Moment of Crusading Faux Pas: Watching Autism Speaks Destroy Its Brand

by Kerima Cevik

Once you see a thing you can’t forget it. Unfortunately I am being made to witness this again and it saddens me. The professionally crafted photograph of Bob and Suzanne Wright that must have taken an entire photo shoot to achieve, yet again using their grandson as scenery to promote their brand as “crusading heroes” against autism. In ten years they have never grasped that using a disabled person as scenery to justify your speaking in their place is going to make a great many disabled people and the families who love those people sad at extreme lack of understanding of what ableism is and how their behavior exemplifies and perpetuates ugly stereotypes about disabled people. But I need to say here that People Magazine got it right. Bob and Suzanne Wright are crusading against autism, autistic people, and everything that being born with a brain that is divergent from the norm stands for. I am not certain that merits a title of heroes. It does concern me though, because that particular two word combination reminds me of another couple I grew up seeing back in the 70s. (Continue Reading at The Autism Wars….)