Talk:Autism Society of America

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Autism Mid‑importance

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Controversy

ASA is not an organization devoid of controversy. The greatest source of opposition to it is from the autistic community, adult autistics who view it as an organization more interested in the rights of the parents of autistics than in those of autistics themselves. Some in this community see it as more dangerous, attacking the rights of autistics in order to generate money for professionals and make the parents' lives easier.

_________________ Has been removed. No sources cited, politicized comment.

You're right on the first, but the actual statements made are undeniable. Re-editing the page and adding a source. Jayofnameless 08:08, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

And done. I'd appreciate it being edited for voice or NPOV rather than deleted if it doesn't work, since the fact that there's controversy about the ASA is undeniable. Jayofnameless 08:08, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

This was

The ASA is not an organization devoid of controversy. Many members of the autistic community take issue with the ASA's claims to be the voice of autism because the membership of the ASA includes only a small percentage of autistics. The autistic community organization "neurodiversity.org" also cites the ASA's reliance on the mercury poisoning model of autism and views on chelation as reasons for alarm.

But it isn't sourced at all - even the neurodiversity one just points to the main page and not much talking about ASA... RN 08:11, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

The whole article appears without much in terms of sourcing, and the links at the bottom only go to ASA-positive pages. The article, without mention of the autistic community's views, lacks NPOV. Jayofnameless 08:13, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Would changing the link to neurodiversity to point to this: "Getting the Truth Out" fix the problem? Jayofnameless 08:15, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, the point was kind of... sliced up... but it's there. I'll work on more documentation to add to it in the next couple of days. Jayofnameless 08:57, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Verification

Having trouble verifying this statement:

The organization has promoted pseudoscience about autism, such as vaccine denialism

The linked source https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/naturopaths-and-the-anti-vaccine-movement-if-you-cant-dazzle-em-with-real-science-baffle-em-by-getting-a-law-passed/ mentions the Autism Society exactly once, and only parenthetically:

(Lynn Redwood, President of SafeMinds, and Lee Grossman, president and CEO of the Autism Society of America, both of whose organizations buy into the scientifically discredited notion that vaccines cause autism)

That source does not seem credible to me: it's a ranty blog post.

Some other sources from a quick Google search:

• https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/naturopaths-and-the-anti-vaccine-movement-if-you-cant-dazzle-em-with-real-science-baffle-em-by-getting-a-law-passed/, purportedly quoting an ASA press release from February 2005 that I can find no evidence of elsewhere on the web, and on an extremely sketchy website.
• https://qctimes.com/news/local/vaccine-additive-banned-in-iowa/article_94bd6c34-53eb-51c9-a52a-047c92bfe600.html , from December 2005, "... the Autism Society of America says there is no known cause for autism, but that it most likely is genetic."
• https://www.musictherapy.org/a_message_from_executive_director_lee_grossman/ , a 2019 statement from (I believe the same) Lee Grossman in which he says "I support the scientific evidence and consensus statements that vaccines do not cause autism."
• http://www.autism-society.org/news/statement-of-the-autism-society-of-america-on-vaccine-safety/ , a 2019 statement from the ASA saying the same

It's possible the ASA (and/or Lee Grossman) changed their position at some point, but I'm struggling to find a reliable source that they ever did promote vaccine denialism. -Apocheir (talk) 17:09, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

I forgot to note: Bernard Rimland's article establishes that he promoted a lot of discredited theories about autism. He also left ASA in 1967, more than a decade before these discredited theories were put forward. -Apocheir (talk) 02:22, 7 April 2021 (UTC)