Autism News, 2014/12/24

Stuff about race and #freeneli:

Stuff involving the Vatican and Autism Speaks:

  • Pope Francis talked to a bunch of children/teens with autism and their families, in order to raise awareness about autism and autism stigmas within the Catholic Church
  • Unfortunately, Autism Speaks was also there.
  • Jess from A Diary of a Mom and M Kelter point out problems with Suzanne Wright’s Autism Speaks speech at the Vatican
  • John Elder Robinson also gives a measured and constructive critique of Autism Speaks’ latest Twitter campaign, #MSSNG.

Misc:

Sad Things:

  • Lisa D. on what it’s like to maintain an autism memorial
  • Amanda Forest Vivian on autistic people abusing other autistic people
  • Samantha Crane on how ASAN got directly involved in the Issy Stapleton case (This is happy, but the Issy Stapleton case is sad.)
  • Carly Fleischmann, an autistic teenager famous for learning to type while nonverbal, posted to Facebook and Twitter early this month saying “needdc fdocttor helphgfi”. Her father posted an hour later saying everything was fine. The autism community in general is not sure what’s going on.