US President Barack Obama has nominated Ari Ne'eman, a University student with an apparently very mild form of Aspergers Disorder, to a national disability council. Since that nomination was made public Mr. Ne'eman has issued statements through friendly bloggers, all too willing to uncritically promote his views, stating that he DOES see autism as a disability. Mr. Ne'eman in fact only sees autism disorders as disabilities in the social model sense, in the sense that society fails to accommodate persons with autism, thereby creating the disability.
The following quote is from a June 2008 NPR (obviously well before he was nominated by US President Obama) interview:
"As its name suggests, the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network aims to help people with the disorder represent themselves, instead of relying on families and care providers to speak for them. They share a credo with other disability groups: "Nothing about us without us."
Ne'em describes Asperger's and autism as disabilities — but with a twist. "We're disabled by society," he says. "What disables us is, for instance, an education system that's only designed to meet the needs of one kind of student, or societal prejudices which say that autistic people will never be able to live in a community."
[Highlighting added for emphasis - HLD]
Ari Ne'eman, a very high functioning young University student with Aspergers, who is capable of communicating with NPR, the New Yorker, CBC, Newsweek, and Washington politicians, officials and dignitaries, including the First Lady of the United States, feels entitled to speak authoritatively about Aspergers AND autism, including the 75-80% of persons with Autistic Disorder and cognitive impairments. He does so on the premise that autism is a disability ONLY because of society's treatment of people with autism whatever he means by the terms autism and Aspergers. It is not clear what he in fact means by these terms since he does not endorse the medical model of autism disability.
Apart from not viewing autism disorders as medical disabilities the University student with Aspergers feels that his views about Autistic Disorder and other autism spectrum disorders should be given greater weight in relation to autistic children than the parents and caregivers of those children. Mr. Ne'eman clearly does not respect the role of parents in representing the interests of their autistic children, particularly those severely autistic children who can not speak for themselves and with whom Mr. Ne'eman has so very little in common. Many parents seek treatment and cure for their autistic children's autism disorder disabilities.
US President Barack Obama is seen by many, including this Canadian, as an outstanding leader on many fronts. With respect to autism disorders though Mr. Obama has signaled, at best, a lack of understanding of the real challenges facing the severely autistic ... and the family members who care for them ... by nominating a University student who does not understand the seriousness of the challenges faced by those with actual Autistic Disorder and their families and caregivers. President Obama has nominated as a disability representative a person who, at best, views autism as a "social",or societally caused, not a real disability, who opposes the rights of autistic children to be cured of their autism, and who marginalizes the role, the right and the duty of parents and caregivers in advancing their autistic children's best interests.
At least Mr. Ne'eman will be happy. His presidential endorsement will garner him more interviews with NPR, the New Yorker, CBC, Newsweek, TIME etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile parents and caregivers will continue to struggle, day in and day out, to actually care for and help their autistic children, the autistic children on whose behalf Mr. Ne'eman claims to speak.
autism
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