The Autism “Cure” Two Leading Autism Organizations Increase Efforts to Foster a Respectful and Productive Dialogue About Their Differing Viewpoints
Autism Speaks and the Global Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, or GRASP, have penned articles for each other's web sites in an effort to create a substantive and mutually respectful dialogue about why they differ on using the word “cure” in relation to autism.
The articles are written by Autism Speaks Senior Vice President Alison Tepper Singer and GRASP Executive Director Michael John Carley. In addition, Dr. Ami Klin, Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychology and Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn., provides introductory remarks regarding the controversy.
Autism Speaks, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money to fund autism research, uses the term "cure" in its discussions about autism spectrum disorders while GRASP, the largest organization of adults diagnosed along the autism spectrum, does not.