The Varieties of the Autism-net
Autism debate goes digital is the latest (September 26th) article in a series on UPI’s PedMed on autism by Lidia Wasowicz. The article opens by noting that “the war of words, and mindsets” about the causes of autism rages “in full view of the Web-surfing world”:
Making use of digital communication that gives them unprecedented access to a global audience, the challengers of orthodoxy question the validity of studies that nix a connection between autism and vaccines.
The September 26th PedMed article mentions Generation Rescue as leading the insurrection, so to speak, against those who hold that there is no connection between vaccines or mercury and the onset of autism. Cure Autism Now, the M.I.N.D. Institute, and NAAR are also mentioned. But, even though the article’s title is that “Autism debate goes digital,” a reader does not get a good sense of the autism debate and debates that are taking place right now on the internet, and that the anti-vaccine mercury-autism proponents are only one part of.
There are the discussion and debates via Neurodiversity.com and on the Autism Hub, not to mention the Autism Bloggers RingSurf. More than a few of the writers at these sites are “challengers of orthodoxy,” and are indeed often in questioning mode. And then there are the email discussion lists via Yahoogroups and other sites by parents seeking to help their children and by autistic adults, not to mention too many autism websites to count or ever finish visiting, and many more blogs than those mentioned above. It could be argued that there are equal parts misinformation to information about autism on the internet.
But Generation Rescue is one autism site amid so thousands, and all the varieties of the autism-net need to be sampled to get the full picture of autism and its digital, global audience—in all of their diversity and difference.
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POSTED IN: Diagnosis, Disability Rights, Legal Issues, Technology, Vaccines, Weblogs
2 opinions for The Varieties of the Autism-net
Liz Melino
Mar 3, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I have an 18 yr old autistic son …who is just the best. I have tried after years to access TEEACH who actually diagnosed and gave the predictions for his education…yet would not answer the phone or e-mail. I wanted to tell Dr. Lee Marcus, he agreed with me regarding my son and it was not a popular opinion…yet, he asked me to keep up and not give up. Dr. Marcus,” I, Elizabeth Melino”… Thank you. Jacob, my son, will be graduating from High School this year (Broad Run in Ashburn Va.). If you had not told me to fight for my son, (he would be in a class that gave him nothing)! Everything we had, in school gave us movement, still not enough, this was a reason to treat Jacob like an idiot, (which he never was or could be) this had me step fight for all he could be. Glad…is a word I could use, yet is lacking in what we & he could achieve. Unafraid but scared if we are accepted. I am different!
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 4, 2008 at 11:07 pm
So great to hear about Jacob—-sometimes it’s just that one teacher who reaches out and believes, is it not?
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