Disability Speaks, But No One Is Listening: Keller, Burke, and the Autism Speaks Campaign

Autism Every Day is a short documentary by the group Autism Speaks that helps to communicate to neurotypical people what it's like to have a child with autism. It shows parents in various stages of distress and depicts various children stimming, screaming, and scratching in the depths of their disability. Autism Speaks is known for their charity fundraisers, walks, and selling of puzzle piece jewelry to raise money for finding a cure for autism, however, this organization tends to draw a lot of criticism. People have held issue with Autism Speak's goal of finding a cure for autism, and they have threatened to sue autistic children in the past. The video above has received criticism for seemingly displaying the troubles that the parents go through instead of the experiences of the children. This closely relates to Judith Butler's Gender Troubles and Ann George's Mr. Burke, Meet Helen Keller in how they display how disability is appropriated by able bodied and able minded people.



Ann George had discussed disability awareness in her essay Mr. Burke, Meet Helen Keller, specifically, how Keller and her intense socialist ideas were dismissed by people due to a variety of influences. Writes George, "...both Paula Cohen and Lois Einhorn...insist that Keller had a greater "dependence on the language of others to translate and integrate perceptions. (Cohen 9)"(345). The essay goes on to describe how various scientists and social psychologists would go on to discredit Keller for not pulling from her own experiences and not having knowledge related to those experiences. At 5:12 of the documentary, a teacher details her experiences with working with an autistic student. He won't sit still, screams, and runs around the room to the point where the teacher has to hold him on the floor. It would seem that the boy is being a reluctant student, however, it would seem to be more the fault of the teacher. Right at the beginning of the section, the teacher has been set to work with this child, and therefore has the responsibility in the situation. However, she states that she has no idea on how to approach teaching this student, and loses control of the situation quickly. However, the woman does not make an approach to figuring out the problem behind the behavior (Is he reacting to an element in his environment? Has he eaten recently? Have any of his rituals been performed?) and instead results to restraining him (which is a generally bad thing to do, autism or no autism). If the failure falls on the account of the person who discusses the experiences but hasn't had them, then the blame would fall on the teacher for assisting the student and explaining autism, but not having any experiences to fall back on. Regardless, the documentary sets out to make a victim of the teacher through the autistic student's behavior.


Butler's Gender Troubles brings up the tenuous concept of the "other". In it, she states that:

The masculine/feminine binary constitutes not only the exclusive framework in which that specificity can be recognized, but in every other way the "specificity" of the feminine is once again fully decontextualized and separated off analytically and politically from the constitution of class, race, ethnicity, and other axes of power relations that both constitute "identity" and make the singular notion of identity a misnomer. (6) 

Basically, what this means is that for every "bad" minority (disabled people who drool a lot, "street" people, angry feminists), there is a "good" one (disabled people who run in races and inspire you, the "nice" ethnic minority, a one dimensional female character from a male driven comedy). It's a destructive mindset that pits people against each other for not being feminine, masculine, butch, androgynous, or even neurotypical enough. Autism Every Day helps to create a "bad" autistic child in the form of the flopping, shrieking, and crying children who drag down their beleaguered parents, who share their woes in front of the camera. The concept doesn't seem too damaging, but it can have intense consequences. Autism Every Day has stirred up controversy for one scene at this part where a mother said that she had contemplated killing herself and her autistic daughter (while said daughter is behind her), but decided to live for her neurotypical daughter. Furthermore, many have drawn connections to the murder of Katherine McCarron, an autistic girl who was murdered by her mother four days after this film came out.


So there we have it. This silly thirteen minute video utilizes autistic people not as actual people, but as furniture with disabilities to assist the ideas of Autism Speaks and the struggle of their parents. This sets up a dangerous dialogue that convinces people that the parents are the victim of the autistic child. As a result, murder-suicides where the child is autistic are so common that there is now a media guide on how to report on them as to prevent copycats. It further establishes the "bad" autistic kid to the "good" autistic kid-"bad" autistic kids scream and stim when they're overwhelmed. "Good" autistic kids talk in a cute way about their train obsessions and inspire people to work hard. Don't you want to be a good autistic kid? However, there is no "right" way to be disabled, as any disabled person can tell you. Children do not inflict autism on their parents, as any loving parent of an autistic child can tell you. Destructive rhetoric like this video has to be trashed.