Autism Speaks modified their mission statement late September. One of the biggest special needs organizations changed their advocacy as they announced that they would no longer look for a cure for autism.
Autism Speaks opened up into changing their mission statement, which is one of their biggest gestures since the organization first started. Autism Speaks, which is a non-profit organization, voted that last September that they will be making major changes.
Daily Scoop mentioned that the organization's updated their mission statement where it was emphasized that Autism Speaks would no longer look for a cure for autism. The organization also removed negative words that pertain to the condition such as "struggle," "crisis," and "hardships."
"Our mission statement was updated to reflect the evolving strategic direction of Autism Speaks and current needs in the autism community," C.J. Volpe, Autism Speaks' spokesman, stated during an interview with Daily Scoop.
The shift on Autism Speaks mission statement is due to major changes that took place within the organization. It was mentioned that Autism Speaks welcomed a new president and they also faced the death of the non-profit organization's co-founder Suzanne Wright.
"Autism Speaks was founded with the goal of curing autism as one of its objectives," Shore Paradis said during an interview. "However, similar to many experiences of parents of children with autism, the organization grew to believe that autism is something to be worked with for promoting fulfilling and productive lives of people on the spectrum - rather than something that has to be done too."
Autism Speaks faced major backlash earlier this year as the organization was caught in a Twitter war. BuzzFeed mentioned that the hashtag #AutismSpeaks10 became a huge trend as people against the organization wanted their voices to be heard.
Pity rhetoric of #AutismSpeaks10 irreparably harms the #ActuallyAutistic and kittens alike pic.twitter.com/n6Oqmw84XZ
— Melanie Yergeau (@myergeau) February 22, 2015
Most of the individuals who went against Autism Speaks voiced out that they are "not broken" thus they don't need to be fixed. Some even stated that Autism Speaks tend to make their condition worse instead of making it better. The organization managed to stay mum about the issue as they continue their advocacy in providing better services for people struggling with autism.
