Autism Is Not A Disability

by Dr. John Hussman

Dr. John P. Hussman is Executive Director and President of the Hussman Institute for Autism. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.S. in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University. In 2004, Dr. Hussman established the John P. Hussman Foundation that focuses on funding research and treatment of autism and other life-altering conditions.

Dr. Hussman is the father of an adult son with autism. He has authored and co-authored numerous articles on autism and related matters. These articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Molecular Autism, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Neurogenetics, and Annals of Human Genetics. http://www.hussmanfoundation.org/articles/ASA2008.html

Autism is not a disability - Jamie Burke, 2008

The founders of our country did an amazing thing. They based our nation's entire foundation on a presumption – what they called a “proposition” – that all men are created equal. When we look back on our history, the only points of true regret are those times when we forgot – that all of us, regardless of our differences, and simply by virtue of our shared humanity, are created equal. That word “all” includes people with autism. So when Jamie says that autism is not disability, he's saying that autism does not diminish a person as a human being. And this is important – he's saying that people with autism are far more intelligent and competent than we might realize.

See, science hasn't developed the ability to read minds, or to measure empathy. How did some researchers decide that 70% of people with autism are mentally retarded anyway? They gave them intelligence tests, without correcting for difficulties in speech or movement. How did they decide that people with autism have no empathy? What advanced scientific tool did researchers use to look inside of people with autism, and deny them of that large a part of their personhood? I'll tell you. They played a game with two dolls and a marble.

Let's do an experiment. Without using your mouth or your hands, I'd like you answer a question we ask people with autism all the time – What's your favorite color? (Nothing? Well, I guess you don't know your colors. We should probably work on that).

Somehow we've come to accept that if a person can't respond to a question with their body, they must not know the answer in their mind. But it's not like the brain either works or it doesn't – or that it has three speeds; high, medium and low. The brain has all kinds of structures and specialized areas. From functional MRI studies, we know that the areas that are active in speech and movement are different from the ones that are active in learning and problem solving.

So our responsibility is to presume competence... Because when we do that, we open the door for them to share a meaningful life with us, without having to take an admission test. We start seeing the gifts of people with autism, not the limitations. We start to think less in terms of disability and more in terms of humanity. And not least, we sometimes find that the things we like most about ourselves – are there because a person with autism is also there.