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– ...autistic people for their differences.
We go inside the controversial debate.
– But this morning, a challenge to the rest of us
about all of our reactions,
recently, after "Good Morning America,"
"20/20"'s Deborah Roberts came by,
because she wanted to pose a provocative question.
(Roberts) They are the voices and faces, they say, of Autism's future,
a controversial group hoping to radically change
the way we look at the disorder.
Their message: stop the search for a cure
and celebrate autistic people for their differences.
– We do not think that to aim at a cure
is the right kind of approach to take.
(Roberts) 20-year-old Ari Ne'eman is at the forefront of the movement.
He says he was diagnosed with Asperger's, a less severe form of autism.
For parents who have an autistic child on the very far end of the spectrum,
who is non-communicative, non-emotional,
who cannot express in any way their feelings,
you have to understand why they would want to see...
– Oh, I do understand. – ...that eradicated.
– But one of the key issues to remember
is that anti-cure doesn't mean anti-progress.
(Roberts) Kristina Chew, a professor at St. Peter's College in New Jersey, agrees.
(Chew) My son Charlie is 11 years old. He has a diagnosis of autism.
(Roberts) She's among a growing number of parents who say
some treatments and so-called cures for autism are a waste of time.
She'd rather see her son benefit from better services instead.
Kristina asked us not to show Charlie's face.
(Chew) My son is who he is.
He's not going to change; he's always going to be Charlie.
– But, what's wrong with parents who want to put an end to this,
who would rather not see other parents have to suffer through
what you're suffering through?
– Well, first of all, I don't feel I suffer.
I feel that part of the problem for many parents is that
they just don't have enough of the supports and services,
the right kinds of education and the right kinds of ways to teach their children
that can really help a child who has a tremendous problem.
(Roberts) A few months ago, parents like Kristina and autistic adults like Ari
joined forces when an edgy new campaign to fight autism hit them in the gut.
Posters and magazine ads in the form of ransom notes read,
"We have your son. We will make sure he will not be able to care for himself
"or interact socially as long as he lives.
This is only the beginning. Signed, Autism."
The experts who created these ads say they were really more about awareness.
– These ads reinforce a lot of the prejudice
that cause many of the difficulties that we have.
Where does disability come from?
It comes in many respects from a society
that doesn't provide for an education system that meets our needs
and from a society that is largely intolerant.
(Roberts) So loud was the protest that three weeks after their release,
the ads were canceled.
There are some parents who have autistic children who differ with your movement.
In fact, Lenny Schafer, a writer with an autistic son, says of the movement,
"You're a handful of noisy people who get a lot of media attention
but you don't represent a broad swath of the Autism community,"
that your argument should be ignored.
– I can't think of a civil rights movement throughout history
that hasn't been faced with resistance
and misunderstanding on the part of its detractors.
– If you could go back and change things,
would you prefer not to have this diagnosis?
– No, I wouldn't.
And if there was a magic pill that would make me
neurologically typical, normal, I wouldn't take it.
– You'd want to remain as you are?
– Yes.
(Roberts) But some experts say Ari's path may not be the answer
for others dealing with autism.
– This is a spectrum and you've got people who are quite high functioning,
and then you've got people who really can't even begin to function,
and for whom we would love to have a cure
to at least get them to a point where they would be able
to function as well as the people in this movement.
(Roberts) And so we asked Kristina Chew,
the mother of Charlie, whose autism is severe:
If you could take the autism away from Charlie, would you?
– I wouldn't choose that, no.
But we really try to understand him on his own terms.
Acceptance, to me, is the beginning of hope.
– It's a radical way of looking at Autism, Diane,
but these people say it's needed.
That, you know, there's so many things that we're overlooking
in this illness in our search for a cure.
– Yes, but you hear them say, you wouldn't change anything,
and you keep wondering, I mean, is it,
is it in some ways a beautiful way of justifying heartbreak?
– And you would wonder that, but if you think about it
and they say there is not any one face of autism,
there are people out there who are gifted intellectually, musically,
they feel like that we're losing sight of that,
and while we're worrying about cures, sometimes they say
it may be more about the parents who want their children to be like them
rather than people who are recognizing
what they might bring to their life. – No question, there are all sorts of gifts
in these very special children.
– But for parents who have children who are severely autistic,
it's hard to make that argument.
– Okay, thank you. Neurodiversity.
– Neurodiversity, the new word.
– And we want to know what all you think about it.
Log on to our website at abcnews.com as we thank Deborah Roberts,
and coming up next, riding with Robin.