NYU Pimping for Autism Speaks and Big Pharma

    1. NYU Pimping for Autism Speaks and Big Pharma   Time 2008-05-29 18:42
  • please sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/ransom/...It appears as of 12/19/07, NYU has pulled its offensive campaign. But please still sign the petition. Thanks.The toy Junior asked to play at the beginning is called The Easy Link by Fisher Price.From the Petition:To the NYU Child Study Center and the supporters of the "Ransom Notes" advertising campaign: We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to you regarding your new ad campaign for the NYU Child Study Center: "Ransom Notes". Our organizations represent people with a wide range of disabilities, including those portrayed in your campaign, as well as family members, professionals and others whose lives are affected by disabilities. As people who live and work with disability, we cannot help but be concerned by the way your campaign depicts individuals with disabilities. By choosing to portray people on the autism spectrum as well as those living with OCD, ADHD and other disabilities as kidnapped or possessed children, you have inadvertently reinforced many of the worst stereotypes that have prevented children and adults with disabilities from gaining inclusion, equality and full access to the services and supports they require. While the "Ransom Notes" campaign was no doubt a well-intentioned effort to increase awareness and thus support for the disabilities it describes, the means through which it attempts this have the opposite effect. When a child with ADHD is described as "a detriment to himself and those around him," it hurts the efforts of individuals, parents and families to ensure inclusion and equal access throughout society for people with disabilities. When individuals with diagnoses of autism and Asperger's Syndrome are told that their capacities for social interaction and independent living are completely destroyed, it hurts their efforts for respect, inclusion, and necessary supports by spreading misleading and inaccurate information about these neurologies. While it is true that there are many difficulties associated with the disabilities you describe, individuals with those diagnostic categories do succeed -- not necessarily by becoming indistinguishable from their non-disabled peers -- but by finding ways to maximize their unique abilities and potential on their own terms. The "Ransom Notes" campaign places a stigma on both parents and children, thus discouraging them from pursuing a diagnosis that might be helpful in gaining access to the appropriate services, supports, and educational tools. The autism spectrum should be recognized for what it is: a lifelong neurological condition -- not a kidnapper that steals children in the dead of the night. The devaluation of the lives of people with disabilities has led to public policies and funding decisions that have forced thousands of people with disabilities into nursing homes and other institutions. The unintended consequences of ad campaigns like yours give legitimacy to the taking away of the civil and human rights of people with disabilities.
  • Tag: »aspergers »autism »autismspeaksvids »autistic »christschool »disability »nyu »pddnos
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