Autism on CNN and NPR

Amanda Baggs of the Ballastexistenz blog and autistics.org (to name two places you can find her essays and discussions), is going to be on CNN this evening on the program 360º with Anderson Cooper.

(Edit: There are two videos here, look for the links on the left that say, "Amanda's world, Part 1," and "Part 2") They seem to be the first and second half of what was broadcast on CNN. There is supposed to be more tonight.)

The way CNN and Dr. Sanjay Gupta have represented their interview with Amanda Baggs, so far, has been peppered with clichés and there is some real bias in the way they discuss her, as in, there are things they just don't get and so those things are represented in a biased way (not because they feel any ill-will toward her, they are just clueless, as most people are about the way Amanda Baggs interacts with the world and about how she sees herself). Ms. Baggs was given a page on the CNN website to speak for herself by way of an essay, and another page where people can write questions to her about autism, thank goodness, that should help keep the misunderstandings down a bit, though answering the emails might be pretty exhausting.

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but it seems from Autism Diva's viewpoint, that it's like the CNN folks have discovered a new species of animal that can talk. Or maybe like discovering that a mouse or squirrel could talk about Shakespeare and Reaganomics and a the relative merits of Thai versus Japanese food. Not that Ms. Baggs is the first or only person like herself to use an alternative way to communicate. It's just that CNN never chose to inteview one before, or if they did, they forgot about it. One thing about Ms. Baggs is that she's one of the few alternative communication using autistic people who can not only discuss literature and cooking, but also is a recognized expert on disability rights (not just autism).

Autism Diva can not speak for Amanda Baggs, but it would appear that this whole CNN interview thing has been, and will be, very stressful for her. (edit: Ms. Baggs explains) The things said on the CNN report will no doubt lead to misunderstandings, misunderstandings that Ms. Baggs will spend weeks untangling, but Autism Diva has seen Ms. Baggs deal with people who don't understand (Autism Diva has been one of them), so long as the person Ms. Baggs is communicating with has an open mind and a willingness to learn, real headway can be made in ironing out the misunderstandings.

On a side note: It would appear that Ms. Baggs is being attacked by two or three (possibly psychotic) people who are jealous of her relative fame (not something Ms. Baggs would seek out for herself), so if you read awful, outrageous accusations about Ms. Baggs (usually written anonymously on the Web) it would be well to ignore them.


We should expect to see some major hissy-fits on the part of mercury/biomed/cure-obsessed parents because they don't like that anyone would listen to autistic adults who aren't desperate for a cure for autism.


Amanda Baggs was also mentioned in a recent New Scientist magazine article. The article is pretty dumb (because they didn't consult with Amanda Baggs before they pubished the article...). It's about using computers or robots to teach autistics how to interact with typical people or something.



Another sensible person who tends to make the autism-epidmemic obsessed go into major hissy-fits is Dr. Roy Grinker, author of Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism. He was recently interviewed on NPR. You can hear his interview here.




Autism Diva
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