Dear Readers:

I am deeply concerned and dismayed about the prevailing "white" image of autism portrayed by the Autism Society (AS), especially in the staging of their Annual Conferences.  

The upcoming Orlando Conference, like others before it, has workshops whose content lacks any reference to issues of race,ethnicity and culture. Also, the conference presenters (speakers) are persons, "experts" who  largely are representative of the "white" race. (See the pixs on the AS Orlando Conference web-site)

The Orlando Conference workshops are void of content that reflects and/or directly addresses the cultural and or cross-cultural dynamics that impact autism in such areas as medical diagnoses, the values, beliefs and mores related to issues of treatment and threapeutic interventions, culturally-sensitive/culturally-appropriate testing/evaluative and research methodologies, tools, community education, and I could go on and on.

Likewise, each year the conference presenters/speakers continue to reflecta very visible lack of racial minority representation. Am I to believe that the Autism Society is incapable of locating and recruiting such "experts," or that there are no such "experts" from racial minority backgrounds with professional qualifications, work experiences, or even with  lived experiences among the growing numbers of non-white persons with autism, or non-white parents of a child or children with autism? 

Maybe , the Autism Society just continues to perceive racial minority people as mere atendees at such conferences. Yet, as some of my collegues have pointed out, one has to look very hard to find the visible reflection of attendees from non-white and/or diverse race and cultural backgrounds at such conferences.  read more »