Thursday, June 28, 2007

Another way to support acceptance

Late in May, I received an email from Rob LaPlante of Give Back America, asking me to support the program, billed as an "online charity mall", through which various organizations receive funding when goods are purchased from a list of participating businesses. I checked out the site, where I saw an autism charity listed, one whose goals and values do not correspond with my own. I also saw a post with something about "fighting autism" in the title.

I informed Mr. LaPlante that I would not be supporting this program and the reasons for that. I fully expected that would be the last I ever heard from him. The next day, though, I received another email. The reference to fighting had been removed. GBA was interested to hear that there are people who do not support a cure and would prefer to see funding for services that might be of actual use to autistic people. They had not heard of neurodiversity, and wanted to learn more.

GBA wrote to several other bloggers on the Hub. It seems that a number of us suggested the same organization be included, The Autism Acceptance Project. I am writing this post to thank Rob and GBA for asking questions, listening to answers, and respecting the opinions of (at least a few) people who are autistic. This is a rare and beautiful thing, and I want to express my appreciation for it.

GBA also supports many other organizations, including a wide spectrum of animal rescue charities. The way it works is that you visit the GBA site first when you plan to shop with a major retailer (they have over 200 listed there). Buy through GBA rather than the retailer's main website, and a portion of the purchase price is donated to the organization you select. No additional charge is incurred by the consumer.

Thank you, Give Back America, for the opportunity to support The Autism Acceptance Project and for increasing the visibility of the autistic rights community.

5 comments:

  1. Bravo. Too many of us would just delete and forget - you and others as passionate as you did not and hence, someone was educated and a cause was enhanced.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Changing the world one mind at a time is what it's all about.

    Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is so cool. way to go!

    Karen in CA

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, that rocks. Thanks so much! I happen to have an Amazon.com wedding registry as we speak; I emailed the org thanking them for doing their homework, and asked about making an easy link to the registry (for those relatives who ain't too keen on the whole online thing in the first place).

    ReplyDelete
  5. You know what's interestimg? In my life I have met self-hating autistics who hated neurodiversity. I found that to be very unfortunate. Can you imagine that?

    ReplyDelete

Squawk at me.
Need to add an image?
Use this code [img]IMAGE-URL-HERE[/img]