Autism and the Neurodiversity Movement

Interesting post by Brenda Rothman on her blog Mama Be Good. Love her tagline, which definitely caught my attention: "He's beautiful. He's funny. He's autistic. Mama's just trying not to mess him up."
 
Integrating the minority neurodiverse community with the majority neurotypical community is not  easy.   Members of the autism community look at each other with distrust, expecting the worst. 
Some members will hold even more firmly to their viewpoints.  Some autistics will mistrust parents more.  Some parents will mistrust autistics more.  And some members will mistrust their own.  Some on both sides will withdraw.   Some will show less concern for each other's well-being, focusing on our own and our family's.  Community cooperation will decrease.  Friends will disagree.
This is what happens in an equal rights movement, in a diversity effort.   Acknowledging that a group of people within our midst have unequal opportunity because of disability is difficult.  We feel remorse for not recognizing the inequities.  We feel defensive because we didn't cause the situation.  We feel denial because the group includes our own children, for whom we have the most love and best intentions.  And, underneath it all, we feel guilt and helplessness for not being able to do more