autie-j:

If you haven’t heard already, ASAN (Autism Self Advocacy Network) has had to pull their support of Sesame Street’s autism program. The reason for them pulling their support is because Sesame Street has been helping to promote harmful Autism Speaks advertisements that stigmatizes autistic people.

https://autisticadvocacy.org/2019/08/asan-has-ended-partnership-with-sesame-street/?fbclid=IwAR0K5zZqimh3AXv17y13NyPbjN_Mke1cyAa1J_WwmGIhjB_tTlQ_Ys0gohg

“Sesame Street has now decided to undo that progress. Its latest PSAs featuring Julia promote Autism Speaks’ “Screen for Autism” initiative and their resource for parents of newly-diagnosed autistic children, the 100 Day Kit. Like much of Autism Speaks’ recent advertising, these PSAs use the language of acceptance and understanding to push resources that further stigma and treat autistic people as burdens on our families. The 100 Day Kit encourages parents to blame family difficulties on their autistic child (“When you find yourself arguing with your spouse… be careful not to get mad at each other when it really is the autism that has you so upset and angry”) and to view autism as a terrible disease from which their child can “get better.” It recommends compliance-based “therapies” and pseudoscientific “autism diets,” but fails to educate families about communication supports. It even instructs parents to go through the five stages of grief after learning that their child is autistic, as they would if the child had died.

We discussed with Sesame Street, repeatedly and in great detail, what this decision would mean for the autistic community. We explained to them how these ideas harm autistic children and our families, and reinforce societal prejudice against autistic people. Our contacts acknowledged that the Autism Speaks resources were harmful and portrayed autistic children in a negative light — yet they were unwilling to reverse course in their plans to promote them. As a result, we have formally ended our partnership with Sesame Street.”

Sesame Street needs to know that what they are doing they are doing is not okay. Please take the time to sign the petition to get Sesame Street to stop partnering with Autism Speaks. And if you feel up to it you could contact them directly through their website.

https://www.change.org/p/sesame-workshop-sesame-street-stop-partnering-with-autism-speaks

https://autism.sesamestreet.org/contact-us/