Lenny Schafer

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Lenny Schafer is the adoptive parent of an autistic child. He is the editor of the "Schafer Autism Report", an autism publication that has generated controversy from the autism rights movement.^[1] He was a recipient of the Doug Flutie Jr. Award—given in honor of Doug Flutie Jr., the son of New England Patriot, Doug Flutie—who has autism. The award is presented annually "to a person who is devoted to research and treatment for individuals on the autism spectrum".^[2]

1 Autism rights movement
2 Response from the autism rights movement
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Autism rights movement

Schafer's main disagreement with the autism rights movement is that, unlike Schafer, the movement does not consider autism a disability, and does not support treatment or a cure for autism.^[1] Further, Schafer rejects the notion of autistic self-advocacy outright, arguing that anyone with the ability to speak for themselves cannot possibly be autistic.^{[citation needed]}

Schafer asserts that referring to Asperger's as autism trivializes what he calls "real" autism. However, both Asperger syndrome and autism are classified as autism spectrum disorders in the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, DSM-IV, the primary reference source for doctors.

"If those who raise their opposition to the so-called oppression of the autistic would simply substitute their usage of 'autism or autistic' with 'Asperger's,' their arguments might make some sense," said Schafer.^[1]

[edit] Response from the autism rights movement

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Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (December 2007)

Autism rights activists have responded that Schafer has not met them and they don't believe Schafer can diagnose them as "Asperger's" instead of "autistic" over the Internet. Some activists believe the differences between Asperger's and autism are not significant enough^{[citation needed]} and that those who are diagnosed as "Asperger's" can still claim to be autistic. There are also some activists who believe that autism and Asperger's don't have any differences at all. Most^{[citation needed]} autism rights activists believe Schafer is only trying to use the word "Asperger's" as an excuse to ignore the viewpoints of autistics he doesn't agree with. They also believe that Schafer's request for documentation of an autism diagnosis is an unreasonable privacy violation.