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disability rights
The Fight for Adult Autistic Self-Empowerment in a MAGA World
My situation is emblematic of a broader problem faced by Autistic people: There is so much public misunderstanding of our condition and, in spite of some progress, nowhere near enough ways for us to advocate for ourselves.
Oct 12, 2025
Recently there has been highly welcome indignation and pushback against the quackish treatments and attitude of stigmatization advocated by President Donald Trump against Autistic people during his infamous September 22 press conference. Some of the most forceful criticisms have been made by Autistic individuals and Autistic-led organizations. It has also been satisfying to see a major political figure like Illinois’s Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker offer enlightened rhetoric on the subject. In an executive order in May designed to protect Illinois’s Autistic persons’ privacy from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposal to create a nationwide registry of Autistic persons, Pritzker stressed that “autism is a neurological difference–not a disease or an epidemic.”
In recent years activists and writers like Eric Garcia Jr., Temple Grandin, and the late Steve Silberman have pushed back against the stigmas attached to Autism by Trump and RFK Jr.: that Autistic people represent a diseased, anti-social segment of the population that are in need of a “cure” for their condition. Silberman’s best selling 2015 book NeuroTribes was a particularly notable contribution to the public discourse, describing Autism not as a mental illness but a normal and healthy variation of human neurological development. Writers like Silberman have stressed that Autistic people have the potential to use their unique intellectual and emotional gifts to make valuable contributions to the broader society—if that society is willing and able to offer accommodations to allow Autistic people to thrive.
Unfortunately, while the relatively enlightened approach toward Autism outlined above has made some progress in positively impacting public understanding, that progress has also been relatively limited. That limitation is illustrated perfectly by the Trump administration’s focus on finding a “cure” and other aspects of its harmful, reactionary approach to Autism. The Trump administration’s approach to Autism is part and parcel of its punitive and uncaring approach to underprivileged Americans in general, as demonstrated by its draconian gutting of an already devastated American welfare state.
Adult Autistic Employment: A Personal Story
Some of the most serious problems in Autistic policy in the United States run much deeper than Trump’s cruelty and ignorance or the medical quackery promoted by RFK Jr. One of the most deep-seated problems relates to Autistic adults in the job market. The unemployment rate for Autistic adults in the United States is extremely high—85% according to one estimate.
I have direct experience with the subject of Autistic adult employment. As an adult in my early 30s—in 2012—I received my first official medical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder: I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. This diagnosis was supposed to help me receive disability accommodations in future employment after I received my master’s degree. After all, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, employers are supposed to provide “reasonable accommodations” to persons with documented disabilities in order to help them overcome barriers to performing a job.
Over the past 15 years, I have had about seven employers—all low wage jobs—and have mostly gone without disability accommodations—not because I don’t need them but because I’ve found it impossible in most cases to obtain them. In most of these jobs, it was a psychologically shattering strain for me to try to succeed at them and try to compensate for my learning disabilities and moderate verbal communication impairment.
As far as I can tell, one of the reasons for my difficulties in obtaining employment accommodations is that, looking at me on the surface, I appear “high functioning.” As a job counselor with my state government’s Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) said to me 15 years ago, “You have a master’s degree, you shouldn’t be working at McDonalds,” when I suggested the latter as a possible employment route. When I had my first meeting with a supervisor at a job with a medical company in 2021, she remarked—thinking she was giving me a compliment—that I “didn’t look” like I had Asperger’s Syndrome. According to her I appeared “well put together” and well spoken. However, before long, previously invisible manifestations of my disabilities became apparent to her; I quit the job after four months as the supervisor made clear she was preparing to write me up for ineptitude.
The Trump administration’s approach to Autism is part and parcel of its punitive and uncaring approach to underprivileged Americans in general, as demonstrated by its draconian gutting of an already devastated American welfare state.
Although at one point the supervisor suggested she would be willing to give me disability accommodations, the company’s corporate office refused, saying that I would have to go through the costly and lengthy process of getting a new diagnosis of Autism before they would consider granting accommodations. The corporate HR official said that my 2012 Aspergers diagnosis was obsolete because of new diagnostic criteria for Autism embodied in the 2013 publication of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
However, perhaps the most important reason for my frequent failure to secure disability accommodations is that, in many cases, the willingness of employers to provide accommodations often comes into conflict with the need to maximize worker productivity in the interests of profit. Even when accommodations are officially provided, they can easily become reduced to irrelevance as supervisors feel the pressure to maximize efficiency and productivity and lash out at employees. I myself have been bullied at a previous job for aspects of my personality related to my Autism—in spite of this job being one of the few instances where I was provided with formal disability accommodations—and have seen other Autistic coworkers similarly treated.
Meanwhile, I can report that I have been employed in a full time job for the last four years with the same company, currently making per hour approximately $3.49 more than my state’s minimum wage. I work with no disability accommodations at this job and have only told one coworker that I am Autistic. Within the last year, the company has assigned me a more public-facing role in tasks especially incompatible with my Autism-related disabilities. I’m highly tempted to ask HR for accommodations—to at least minimize my work in the public-facing role—but fear rejection and unduly antagonizing my supervisor who has long faced a staffing shortage in the public-facing role.
I think my situation is emblematic of a broader problem faced by Autistic people: There is so much public misunderstanding of our condition and, in spite of some progress, nowhere near enough ways for us to advocate for the manner in which society can respect our needs.
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Experts ‘Shocked and Appalled’ Over Trump, RFK Jr. Claims on Autism, Tylenol
"Don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine," said Britain's top health official.
Sep 23, 2025
Medical experts in the United States and abroad expressed shock Monday at US President Donald Trump's claim that acetaminophen, commonly known by the brand name Tylenol, is linked to autism spectrum disorders in developing fetuses when taken during pregnancy.
Trump made the claim during a press conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy where the president at one point made a broad statement about the prevalence of autism before checking to make sure it was correct.
"There are certain groups of people that don't take vaccines and don't take any pills, that have no autism," said the president before asking the health officials assembled at the event, "Is that a correct statement, by the way?"
Kennedy replied that "there are some studies that suggest" there are low autism rates in Amish communities, which tend to have low immunization rates—but do not uniformly shun vaccines or the use of over-the-counter medications.
The debunked myth that autism spectrum disorders do not exist in Amish communities was just one of Trump's claims aimed at linking the use of Tylenol to autism—an effort that left Helen Tager-Flusberg, a psychologist and the founder of the Coalition of Autism Scientists, "shocked and appalled."
"In some respects this was the most unhinged discussion of autism that I have ever listened to," Tager-Flusberg told The New York Times in a discussion with three other experts. "It was clear that none of the presenters knew much about autism—other than the mothers’ lived experience—and nothing about the existing science. This may be the most difficult day in my career."
"To hear from the most powerful office in the world that you should definitely not take paracetamol during pregnancy is alarming and will frighten women."
A central claim presented during the press conference was that the consumption of Tylenol during pregnancy is linked to autism in children—a potential connection that scientists have researched for years with inconclusive results.
Administration officials referred to a recent scientific review from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which did not conduct any new research on birth outcomes but compiled evidence from existing scientific studies of the use of Tylenol during pregnancy.
Andrea Baccarelli, the dean of the Harvard TH Chan School and a co-author of the review, said Monday after the press conference that—as doctors have already long warned—"caution" is warranted regarding the use of Tylenol in pregnancy, especially prolonged or heavy use, but that a causal link to autism has not been proven by the available research.
The president suggested the link has been proven, telling the public: "Don’t take Tylenol [during pregnancy]. Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it.”
"Don't take Tylenol!" -- Trump has said this about a dozen times during this press conference pic.twitter.com/eOcEsWXXnu
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2025
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists affirmed that "in two decades of research on the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy, not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that the use of acetaminophen in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children." The group added that fever during pregnancy "can be harmful to pregnant people when left untreated." Acetaminophen is an often-used fever reducer.
Trump and Kennedy also repeated the long-debunked claim that vaccines are linked to autism and said they would commit millions of taxpayer dollars to researching environmental factors, including vaccines.
The experts who spoke to the Times took issue with a central viewpoint presented at the press conference: that the rise in diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders represents a "crisis."
"If anything, the fact we now have increased diagnoses is a reason to celebrate," said Eric Garcia, the Washington bureau chief for The Independent and the author of We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation. "For the longest time, we overlooked autistic people of color and girls. Having data is good. It allows us to ask: 'What do we do with these people? How can we serve them?' Instead, we’re seeing their existence as a crisis."
Epidemiologist Brian K. Lee added that "increased awareness and changing diagnostic criteria" is behind the rise in diagnoses, and Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, noted that Trump incorrectly claimed that "one in 31" children is now diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
"That’s the prevalence for the full autism spectrum. The prevalence of profound autism is about one in 216," said Singer, who is also the mother of a child with autism.
In the United Kingdom, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was blunt in his assessment of Trump's comments on autism and acetaminophen, which is known in the UK as paracetamol.
"I’ve just got to be really clear about this: There is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children," said Streeting. "I would just say to people watching, don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine. In fact, don’t take even take my word for it, as a politician—listen to British doctors, British scientists, the NHS."
Sorcha Eastwood, a member of Parliament from Northern Ireland, added that Trump's unfounded claim was "wrapped in blame towards women and shaming women."
"To hear from the most powerful office in the world that you should definitely not take paracetamol during pregnancy is alarming and will frighten women. To hear that if you take paracetamol during pregnancy that you will give your child autism is completely unfounded and untrue," said Eastwood.
Earlier this year, Kennedy angered disability rights advocates with a proposal, described by National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya, to create a national registry for people with autism. The Health and Human Services Department later walked back Bhattacharya's comments.
But "the language and attitude displayed by Trump and RFK," said Eastwood, displayed "their blatant prejudice towards autism."
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It Cannot Be Denied: Israel Is Starving Children to Death on Purpose
Starvation of civilians is not an accident of war, it is a deliberate policy.
Aug 22, 2025
In July, major news organizations published the image of 18-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a Palestinian child so emaciated that his bones protruded through his back, while his mom cradled him in her arms. Instead of a diaper, he wore a black plastic bag.
Some online commentators have sought to downplay the image’s power by pointing to a preexisting medical condition. But Muhammad is starving as the result of Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war. This is a war crime that is affecting the entire population and, based on my research, is inflicting particularly profound suffering on children with disabilities like Muhammad.
Humanitarian workers told me that restrictions on aid prevent them from bringing in special food that some children with disabilities or medical conditions need, while medical workers warned that children with disabilities are less likely to get care due to the Israeli government’s systematic assault on Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure.
In mid-August, in Geneva, I joined the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for its session focused on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, governments are required to protect people with disabilities in situations of risks, including armed conflicts. The message from disability groups was clear: Governments need to press Israeli authorities to allow unimpeded, disability-inclusive humanitarian access and not leave children like Muhammad to suffer the consequences of intentional starvation.
Muhammad’s image should move world leaders to use all their leverage with Israel, including an arms embargo and targeted sanctions, to stop Israeli authorities’ mass starvation policy.
There are countless examples of Palestinian children with disabilities thriving with adequate nutrition and healthcare. In just one example, 6-year-old Fadi al-Zant, who has cystic fibrosis and was severely malnourished, was evacuated to the United States from Gaza last year and survived. Osman Shahin, a 16-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who had lost 7 kilograms, regained weight after his family left Gaza for Bosnia.
But Muhammed and other children in Gaza do not have that chance. Between April and mid-July alone, more than 20,000 children in Gaza were hospitalized for acute malnourishment, 3,000 of them severely. Starvation of civilians is not an accident of war, it is a deliberate policy.
Muhammad’s image should move world leaders to use all their leverage with Israel, including an arms embargo and targeted sanctions, to stop Israeli authorities’ mass starvation policy. Muhammad’s disability does not make his starvation less cruel or unlawful; it makes it all the more urgent for countries to act now.
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