Top Autism Blogs - Neurodiversity
Ballastexistenz, Left Brain/Right Brain, and Autism.Change.org
May 17, 2009
Neurodiversity may be one of those misunderstood autism terms but for neurodiversity proponents, it is easily one of the most important. In the simplest way, neurodiversity can be defined as true autism acceptance; accepting that an individual with autism doesn’t need to be fixed, doesn’t have a disorder, and just thinks differently than those without autism (neurotypicals or NTs).
As autism increased in prevalence, the push to find a cure became prominent and neurodiversity advocates began to speak up against the need to spend countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars to cure people that were ‘suffering from autism’. To help spread the message among the mass of media coverage garnered by those seeking a cure, many turned to blogs.
Ballastexistenz
Amanda Baggs became one of the most well known neurodiversity advocates after appearing in a series of interviews on CNN with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. She blogs at Ballastexistenz, which is hosted on the autistics.org site, and has hundreds of posts on several different topics.
The first posts on her blog date back to June 2005 and include articles on the following topics: outside perceptions, institutions, discrimination, and several categories focused on autism stereotypes.
In addition to the many categories, Baggs’ has also created several pages dedicated to more popular or controversial topics. Her videos have received over one million views on YouTube and she has a section of her blog dedicated to how she makes her videos and includes a section on upcoming videos.
Baggs’ blog, Ballastexistenz, is easily one of the most popular, and at times controversial, neurodiversity blogs on the Internet.
Left Brain/Right Brain
UK-based Left Brain/Right Brain (LBRB) was started by Kevin Leitch in 2003 and has grown to be one of the best resources for parents that want to learn more about neurodiversity and why it is so important. Amidst all of the parent blogs that focus on curing their children of autism at all costs comes Leitch’s blog that helps parents learn to accept their child for who he is.
Since its inception, LBRB has transformed and now a team reports on autism news, science, and opinion. Anthony Cox, Ken Reibel, and Mike Stanton round out the team but the site still regularly features guest and anonymous bloggers.
Autism at Change.org
Kristina Chew and Dora Raymaker are the co-bloggers on the Change.org autism blog. Kristina Chew formerly blogged at Autism Vox and is the mother of a child with autism. Her blog tells the story of parenting Charlie. Chew’s describes three different stages that she went through after Charlie was diagnosed in the 1990s: accepting your child, navigating the real world with your child, and advocating for autism acceptance in the community.
Dora Raymaker is an autistic self-advocate and has a passion for autistic and disability rights. Raymaker discusses educational rights, equal employment rights, and the need for fair treatment in the media, among other things.
Parents or professionals looking for information on the neurodiversity and autistic self-advocacy movements will find that these three blogs are a great resource. In the sea of autism blogs, these three stand out as shining examples of true autism acceptance.
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