27 h. ago Autistic people and experts voice alarm at RFK’s ‘terrible’ approach to condition

Health secretary is planning wide-ranging monitoring of autistic people’s health record and cuts to disability servicesAutism experts and autistic people are pushing back on Robert F Kennedy’s “terrible” approach to autism as the health secretary plans more expansive monitoring of autistic people’s health records and proposes cuts to disability services.A huge study on autism proposed by Kennedy will draw upon private medical records from federal and commercial databases, and a new health registry will track autistic Americans, CBS News reported on Monday. Continue reading...

Events

37 h. ago Danny Dyer tearfully reveals wife Joanne still controls all their finances 25 years after his wild youth which saw him cheat on her and go on drug

The actor, 47, gets a grilling in ITV 's new show The Assembly, which sees a celebrity face questions from a group of autistic, neurodivergent and learning disabled people.

Events

40 h. ago Danny Dyer takes cheeky swipe at his 'nepo baby' kids as he defends parenting decision

EastEnders star Danny Dyer took part in a new series called The Assembly, where he answered questions from autistic, neurodivergent and learning disabled people

Politics

41 h. ago RFK Jr.’s medical record plan frightens autistic people and their parents

‘A real fear right now in the autism community that what RFK is trying to do is somewhere along the line of eugenics,’ one autistic lawyer tells Eric Garcia

Politics

43 h. ago Producers wanted to avoid being ‘unpleasant’ to interviewers on The Assembly

The show sees celebrities interviewed by a group of autistic, neurodivergent and learning disabled people.

Politics

5 d. ago RFK’s statements prove autistic people and their families everywhere should fear Trump and his allies | John Harris

The idea that autism is some aberration that can be cured is typical of a movement that celebrates simplistic thinking and loathes human differenceIn the recent past, Robert F Kennedy Jr has said that Donald Trump is “a terrible human being” and “probably a sociopath”. But in the US’s new age of irrationalism and chaos, these two men are now of one voice, pursuing a strand of Trumpist politics that sometimes feels strangely overlooked. With Trump once again in the White House and Kennedy ensconced as his health and human services secretary, what they are jointly leading is becoming clearer by the day: a war on science and knowledge that aims to replace them with the modern superstitions of conspiracy theory.Nearly 2,000 members of the US’s National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have warned of “slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories, and hampering international scientific collaboration”. Even work on...

Politics

7 d. ago While RFK Jr. warns of an ‘autism epidemic’, his department cut research money to reduce autistic suicides

Laura Graham Holmes received a grant to find interventions to reduce suicide among autistic people. Now that grant has been cut

Events

9 d. ago Vets 'concerned' about highly contagious virus as UK issues ban amid outbreak in Europe

Experts have voiced concerns over the murky origins of the latest infections in Europe

Science

1 week ago Why you should mind your business when you see autistic people stimming

There’s no need to comment or intervene, says Aimee Grant

Politics

1 week ago Danny Dyer questioned on being working class in The Assembly trailer

Celebrities face questions from a group of autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled people on the show.

Politics

1 week ago ‘Disruptive’ Minecraft movie trend ‘causing distress to autistic children’

Send charities have said the trend creates ‘unnecessary anxiety’ for autistic people.

Politics

3 w. ago Why we should all mind our own business when we see autistic people stimming

There’s no need to comment or intervene, writes Aimee Grant

Politics

3 w. ago Undiagnosed entertainment: how Hollywood awkwardly dodges autism

Eccentric, blunt-speaking characters who present as being on the spectrum are everywhere on our screens – but why are their creators so reluctant to state it openly?I received my autism diagnosis about a decade into my career as a comedian and about three decades into being alive. In the eyes of some of the frothier comment section trolls, being a comedian means that I can’t be autistic, despite the likes of Fern Brady and Stewart Lee proving otherwise. This is because people are keener on stereotypes than admitting they know nothing about autism – why is the general level of knowledge so poor?With Elon Musk and Robert F Kennedy Jr doing their best to make autism terrifying again, either by implying that it causes sieg heiling or by bringing back the MMR autism panic of the 1990s (along with actual measles), it struck me that we autistic people don’t have a lot of reliable representation to fall back on. There’s Rain Man, of course, and Ben Af...

Events

3 w. ago REVEALED: Number of autistic people locked up in Scotland's maximum security State Hospital has more than doubled

A record number of autistic patients have been locked up against their will alongside rapists and murderers at Scotland's maximum security State Hospital.

Events