Adult Autism
The adult autism movement was started by autistic individuals to demand tolerance for what they term "neuro-diversity", that is, their "differentness". The adult autism movement has surprisingly received support from parents of autistic children.
The Internet has proved to be a boon for the adult autism movement since it provides a medium for autistic people to express themselves online and can present their case for social acceptance. These people do not ask for a cure but want to be given an opportunity to gainfully utilize their special skills.
Adult Autism
The underlying premise of the adult autism movement is the conviction that autism is not a disorder but a different way of life. The proponents of this approach fear that the attempts to 'cure' an autistic person may destroy his/her original personality and the special skills that they might possess and they consider it insulting.
The adult autism community believe that autism is a healthy variation in the neurological hard-wiring and that autism is a fundamental component of the autistic person's personality and cannot be removed from him/her. Some exponents of this theory, namely, Jim Sinclair and Michelle Dawson hold that they should refer to people with autism as "autistic people" so that there is no implication that autism is something that can be removed from the person.
Adult autism groups with an anti-cure leaning admit that some aspects of autism (especially sensory issues) are painful to endure but think that sacrificing their personalities to live "normal" lives is too high a price to pay. They would like 'normal' people to be more tolerant instead of trying to cure this differentness. According to this school of thought, adult autism education programs should gear up to provide autistics the wherewithal to overcome their autism-induced limitations rather than trying to 'cure' them.
This view of the adult autism movement is opposed by the parents of autistic children since they see autism as a source of pain and difficulty for their children and want it to be cured so as to reduce the suffering their children are going through.
There is a belief among some adherents of the adult autism movement that the present focus of various autism organizations is too focused on children and parents of autistic children and not enough attention is being paid to adult autism. There is also a viewpoint that there are more services for autistic children and their parents as compared to adult autistics. In fact, there is a belief that some services and resources (like asRespite) are geared more towards the parents of autistic children than the children themselves.
There is a common, though , incorrect belief that patients of adult autism do not have any emotions or sense of humor, this is belied by the existence of autistic comedians(Dan Aykroyd, is an example). The adult autism movement rejects this viewpoint and say that their sense of humor is extremely well-developed but neuro-typical people cannot relate to it and vice-versa due their different expressions of emotion.