An obituary in The Independent in early August alerted us to the news of the death on 29th July 2016 of Suzanne Wright.
Suzanne was the autism campaigner who, with her husband Bob, set up the US-based charity Autism Speaks, which is now described as ‘the world’s largest autism fundraising charity’. In 2006 the charity secured a federal government funding commitment of over $1bn into autism research, and helped establish World Autism Awareness Day. Autism Speaks was not a stranger to controversy, and in the USA was challenged by other autism campaigners over the image of autism which it projected (We are referring here of a debate over ‘the medical model’ and ‘the social model’ of the condition).
But for many people on the autistic spectrum outside the USA, and for their parents and carers, Suzanne Wright’s most relevant achievement will have been to fund the world-wide coordination of research into autism – notably via the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange .
The obituary in the Independent is no longer available online, but we have found this obituary in The Daily Telegraph. Well worth a read…