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| Founded | February 11, 2005; 21 years ago (2005-02-11)[2] |
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| 20-2329938[1] | |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization |
| Headquarters | New York City[1] |
| Coordinates | 40°44′52″N73°59′04″W / 40.7477494°N 73.9843983°W /40.7477494; -73.9843983 |
| Services | Awareness, family services, advocacy[1] |
| Keith Wargo[3] | |
| Joe Vanyo[3] | |
| Subsidiaries | Delivering Scientific Innovation for Autism LLC, Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism Inc, Autism Speaks Canada[1] |
| Website | autismspeaks |
Autism Speaks Inc. is an American non-profitautism awareness organization and the largest autism research organization in the United States.[4][5][6] It sponsors autism research and conducts awareness and outreach activities aimed at families, governments, and the public.[4] It was founded in February 2005 byBob Wright and his wife Suzanne, a year after their grandson Christian was diagnosed with autism. The same year as its founding, the organization merged with Autism Coalition for Research and Education. It then merged with theNational Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) in 2006 and Cure Autism Now (CAN) in 2007.
Members of theautistic rights andneurodiversity movements do not see autism as a disease that needs to be cured,[7][8] and have criticized Autism Speaks for seeking a cure.[8][9][10][11] The word "cure" was dropped from its mission statement in 2016.[12]
 | This section lists events whosechronological order is ambiguous, backward, or otherwise incorrect. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page. Please do not remove this message until the described events are arranged in an unambiguous forward-chronological sequence.(February 2026) |
Autism Speaks was founded in February 2005 byBob Wright, vice chairman ofGeneral Electric, and his wife Suzanne, a year after their grandson Christian was diagnosed with autism.[13] The organization was established with a $25 million donation fromThe Home Depot founderBernie Marcus, who sat on its board of directors for some years.[14][15] Since its founding, Autism Speaks has merged with three existing autism organizations.[13]
Autism Speaks has combined organizations that fundedpeer-reviewed research into genetic causes, promoted alternative theories and therapies, and advocated for people with autism.[13] In 2005, Autism Speaks merged with the Autism Coalition for Research and Education.[16] In early 2006, a year after its founding, Autism Speaks merged with NAAR.[17] NAAR, founded in 1994, was the first U.S. nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting research into causes, treatment, and cures for autism spectrum disorders.[18] The founders comprised a small group of parents, including two psychiatrists, a lawyer and a chemistry professor.[19] In 2007, Autism Speaks completed its merger with CAN.[13][failed verification] CAN was founded in 1995 by Jonathan Shestack and Portia Iversen.[20]
In January 2008, child clinical psychologistGeraldine Dawson became Autism Speaks' chief science officer. In April 2010, the organization namedYoko Ono its first "Global Autism Ambassador."[21] Autism Speaks has used the "Wubbzy" character fromWow! Wow! Wubbzy! as a mascot.[22] In 2019, Autism Speaks featured the autistic characterJulia fromSesame Street inpublic service announcements (PSAs) promoting early autism screening. The use of Julia in the PSAs prompted theAutistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), an autistic-led nonprofit organization, to end its years-long collaboration withthe show's production company. ASAN objected to the PSAs promoting Autism Speaks' guide for families of newly diagnosed children (the "100 Day Kit"), which it criticized for lacking information aboutcommunication supports, usingstigmatizing language, and promotingcompliance-based therapies andpseudoscientific diets.[23]
In May 2015, Bob Wright resigned as chairman of the organization and was succeeded by Brian Kelly.[24] Co-founder Suzanne Wright took aleave of absence in November 2015, following a diagnosis ofpancreatic cancer. She died in July 2016.[25]
Mark Roithmayr led Autism Speaks from 2005 to 2012. In June 2012, he was succeeded by Liz Feld[26] who had joined the organization the same year as executive vice president of strategic communications before she was promoted to become the president.[27] Feld was succeeded by Angela Timashenka Geiger who served in the position beginning in February 2016.[28] In October 2021, Autism Speaks appointed Keith Wargo as its new president and CEO.[29]
In 2024, Autism Speaks Canada, the Canadian arm of the organization, announced that it would be shutting down effective January 31, 2025. The organization said that the United States branch would continue operation.[30]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2026) |
Autism Speaks, along with its predecessor organizations, has been a source of funding for research into the causes and treatment ofautism spectrum disorder; it also conducts awareness and outreach activities aimed at families, governments and the public.[4]
Autism Speaks and its predecessor organizations have raised public awareness for autism research, raised funds directly for research, and lobbied Congress to leverage the privately raised money with much greater public funds. From 1997 to 2006, their advocacy in the areas of treatment and environmental factors shifted research priorities in the U.S. from basic research to translational and clinical research, with less emphasis on the underlying biology and greater emphasis on putting what was known to practical use.[31]
As of 2008, Autism Speaks supported research in four main areas:[32]
Autism Speaks and theNational Institute of Mental Health fund theAutism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE),[33] a nonprofitDNA repository and family registry of genotypic and phenotypic information that is available to autism researchers worldwide.[33][34] AGRE was established in the late 1990s by researchers and theNational Institutes of Health in collaboration with CAN.[35]
Autism Speaks previously funded the Autism Tissue Program, a network of researchers that managed and distributed brain tissues collected post-mortem from autistic people and their family members.Such donations are rare and a vital component of research into the causes of autism.[36] In 2014, all functions of the Autism Tissue Program were rolled over into Autism BrainNet, which is jointly funded by Autism Speaks and theSimons Foundation.[37]
Autism Speaks supports the Clinical Trials Network, which focuses on new pharmacological treatments. It also supports the Toddler Treatment Network, which develops new interventions for infants and toddlers.[32]
Since June 2014, Autism Speaks has partnered withGoogle on a project called Mssng (pronounced "missing"). Previously known as The Autism Speaks Ten Thousand Genomes Program (AUT10K), it is an open source research platform for autism that aims to collect and study the DNA of 10,000 families that have been affected by autism. The goal is to create the world's largest database of sequenced genomic information of autism run on Google's cloud-based genome database, Google Genomics. In December 2014, the pair announced they would allow worldwide access to the research for further collaboration and genome analysis.[38] Autism Speaks' other partners on the project includeThe Hospital for Sick Children and DNAStack.[39][40] Mssng has been criticized by some autistic individuals and advocates for using a title that implies autistic people are incomplete, excluding the autistic community from the decision-making process, and spending money on research unlikely to have any impact on the lives of autistic people in the near future. Some autistic individuals and advocates have also labeled the projecteugenic and claimed its primary goal is to develop a cure orprenatal test for autism.[5][39][41][42] In 2021, Tom Frazier (then Autism Speaks' chief science officer) disputed those characterizations and stated, "The project really is about actually trying to understand the biology of people with autism so that we can identify the kinds of interventions and supports that they might need."[5]
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Autism Speaks sponsored and distributes the 2006 short filmAutism Every Day, produced by Lauren Thierry and Eric Solomon.[43] Autism Speaks staff memberAlison Singer was reportedly criticized for a scene in which she said, in the presence of her autistic daughter, that when faced with having to place the girl in a school that she deemed to be terrible, she contemplated driving her car off a bridge with her child in the car.[44] Thierry said that these feelings were not unusual among non-autistic mothers of autistic children.[45] According to the bookBattleground: The Media, Thierry instructed the families she interviewed not to do their hair, vacuum or have therapists present, and appeared with her film crew at homes without preliminary preparations, in order to authentically capture the difficulties of life with autistic children, such as autistic children throwing tantrums or physically struggling with parents.[44][45]
In December 2007, Autism Speaks' founder Suzanne Wright met withSheikha Moza bint Nasser ofQatar to urge the country to sponsor aUnited Nationsresolution recognizingWorld Autism Awareness Day.[46] Qatar introduced the resolution, and the resolution was passed and adopted without a vote by theUnited Nations General Assembly, primarily as a supplement to previous United Nations initiatives to improvehuman rights.[47]
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Wright helped launch the Autism Speaks' Light It Up Blue campaign and the annual World Focus on Autism event.[48] Light It Up Blue is a campaign to raise awareness of autism in support of both World Autism Awareness Day, observed on April 2, and the beginning of Autism Awareness Month in the United States.[49][50] As part of the campaign, statues and buildings – including theEmpire State Building inNew York City andWillis Tower inChicago along with theCN Tower inToronto – are among more than 100 structures in at least 16 U.S. cities and nine countries around the world lit up in blue on the evening of April 1, 2010.[51][52] Autism Speaks volunteers and supporters began the day at theNew York Stock Exchange by ringing the opening bell in what has become a yearly tradition since 2008.[53] In 2011, despite efforts by Autism Speaks, theWhite House said it would not light up blue to mark World Autism Awareness Day.[54] In 2017, President Donald Trump fulfilled a promise to Suzanne Wright (co-founder of Autism Speaks) by lighting the White House in blue.[55]
In November 2013, Autism Speaks published an op-ed by co-founder Suzanne Wright.[56] Autistic people and their families criticized the piece for using inaccurate statistics and giving an unrepresentative and exaggerated depiction of the lives of autistic people and their families.[57][58][59]John Elder Robison, aself-advocate who served on the science and treatment advisory boards of the organization, also resigned following the op-ed.[60] At the time of his resignation, Robison stated the following:
Autism Speaks says it's the advocacy group for people with autism and their families. It's not, despite having had many chances to become that voice. Autism Speaks is the only major medical or mental health nonprofit whose legitimacy is constantly challenged by a large percentage of the people affected by the condition they target.[57][61]
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Autism Speaks's past advocacy has been based on the view of autism as a disease: "This disease has taken our children away. It's time to get them back." According toNature in 2008, this is a view that "many but not all autism scientists would endorse".[62] In contrast, autistic activists have promoted the idea of neurodiversity and thesocial model of disability, asserting that autistic people are "different but not diseased", and they challenge "how we conceptualize such medical conditions".[62]
In September 2009, Autism Speaks screened the short videoI Am Autism at its annual World Focus on Autism event. The video created byAlfonso Cuarón and by Autism Speaks board memberBilly Mann was criticized by autism advocates and researchers for its negative portrayal of autism. In response, the organization removed a link to the film from its website.[63][64]
In response to an editorial bySteve Silberman in theLos Angeles Times criticizing Autism Speaks,[10] then-president Liz Feld stated that one-third of autistic people also have aseizure disorder, half have serious digestive complications, 50 percent wander, and more than 30 percent arenonverbal. Feld also discussed Autism Speaks' legal achievements in providing families of those who are autistic more financial assistance and funding, and the various services and awareness initiatives the organization provided.[65]
In October 2016, Autism Speaks removed curing autism as a goal in its mission statement. The new mission statement also removed words such as "struggle", "hardship" and "crisis" to instead read in part that "Autism Speaks is dedicated to promoting solutions, across the spectrum and throughout the lifespan, for the needs of individuals with autism and their families".[66][67]
Autism Speaks formerly assigned a high priority to research into thenow-discredited claim thatimmunization is associated with an increasedrisk of autism. This raised concerns among parents and scientific researchers, because "funding such research, in addition to being wasteful, unduly heightens parents' concerns about the safety of immunization."[68]
In a 2007 interview withThe New York Times, board memberMel Karmazin described Autism Speaks as taking an "agnostic" stance on whether there was a link betweenvaccines and autism. At that time, the organization's founders were embroiled in a public feud with Katie Wright (their daughter and the mother of their autistic grandson), who demanded Autism Speaks formally recognize a causal link between vaccines and autism and fund research investigating such a link even more aggressively than it had been.[13] In an interview that same year withDavid Kirby (the author of the 2005anti-vaccination bookEvidence of Harm[69]), Katie Wright claimed that former NAAR leaders were instead advocating for genetic research and that Autism Speaks was bound by the terms of their merger to fund such research. She also claimed her parents were personally supportive of funding the research she was advocating for and said she hoped CAN leaders joining Autism Speaks would be able to counter the influence of the former NAAR leaders.[70]
In a 2008 interview, Dawson said it was the position of Autism Speaks that vaccines were safe for most children and that preventingmeasles,mumps and other diseases was very important topublic health. However, Dawson qualified that research needed to continue to determine if a subset of people "responded poorly" to vaccines and "to understand the mechanisms behind [their]adverse reactions."[32]
Alison Singer, a senior executive of Autism Speaks, resigned in January 2009 rather than vote to commit money to new studies of vaccination and autism. The U.S.Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, of which Singer was a member, voted against committing the funds; this was contrary to the Autism Speaks policy on vaccine safety research. Singer said that "there isn't an unlimited pot of money, and every dollar spent looking where we know the answer isn't is one less dollar we have to spend where we might find new answers. The fact is that vaccines save lives; they don't cause autism."[71] She said that numerous scientific studies have disproved the link first suggested more than a decade ago and that Autism Speaks needs to "move on".[71] Later in 2009, along with NAAR's co-founder Karen London, Singer launched theAutism Science Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting autism research premised on the principles that autism has a strong genetic component, that vaccines do not cause autism, and that evidence-based early diagnosis and intervention are critical.[72] Autism Speaks' founder Bob Wright called Singer's resignation "disappointing and sad" and said that it is possible that autism is caused by vaccines, though this claim is scientifically inaccurate and has been rejected by all reputable medical organizations.[73]
Eric London, a founding member of the Autism Science Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board, resigned from Autism Speaks' Scientific Affairs Committee in June 2009, saying that arguments that "there might be rare cases of 'biologically-plausible' vaccine involvement ... are misleading and disingenuous", and that Autism Speaks was "adversely impacting" autism research.[74]
In March 2010, Autism Speaks said it would not completely abandon the idea that vaccines could cause autism and that it would support "research to determine whether subsets of individuals might be at increased risk for developing autism symptoms following vaccination".[75]
In September 2010, a study by theU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found exposure tothimerosal, a preservative used in some vaccines, does not increase a child's risk of developing autism. Responding to the study, Autism Speaks' chief science officer said that the "study adds to a large body of evidence indicating that early thimerosal exposure through vaccination does not cause autism."[76]
In August 2014, the organization said "We strongly encourage parents to have their children vaccinated for protection against serious disease. We recognize that some parents still have concerns about vaccines, particularly if they have a child or relative with autism. We urge them to find a health practitioner who will consider their concerns and help them ensure the well-being of their child."[77] In 2017, they took the position that, "Each family has a unique experience with an autism diagnosis, and for some it corresponds with the timing of their child's vaccinations. At the same time, scientists have conducted extensive research over the last two decades to determine whether there is any link between childhood vaccinations and autism. The results of this research is clear: Vaccines do not cause autism."[78]
In April 2025, in response to controversial statements made by anti-vaccine activist andU.S. Secretary of Health and Human ServicesRobert F. Kennedy Jr., Wargo cosigned a joint statement on behalf of Autism Speaks, affirming that vaccines did not cause autism and calling for public health messaging to be "grounded in science." The statement also rejected the claim that autism was "preventable," condemned the use of stigmatizing language, and warned against reductions in federal funding to departments, services and programs relied upon by the autistic community. The other cosignatories were representatives of ASAN, theAutism Society of America, theArc of the United States, the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, and the Autistic People of Color Fund. Additional organizations endorsed the statement after its initial release.[79][80]
It isscientific consensus that there is no link between any vaccine or vaccine ingredient and autism[81][82][83] and that the thimerosal used as a preservative in some vaccines is not harmful.[84][85]
In 2009,Disability Scoop questioned Autism Speaks about its chief science officer, Geri Dawson, who received $669,751 in compensation in 2008, including $269,721 to relocate her family from Washington to North Carolina. Autism Speaks responded that Dawson's compensation was mid-range for executives with similar positions in the nonprofit health sector, and that Dawson's move benefited Autism Speaks because she would be more accessible to its offices, science divisions, government health agencies in Washington, D.C., and her new position at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[86]
In 2012, Autism Speaks spent $2,252,334 on compensation for current officers, directors, trustees, and key employees, whichThe Daily Beast portrayed as controversial. Autism Speaks' former president Mark Roithmayr had a salary of $436,314 in 2012, and Chief Science OfficerGeraldine Dawson earned $465,671.[87]
Compared to other autism-focused nonprofit organizations, Autism Speaks spends a smaller percentage of its revenue on furthering its mission. According to a 2014 report byThe Daily Beast, 70.9% of Autism Speaks' revenue is devoted to directly furthering its mission, compared to 79.8% of ASAN's revenue and 91.5% ofAutism Science Foundation's revenue.[88]
In 2018, Autism Speaks spent $19.6 million on employee benefits. Angela Geiger, the then president, earned more than $642,000, which was more than double the earnings of any other AS executive.[89]
As of 2020,Charity Navigator gives Autism Speaks a rating of three out of four stars with a financial rating of 77 out of 100, and accountability and transparency rating of 97 out of 100.[90]
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