Published on 12, July, 2020
Asperger United was renamed The Spectrum by the NAS as a result of the findings about the life and work of Hans Asperger by Herwig Czech earlier in 2018.
https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2018-04-19-study-on-hans-asperger.aspx
www.autism.org.uk/.../the-spectrum.aspx
Is this an indication that the NAS is (quietly?) phasing out Asperger from their website and publications?
The services that the NAS has provided for people with AS have been the point of much contention over the years. This has included criticism that the NAS focuses the majority of its efforts onto people at the more severe end of the autism spectrum or those who require residential care services whereas people with AS only get the crumbs. Therefore the NAS could take advantage of the findings of Herwig Czech as a backdoor way to abandon supporting people with AS and effectively turn the clock back to the 1980s when people with (then undiagnosed) AS would almost always fail to meet the criteria for autism.
Some people argue that AS should be phased out anyway because it is no longer included in DSM-5 but DSM-5 is American and it has been rather cynically referred to as a catalogue of billing codes for insurance companies rather than a list of medical conditions.
( Officials and Experts (Doctors, Psychiatrists, and the like) still even now use the term "Aspergers" (in 2019) - but they may then add "High Functioning Autism" or "Level 1 Autism" to that. Separately. Those clever people who came up with those two 'catchy' terms of "NeuroTypical" and "Allistic" (Meaning 'Not ND' and 'Not-Autistic', respectively) and 'NeuroDiverse'...need to find a new 'catchy' term to 'replace' Aspergers, is what they need to do.
(Note, anyone new, that this Thread was begun 3 Months ago, and so the Main Title Question has long been answered now... I.e. - YES, it has been phased out. The fact that AS persons get less support is another discussion here. )
I only try to Post this because I keep seeing this Thread appearing, and so please excuse me.
Current Austerity (Money grabbing) may well restrict some from correct diagnosis, though. It is cheaper to just ignore people and to treat everone as a Sheep, rather than pay someone to recocgnise and acknowledge a Horse amongst that entire herd. Or something... ) :-/
Disambiguating Cynosure said:YES, it has been phased out
There is no evidence that the NAS was phasing out AS from its website and publications prior to the article by Herwig Czech about the life and work of Hans Asperger being published in April 2018.