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.
I think that most people who would previously have got an AS diagnosis now get autism spectrum disorder level 1 if DSM 5/ ICD 11 is being used rather than not getting diagnosed? I was only diagnosed very recently and thats what i got, but was also told that in the past it would have been classed as AS, so i think it may basically be more of a name change rather than not supporting people with AS/ ASD 1?