User:TLPG/Sue Rubin

Sue Rubin is a functionally non-verbal published autistic author who was the subject of the Academy Award nominated documentary Autism Is A World in which she communicated via the controversial communication technique of Facilitated Communication.

Rubin graduated from Whittier College in Whittier, California with a Bachelor's degree in Latin American History in May 2013.

Rubin considers herself to be a low-functioning autistic person. She has stated that there exists a rift in the autistic community between high functioning autistics who, often, resist efforts to find a cure for autism, and low-functioning autistics like herself who strongly support a cure: "High-functioning people speak and low-functioning people don't. ... Low-functioning people are just trying to get through the day without hurting, tapping, flailing, biting, screaming, etc. The thought of a gold pot of a potion with a cure really would be wonderful."

Rubin was a contributing author featured in the published collection edited by Douglas Biklen entitled Autism and The Myth of The Person Alone. The book featured functionally non-verbal published authors with autism including Lucy Blackman, Tito Mukhopadhay, artist Larry Bissonette, Alberto Frugone, Jamie Burke and award winning writer Richard Attfield. In the introduction to her chapter, Biklen writes that Sue has "become a leading disability rights advocate and keynote speaker at many disability conferences".

In an interview with Brent Bambury on CBC Radio, Rubin claimed that an autism symptom is a "disconnect between mind and body". This is disputed by Phil Gluyas who stated that the disconnect Rubin experiences is separate to autism and in fact she has the connection through facilitated communication, although he adds that the mechanical connection could be seen by Rubin as not natural and therefore wrong. However he notes that Rubin wants a cure for the purpose of eliminating that disconnection when it won't.