Autism, Neurodiversity and the Welfare State: The Challenges of Accommodating Neurological Difference MICHAEL ORSINI University of Ottawa We have your son. We will make sure he will not be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning. Autism Introduction The text of this epigraph accompanied a publicity campaign launched in 2007 by the New York University Child Study Center to sensitize the public to autism. Dubbed the Ransom Notes campaign, the print and TV ads became a rallying cry for many in the autism community. Activists were incensed by the ominous voice-over that accompanied the ads, which sought to communicate the idea of autism as an abductor of innocent children, and of an unstoppable epidemic ~Autistic Self-Advocacy Net- work @ASAN# , 2007!. ASAN leader Ari Ne’eman, who spearheaded oppo- sition to the campaign, called it “highly offensive” for relying “on some of the oldest and most offensive disability stereotypes to frighten parents This article is based on research funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council ~SSHRC! Standard Research Grant, #410–2007–0256, and approved by the Research Ethics Board of the University of Ottawa. The author thanks the journal’s three anonymous reviewers, Michael Prince and Miriam Smith for helpful com- ments. My colleagues Luc Turgeon and Martin Papillon ably assisted with the trans- lation of the abstract. Jim Sinclair of Autism Network International facilitated my participation in the Autreat meeting at which many interviews were conducted with autistic participants. Audrey L’Esperance, Sarah Wiebe and Melissa Moor provided superb research assistance. Michael Orsini, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, 120 University Private ~11002!, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, email: morsini@uottawa.ca Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique 45:4 (December/décembre 2012) 805–827 doi:10.10170S000842391200100X © 2012 Canadian Political Science Association ~l’Association canadienne de science politique! and0et la Société québécoise de science politique