Broadway Books</br></br>Product Description</br></br><b>Finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction<br><br>An extraordinary narrative history of autism: the riveting story of parents fighting for their children s civil rights; of doctors struggling to define autism; of ingenuity self-advocacy and profound social change</b><br><br>Nearly seventy-five years ago?Donald Triplett of Forest Mississippi became the first?child diagnosed?with?autism. Beginning with his familys odyssey <i>In a Different Key</i> tells the extraordinary story of this often misunderstood condition and of the civil rights battles waged by the families of those who have it. Unfolding over decades it is a beautifully rendered history of ordinary people determined to secure a place in the world for those with autismby liberating children from dank institutions campaigning for their right to go to school challenging expert opinion on what it means to have autism and persuading society to accept those who are different.? <br><br>It is the story of women like Ruth Sullivan who rebelled against a medical establishment that blamed cold and rejecting refrigerator mothers for causing autism; and of fathers who pushed scientists to dig harder for treatments. Many others played starring roles too: doctors like Leo Kanner?? who pioneered our understanding of autism; lawyers like Tom Gilhool?? who took the families?? battle for education to the courtroom; scientists who sparred over how to treat autism; and those with autism?? like Temple Grandin?? Alex Plank?? and Ari Ne??eman?? who explained their inner worlds and championed the philosophy of neurodiversity. <br><br>This is also a story of fierce controversies?from the question of whether there is truly an autism ??epidemic???? and whether vaccines played a part in it; to scandals involving ??facilitated communication???? one of many treatments that have proved to be blind al