Suzanne Wright, co-founder with her husband Bob Wright of Autism Speaks in 2005, died July 29. Controversy currently swirls around the organization.

Wright, who died in her home in Fairfield, Conn., founded AS after her grandson, Christian, stopped speaking when he was two-and-a-half and was diagnosed with autism, according to a New York Times story.

NYT - Suzanne Wright DiesHer husband at the time was president and CEO of NBC. He retired in 2007. Autism Speaks, with $57.4 million in revenues in 2014, latest year available, is by far the largest charity connected to the condition.

Suzanne created the Autism Speaks logo, a blue jigsaw puzzle piece that is meant to show how “adrift and disconnected autism patients and their families could feel,” in the words of NYT.

Families Decry “Harmful Language”

A number of families whose members have autism have conducted a battle with the organization in recent years, saying AS uses “profoundly harmful language” and rhetoric in its advertising and fund-raising, overpays its staff, and spends little on families and too much on research devoted to causation and prevention.

AS, says autisticadvocacy.org “uses damaging and offensive fundraising tactics which rely on fear, stereotypes and devaluing the lives of people on the autism spectrum. Its advertisements and ‘awareness’ campaigns portray autistic adults and children as not full human beings, but as burdens on society that must be eliminated as soon as possible.”

The website says those with Autism have been “systematically excluded from place of leadership throughout the organization and its chapters.” It notes that on Dec. 7, 2015, after ten years of “widespread criticism,” it finally put two Autistic people on its board.

It called the appointments “superficial.” AS, it says, will “continue to fail as an organization that can create real, positive change for the Autistic community” unless its activities “include public policy advocacy and community engagement to encourage inclusion and respect for neurodiversity, leadership training, cross-disability advocacy, and the development of Autistic cultural activity.”

“Disastrous” Autism Rate Blamed on Radiation

The number of children diagnosed with autism has exploded from one in 10,000 several decades ago to one in 68, according to Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Radiation is not mentioned on the AS website as a possible cause of Autism.

The answer, according Martin Pall, Ph.D., biochemistry, of Washington State University, is microwave electro-magnetic radiation fields from routers, cellphones, computers, wireless iPads, cell towers, wireless utility meters and other sources. U.S. classrooms from the earliest grades are normally equipped with Wi-Fi systems and many children have their own cellphones.

Pall has authored a 42-page analysis of the biology involved when the body interacts with pulsed microwave radiation.

AS revenues were $69M+ in 2008, $669,751 going to chief science officer Geri Dawson, reports disabilityscoop.com.

Her compensation included $269,721 in relocation expenses to move her family from Washington to North Carolina. Dawson’s base salary was $373,360, more than any of the organization’s 257 other employees, including Autism Speaks president Mark Roithmayr. Employee compensation accounted for more than a quarter of Autism Speaks’ income for the year.

Angela Geiger, formerly chief strategy officer for the Alzheimer’s Assn., joined Autism Speaks in February2016 as president and CEO. She succeeded Elizabeth Feld who had total remuneration of $415,065 in the year to Dec. 31, 2014. Geiger was previously with the American Cancer Society for eight years and has a B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh.

C.J. Volpe is chief of media strategy and Aurelia Grayson is senior director of media strategy. Michael Rosen, who was executive VP, strategic communications, has left it. His package totaled $276,871 in 2014. Attempts by this website to reach any staffers at Autism Speaks by phone or email since July 21 have been unsuccessful. AS offices are at 1 E. 33rd st.