Author: Kathleen Seidel

I am an independent researcher and writer, a sometime librarian, nonprofit staffer, web developer, and bookseller, and former proprietor of the website Neurodiversity.com (now archived at Neurodiversity.net). Between 2005 and 2012, Neurodiversity Weblog featured essays on autism advocacy, disabling language, autism science, autism litigation, speculative autism treatments, and ethics in human subjects research. My series "Significant Misrepresentations" was the first in-depth exploration of Mark and David Geier’s “Lupron Protocol,” and "Vaccine Court Chronicles" discussed vaccine injury litigation and the attorneys and self-styled “experts” who promote marginally-supported hypotheses of disability causation. My experience as a blogger and autism advocate is described in the chapter "Neurodiversity.com: A Decade of Advocacy" in "Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement" (edited by Steven K. Kapp, Springer Nature, 2020). I am also co-author with Bruce Schneier of "A Worldwide Survey of Encryption Products" (Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 2016). My work was the subject of Brian Deer’s article, "What Makes an Expert?" (BMJ, March 31, 2007), and a chapter in Paul Offit's book, "Autism's False Prophets" (Columbia University Press, 2008).