Ebay

Autism Light #457 is eBay.

eBay (NYSE: EBAY) is a multinational ecommerce corporation with headquarters in San Jose, California. eBay was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and is currently a multi-billion dollar corporation with operations in 30 countries. Products on eBay range from basic supplies to eccentric and unusual items. eBay is an Autism Light for the special effort it made to make a memorable moment for a boy with autism named Sammy in 2016.

The following is a YouTube video produced with the efforts of Sammy's mother and the eBay social media team. It was uploaded on December 12, 2016. The following video describes Sammy's love for eBay and their logo and how happy he was to receive some promotional items in the mail from eBay.

Autism Parents Earn Money for Expenses on eBay:  Without a doubt eBay has helped some autism parents earn extra money for the challenging expenses of autism by providing a platform where individuals can make a profit by selling their goods to others.

Autism Parents Can Purchase Resources on eBay: eBay has a special section on their commerce website called Special Needs and Autism Educational Toys. Parents can go directly there to review and purchase resources for the education and growth of their children with autism.

eBay for Charity: eBay has programs in place that allow sellers on their site to support autism. For example, their eBay for Charity program allows sellers to support autism charities by donating 10%-100% of the final selling price of their products to a designated charity (See News Story on the Autism Plus Website). The video below explains how eBay for Charity works.

Wikipedia Page: You can read more about eBay on their Wikipedia Page.

Social Media: You can follow eBay on the following social media areas.

• Facebook Page of eBay
• Twitter @eBay

Special thanks to eBay for being a business that cares about people with autism and autism charities. We hope that they will continue to be an autism friendly business and add a smile to the lives of families with autism.

Autism Light honors diverse heroes to the world of autism.


Note: Autism Light is a neutral blog and we have no relationship to the business featured in this post nor have we received any return of goods or services for writing this post.

Isabelle Rapin

Autism Light #456 is Dr. Isabelle Rapin.

Isabelle Rapin was a child neurologist and leading authority on autism. She served as a distinguished professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine for over half a century. She was an autism pioneer credited with developing the understanding of autism being a spectrum disorder. Isabelle Rapin was born on December 4, 1927, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Isabelle Rapin passed away from pneumonia on May 24, 2017, in Rhinebeck, New York, at the age of 89. She is survived by her husband Harold Oaklander and four children. She will be placed on the Autism Light Memorial Roll today.

Autism Pioneer: Dr. Thomas Frazier II, the chief science officer of Autism Speaks, said about Isabelle Rapin, "Calling her one of the founding mothers of autism is very appropriate. With the gravity she carried, she moved us into a modern understanding of autism (As quoted in New York Times: June 9, 2017)."

Multiple Causes of Autism: Dr. Mark Mehler, chairman of the department of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said of Isabelle Rapin that, "She would never let us say that autism is a single disorder. She always said there was a thousand different causes (As quoted in New York Times: June 9, 2017)."

Bellevue Hospital Center: In 1953, Isabelle Rapin immigrated to the United States, and began her career working at the Bellevue Hospital Center, now known as NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Dr. Isabelle Rapin served as a professor of both Neurology and Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine n New York City from 1958 until her retirement in 2012. On December 19, 2006, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine held an international symposium called "Putting Perspective on Autism" that was held in honor of the life's work of Isabelle Rapin (Medical News Today, December 13, 2006).

Writings: Isabelle Rapin wrote several articles related to autism over her illustrious career that can be found online:

• Isabelle Rapin: Lessons from My Clinic (Spectrum News, May 24, 2011)
• Isabelle Rapin Publications at Research Gate 

Awards: Isabelle Rapin received the following special awards during her lifetime.

• President's Award, American Academy of Neurology (2010)
• Award of Excellence in Autism Research, Autism Society of America

Special Tributes with more Information on Isabelle Rapin: 

• Isabelle Rapin's obituary appeared in the New York Times on June 9, 2017
• Alycia Halladay, Chief Science Officer of the Autism Science Foundation dedicated a podcast to Isabelle Rapin on May 28, 2017. 
• On December 26, 2012, Isabelle Rapin was made a Living Legend by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine website. 

Wikipedia: For more information about Isabelle Rapin read her Wikipedia Page.

Special thanks to Isabelle Rapin for her lifelong work with autism. Her promotion of autism as a spectrum disorder is today widely accepted as the norm in discussion of the variety of individuals with autism. The autism community owes a debt of gratitude to Isabelle Rapin for being a pioneer in understanding autism at a time in the last century when less was understood about autism. May others continue on in the work toward understanding autism in memory of Isabelle Rapin.

Autism Light honors diverse heroes to the world of autism.