Autism is a life-long condition. It cannot be cured. The
misunderstandings of this concept run a gamut from the ignorant,
dangerous and unfathomable actions of parents
making their children drink bleach to cure them of autism to the more well intentioned yet ill-informed people hiring people with autism and thinking their work is done at that step.
Early
diagnosis and intervention are necessary steps to help children with
autism. The sooner the problem can be identified and addressed, the
sooner the children can get the help they need to function on their own
and succeed in school, work and society after that. Failure to do so
takes us back to the days when autistic children were locked up in
asylums and left to rot, unable to reach their potential and have
meaningful lives. Recognizing that these children had skills and could
communicate if we dealt with them on their own terms enabled teachers
and parents to teach them ife skills as well as they could any other
child.
Even as we mainstream these children in our
schools, more work is needed. Teachers and students past the pre-school
and elementary grades need to learn more about their different but not
less peers to prevent bullying and ostracizing, which can lead to
autistic students become depressed, tuning out, and losing ground. After
public school, transitional help is needed in colleges and labor to
continue the work to transition them successfully to jobs and
independent living. When hired, managers cannot stop the work they did
in accommodating the candidates in hiring - simple, ongoing supports are
needed in the work place, management and coworker training is crucial
to retention, and plans need to be put in place for future hires and
management changes. Every parent of an autistic child knows this and
worries late at night: What will my child do when I am too old to care
for them or when I die?
Autism awareness and
acceptance is doing much to change this. Nonprofits work to train
retailers and other businesses to be autism-friendly. Popular television
shows help by showing the unique talents and challenges of working or
befriending people with autism. Hiring programs are learning more each
day about how to retain talented and loyal persons on the spectrum. But
more work and vigilance are needed to finish the job of integrating
autistic people into society and ensuring the received wisdom and
lessons from generations before is not lost.
People
went through herculean efforts to help Steven Hawking to stay alive and
productive. He required a personal nurse every day to help him live, a
team of crafty people to devise the means for him to communicate, and
special accommodations for him at every step of his movement around the
world or in his home town. Consider the benefits we received from that,
and ask if it's worth far simpler measures to help millions of other
bright, hard-working people become productive members of society, living
independent and fulfilling lives. These actions make better managers
and co-workers, improve company morale, strengthen communities, cost far
less to society than warehousing people, and are the humane and just
alternative to the practices our civilization enacted in the past, some
far too abhorrent to name here.
One of my favorite songs by John Cougar Mellencamp is called "Check It Out" in which he sings,
A million young poets
screaming out their words
maybe some day those words will be heard
by future generations
riding on the highways that we built.
I hope they have a better understanding.
I, too, hope that the work we are doing creates a better world and a better understanding that is not lost.
