Aren’t we past the point of “awareness” now? Shouldn’t everyone in the Middle East., perhaps the world, know about Autism by now?! I mean, autism appears in news articles, magazine articles, TV specials, movies, TV sitcoms , and is talked about by celebrities, news anchors, and self-advocates…
Aren’t we ready to move beyond “awareness” to understanding and acceptance? Given the incidence of Autism in the world, we should ensure that individuals with Autism are understood and accepted in their communities. They need to be fully included, working, living, and playing in our communities. Our children (however young or old they may be!) deserve to be appreciated and valued for their contributions; everyone has something to contribute.
Undersand and Accept Autism TODAY !
Be The Change ,,,
Very well said Ismail.
ReplyDeleteBeing the older sister of 2 autistic children and also an autism activist I would like to add that we are indeed past awareness and what we really need in addition to understanding and acceptance is action!!! A lot is being said about what autistic children and their families need such as increasing the number and quality of autism centers and hiring more professionals such as child psychiatrists, speech therapists and social workers but unfortunately a lot of what is being said is not being implemented. For example in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia where I live there aren't available schools or centers for autistic adults so that once an autistic person reaches a certain age in which none of the available autism schools/centers accept him/her, the only options for this person is to stay at home or to be sent by his family to an autism center for adults abroad and I have witnessed many such sad stories within the autism community here. Autistic children may not be able to communicate with the rest of the world and express their needs but they are very sensitive and emotional so imagine how painful it is for an autistic individual to be teared apart from his family and loved ones to be placed in a center abroad just so he can recieve the specialized training and care he needs or in the other case scenario imagine him having to stay at home with no access to the special training which he requires.
The other major problem autistic individuals and their families face is the the lack of an adequate number of autism professionals for example there are very few child psychiatrists available and for this reason it takes months to be able to get an appointment with a child psychiatrist which places the family in great distress because of the ongoing new challenges they face for which they require professional help and guidance.
the time has come for action! The number of autistic children is rising so we need to start moving...