How can awareness drive acceptance and the fullest opportunity for increased quality of life for those affected by autism? This April, we invite you to turn awareness into acceptance by looking through these steps to see which would be a good fit for you and your community. Taken from several past articles written for Autism Awareness Month, they offer a range of opportunities, from bringing awareness to your child’s school to distributing resources in your community.
- Focus on ability. Speak to what individuals with autism can do in school, the community, and the workplace. Better yet, look for opportunities to demonstrate their range of abilities, such as encouraging them to take on leadership positions and project roles that align with their strengths. If they are willing to disclose information about their autism, perhaps they would be willing to give a presentation about their skills, interests, and strengths in a class, if they are in school, or a community organization.
- Educate those around you by providing information that helps them understand the impact autism has. This is an example (and you can find more facts like this in The OARacle and on OAR’s Web site): “We know from research that when young people with autism reach adulthood, the number of available support resources drops off significantly. As a result and according to a recent study, more than one-third of these individuals had no engagement with higher education or employment for the first six years following high school.”
- Tell your story. Use first-hand examples from your life to inform and motivate others. Talk about what assistive technologies, task independence, or sustained employment would mean for your child, student, or client with autism. Talk about what these additional supports and other changes would mean for you as a caregiver, educator, or clinical provider…Describing needs leads to a focus on solutions and hopefully the creativity and resolve to see those solutions through.
- Build acceptance at your child’s school and maybe beyond to several or all of the schools in your school district. OAR’s Kit for Kids and Curriculum in a Box resources are free and have everything you need. Start with someone you know—a teacher, guidance counselor, or instructional specialist and get their ideas for how the kit and/or curriculum can be used in the school (and in other schools in the district). April is an opportune time to speak to school leaders because it’s when many are planning and setting priorities, including all of the professional development and in-service trainings that will occur before the new school year begins in the fall.
- Band together with a group of parents to get the buy-in of the school system to use the Kit for Kids and Curriculum in a Box. Request a meeting with a district administrator or try to get on the agenda at the next school board meeting.
- Go beyond the schoolhouse. Where else might you use the Kit for Kids? Scout troops, Sunday school or other faith-based settings, even sports teams may all present opportunities.
- Open doors to employment. Look for shops, stores, and businesses that could offer internships or actual jobs to individuals with autism. Ask if they have any employees with autism. Point out any local initiatives you know of that support the employment of people with autism and may offer an employee pool to interested employers. If you live in the Northern Virginia area, tell them about Hire Autism.
- Distribute autism resources across your community. There are eight Life Journey through Autism guides that target parents, military families, educators, social workers, psychologists, first responders, and individuals on the spectrum. Start with local support groups, emergency responders, schools, and other organizations you know of.
Are You An Educator?
We have some suggestions for you too.
If you are a teacher:
- Educate yourself and your colleagues with the Curriculum in a Box. Talk with administrators at your school about how you might use the curriculum and the Kit for Kids at your school and possibly throughout the district.
- Incorporate the Kit for Kids lesson into your character education curriculum. The Kit is designed for a peer to lead the lesson so think about who could lead it and how that could work in your classroom.
- Start a volunteer program. Student leaders play a critical role in effecting social change and positive school culture. Talk with school administrators about the many benefits of initiating a school-wide volunteer program. You can recruit and supervise students to serve as peer leaders or youth education leaders. Allowing students to lead the Kit for Kids lesson instills a sense of community, empowerment, and responsibility among its participants.
If you are an administrator:
- Encourage peer education. Implement a pilot program that initially targets certain schools and/or grades to take part in the Kit for Kids lesson and build from there after collecting feedback from teachers.
- Work with special education staff or district autism coordinator(s) to figure out the best way to use the Curriculum in a Box and deliver the Kit for Kids program. Contact an autism support group in your area to see if its members would volunteer to work with the schools.
Building awareness into acceptance can seem overwhelming, unless you break it down into steps like these that you can take in April or any month of the year. If we all take action in our communities, there may come a time when we don’t need a special month for awareness.
