What if next year we celebrate the diversity of social interaction observed within and across all cultures? What if this “awareness” month marked a time to appreciate the variation that all humans demonstrate in their style and competence in communication? What if it heralded an era during which we marveled at the determined focus that in my occupation often wins indefinite tenure but in a precocious child gets labeled as diseased?

Thanks, Phil.

Several kids spoke — some, like Jeremy, read a single paragraph they’d written; one Aspie student (who’d been interviewed on our local PBS station (WGBH’s “Greater Boston” with Emily Rooney) after the tragedy at Lincoln-Sudbury High School) gave a longer speech.

And I was asked to speak, as a parent, an adult on the spectrum, and a representative of a local autism organization (the Asperger’s Association of New England).

I did a 15-minute high-school-level “Social Model of Disability 101″ tutorial — and showed why it is the case that if we are going to declare disability a form of diversity, and not make it a lesser, orphaned form of disability, it follows that we must adopt the Social Model of Disability.

A propos April as Autism Awareness Month: a favorite essay of mine on the topic is this one, by the U. of Wisconsin experimental psychologist Morton Ann Gernsbacher, who has a nonverbal (but *very* aware) son about Charlie’s age:
http://www.autistics.org/library/acceptance.html

Inclusion with the right supports may be a tall order, but surely having a program in district is less expensive than paying for all the out of district private tuitions and legal battles?

I do think the person who was concerned about “stigma” was thinking about the other parents and taxpayers. There are budget cuts going on (though my district has many resources to draw on). Charlie’s room is not 1:1—-there are 6 children, 6 aides, and a teacher. They have a large room and all kinds of resources; the teacher does regular home visits. It’s a pretty extensive operation—-and I can definitely imagine parents whose children are not special ed, or not in the autism program, not happy to see cuts in extra-curricularsm full-day kindergarten, etc., and hear about 6 kids getting all that. We’re always fighting over a pie of limited size…..

Inclusion is lower in NJ than in other states. Some point to the higher number of special ed private schools as a reason—and to counties building separate schools for special ed, rather than housing a program within district as my town has for Charlie.

I am responding to this because I know that the stigma against people who present as unusual is very real.

The title “ability awareness” sounds so cool , I am sorry that it was not able to be presented effectively.

It sounds more like the person at the school in question who mentioned ’stigma’ might be someone who has to think about the school in general – e.g., what might the parents and taxpayers who do not have children with autism think about when highlighting the new classroom and resources?
And this gets into personal territory for K.

Is the New Jersey public school system promoting inclusion and acceptance for all? I do not live in N.J. while all the ’services’ sound great – is inclusion factored in? “awareness” is never enough, acceptance and empathy is what is needed everywhere.

(As it turned out, the folks that organized it did a rather poor job, and I doubt it really impacted the kids in either way, unfortunately.)

Could it be, I wonder, if the person who was worried about ’stigma’ was concerned that an overly negative picture of autism would be painted, rather than a balanced one?

I’m feeling even more interested to “say something” about autism due to those recent CDC statistics. Who knows what other people—-especially if they don’t have an autistic child—might be saying about why NJ’s prevalence rate is so much higher than in the rest of the country?