Autism Awareness Month is a time for looking ahead

As we celebrate Autism Awareness Month each April, it’s important to remember that awareness without action is only half of the equation. Special needs families, like mine, need community involvement, advocacy and programs to help us improve the lives of our children and to prepare them for a productive transition to adulthood.

Since autism is a lifelong disability, children with autism grow into adults with autism. There are an estimated half a million students nationwide set to “age out” of the educational system in the next decade alone. As the vast majority of Texas’ current autism programming and funding ends at the completion of high school, these children face an uncertain future.

Currently, our state does not have a “plan” for autistic children once they leave high school. Many cannot live independently and will be completely lost without the structure and therapeutic benefits of daily programming that they receive in the schools. Parents like me, who have an autistic teenage child who will age out in the next 10 years, are scrambling now to create and find opportunities for their children once they leave the safety and security of their school years behind.

So, while it’s important to be aware of autism, it’s more urgent that we take action around the issues that special needs families confront in our state. We must begin now to prepare a place for children with autism in the adult world.

Even though my son has autism, he has a great deal of self-awareness about the challenges and benefits he feels autism conveys. He thinks having autism makes him a good artist, and it does. He also knows it makes it hard for him to pay attention, to stay safe and to follow directions. All true.

He is also well aware of his ongoing need to gain more independent skills if he wants to live away from home as an adult. In his own words, he says, “Even though I have autism, I am getting more and more independent.” He can say this in part because of a special community program that was recently closed due to budgetary issues — the Autism Project at the University of Texas.

When I broke the news to my son about the Autism Project closing, he exclaimed, “I need my UTAP!” And he’s right, we do need our UTAP. The services that the Autism Project provided under the guidance of the UT Kinesiology Department has no replacement within our region. Its closure will be intensely felt by Austin families like ours. It’s precisely these kinds of community programs that we as a region need more of, not less, in the coming years.

During the Autism Project’s eight years in existence, it provided thousands of Central Texas families with affordable recreational therapy for autistic children and young adults. The highlight for my son was the Autism Project’s supervised overnights on UT’s campus and at Candlelight Ranch with UT students serving as oneto-one counselors. The Autism Project also offered autism-friendly fit- ness and art classes with UT students serving as guides and coaches.

My son’s gains have been hard-won through years of intensive therapy, the right educational setting and his own determination to achieve his goals. Despite all of these interventions, he still requires one-to-one supervision across all settings to ensure his safety. Yet at the Autism Project overnights, he was able to practice independence in a safe setting with caring students and faculty and to gain a sense of accomplishment that comes from trying something scary and overcoming it.

My son is not alone in needing these community resources, as the needs of the Austin autism community will only intensify. As autism has gone from a rare childhood disorder to a common occurrence affecting 1 in 68 children today, we have a true health and societal crisis on our hands if left unaddressed.

The loss of the Autism Project at UT as an affordable source of fun, fitness, learning and socialization for our area’s autistic children cannot be overstated. Families need every single community resource they can get to help prepare for the day that their child with autism “ages out” of schoolbased support. The closure of the Autism Project is a gaping hole at a time when community programming in Central Texas needs to be increasing.