Annual State of Autism at Our House

April is Autism Acceptance Month. Here is my annual state of Autism at our house. My autistic son is an adult.  I write this his permission.

I have written a lot about autism awareness, but inclusiveness is what I seek not just for autistic people for all. Belonging shouldn't be some special club.  Human connection is important. When we remove barriers for disabled people, we are really removing barriers for all. 

We moved in the past year to New Mexico. This is a place low low on services for disabled people. We knew this before we moved. We live in quite a rural place.  The New Mexico model for disabled services relies on Natural Supports. I had never heard that phrase before I moved here. The people around you family is just supposed to support you and they provide very little in funding to help with that especially if you are at the higher end of functioning. All supports from the government come with many strings attached. I knew when we moved, I wanted to be less attached to government services because it demands a lot from caregivers and those receiving services in the form of red tape.  I like that their autism plate clearly states for autism month should be about - Acceptance, Understanding and Awareness.  

My son is doing well here.  He would like to work so that is a goal we will continue to work on. Meaningful work is important. He would also like to go back to school. My son has been teaching himself blender (3d modeling). He continues to receive SSI and has a case manager for his Medicaid that is pretty helpful and also named Heather. The weather here in New Mexico has been perfect for scootering more. He has route around our neighborhood that he does several times a day. We try to scooter one our local parks several times a week and once a week we take him to the local skatepark.