30 Oct
The Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a committee that includes the Center for Disease Control, the Federal Drug Administration, the National Institute of Health, Medicaid, National Health and Human Services etc–Full list and links here) is having a strategic planning meeting shortly. It would have been held today, but Hurricane Sandy has disrupted their plans–and a lot of people’s lives.
The planning meeting will cover the current strategic plan, and you can email your suggestions to them!
You wish there was better assistance for adults on the spectrum? You want more early intervention? Better diagnostics? You just want to be left alone?
Email them and let them know!
One Response for "Make Suggestions For the IACC Strategic Plan for Autism!"
ADAPTED ARCHITECTURE warrants much more attention since it can make a decisive difference in the lives of people with autism is. Only since 6 or 7 years the realization is growing that the way schools, workplaces, treatment facilities and homes are built is CRUCIAL to the well-being of people with autism.
Why? Apart from early intervention and a limited capacity to learn to act “as if” NT, autism is incurable. The only further alternative is adapting the environment to autistic weaknesses and peculiarities. In the best cases NT’s learn do’s and don’ts. Such as more time and patience towards slow adaptation to change, face recognition, ToM-problems, forming integrated pictures of reality, and much more among which accommodating sensory troubles. The logical extension of this principle is in the built environment. The lay-out of front doors, foyers and lobbies should allow for extra time. Homes and buildings should be “easy to read”, spaces should be uncluttered, and have clear – preferably single – purposes. Light, noise, temperature, smells should all be at low levels. (Most schools are hell to oversensitive kids.) It is more than likely such measures in the physical environment have as much or more impact than practicing all other do’s and don’ts. They may well be as valuable as the best treatments and certainly treatments won’t work in unadapted or autistic unfriendly environments. More research is necessary to determine what works best for whom.
Suggested reading http://goo.gl/T5U00 and http://www.ud-da.eu/information_nav.htm and before long http://www.architecture-for-autism.org
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