Oh my, how things have changed!

Recently, I was at an event and the conversation wandered to territory that caused me to say something about my son, and I mentioned that he was autistic. The person I was talking to assumed I meant figuratively.  As we chatted, I said something about the Asperger nature of my son's behavior making it impossible for him to do something, and was met with something like "yeah, everyone is like that."  

Nine years ago (can it really be nine years!!??) when my son was diagnosed, few people knew what Asperger's was, let alone identified as having similar characteristics.  Now it's nouveau cool.  It took several "takes" to clarify that I wasn't being figurative or colloquial in my use of the terms; my son actually has Asperger's, actually couldn't have coped with whatever we were discussing, and has the medical/educational diagnoses (to say nothing of the IEP's, placements, and emotional scars) that back it up.

As April, with Autism Awareness Day and Month being almost upon us, I think about the double-edged sword that "awareness" is.  So many people are "aware" of autism; far fewer have a clue about what autism actually is or means.  They know it is being diagnosed with greater frequency.  They know it is something they never used to hear about.  They don't really know what it is, or what people with autism need in order to become the most productive members of society they can become.  Unfortunately, the providers, who need to know these things, seem to be almost as ill informed as the general public on how to properly support this population.  So we slog on - another April, another month of "awareness," another barrage of vacciners vs. anti-vaxxers.

Some day, this will be ancient history.  And we'll wonder how we could all have been so cruel to each other, and so, so stupid.