Making the world a better place for autism

An editorial in The Republican Journal in Maine notes that, from 2000 to 2005,

…the number of autism cases reported in Maine public schools rose from 594 to 1,473. The total number of students with autism increased by 879 cases in five years!

The editorial further notes, in rather alarmist language, that “more and more of our children falling victim to autism every year” and that, indeed, “too many parents are biting their nails to see whether their toddler develops this devastating disability.” In the context of mentioning a possible MMR vaccine/autism link, the editorial highlights the divide between parents and medical professionals:

During the course of working on this story, it seemed too often to be the case that the parents and the medical community saw each other as being at odds, when the two stakeholder groups in this crisis really need to be working together to find some answers.

I find the editorial’s descriptions of autism as a kind of contagion sweeping over the land (or at least over Maine)—”as autism continues to spread, striking more and more families”—to be overly inflammatory. But I do think The Republican Journal is very right to point out the extent to which “the parents and the medical community” are “at odds” with each other. Parents, and the medical community, and autism professionals, and autistic persons, all need to talk and listen to each other to figure out how to make the world a better place for autism—for autistic persons.