HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — While autism has been a recognized diagnosis for decades, accessibility to care has not caught up with people's needs. "You know, accessibility, it's just not there yet," Jenny Morris Managing Director of Autism Support of Alabama shares. "Our organization, we talk to people every day that are in need for getting diagnoses, for getting help with, you know, in school, for getting help at home. Since the pandemic, there's just not as much help out there with teachers and service providers and there are more kids and adults being diagnosed with autism every day."
Morris discussed a few areas where accessibility can be improved starting with a child's education. "Some of the challenges are the parents don't know what their rights are and yes, each school hands you, you know, several pages in a packet of what your rights are and so it even goes beyond their rights," Morris explains. "So, your rights in Alabama are the same across the state but what that individual school can provide is different at each school as far as how much the school is willing to spend on their special education."
A lack of service providers has also become a challenge. "We just need more service providers. We need more people in the state of Alabama who can give diagnoses. I hear that they're on a one year waiting list right now to get a diagnosis and a lot of flight and in most of the places in Alabama and then the other newer issue is we're having a lot of adults diagnosed with autism now," Morris shares. "One of the more common stories that we're hearing is they'll have their child diagnosed with autism and go through the diagnosis process and then think back and discover that, wow, I think I might have autism as their parent and so some people want to get the diagnosis so they can get services and they can get help just by knowing. but there's a lot of that going on."
Although some areas need improvement, community support continues to grow. "Having a community around you when you have a child with special needs, any special needs, finding people that are in your situation that are in a similar situation to you really helps," Morris shares. "It helps you to be able to talk to people. I feel that it's very different from when my son was young. I think part of it is due to the increased amount and the prevalence of autism. There are more children with autism now. There's one in 36 children with autism in the state of Alabama and that's a lot of kids that's really now almost one child in every classroom.so there's a lot more understanding about it."
Walk for Autism:
This year's Walk for Autism is taking place on Saturday April 20th at the Jaycee's Building. Registration is required. Find out more here.
