This guest post is by Rowan Turner, a young man diagnosed with autism at 7 who attends University of Arkansas. Rowan is applying for the Spring 2023 Making a Difference Autism Scholarship via the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference started by me, Kerry Magro. I was nonverbal till 2.5 and diagnosed with autism at 4, and you can read more about my organization here. Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams, our nonprofit’s new book, was released on March 29, 2022, on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults.
Advocacy is a vital component in the lives of every individual with a disability. It can make all the difference in achieving success and ensuring that their rights are protected. As someone with autism and having a brother with autism, I have experienced firsthand the importance of having advocates in my life.
Growing up, my mother was my main advocate. She studied everything from special education law, to behavioral strategies for the classroom, to speech techniques used to strengthen articulation muscles used for speech. She did this not just for me, but also for my autistic sibling. My mother used her vacation time from work to attend different autism trainings and invested countless hours researching ways to help us. Living in a rural area, we spent significant time traveling to and from therapy appointments. She was relentless in advocating for our needs and ensuring that we received the proper support and accommodations necessary for our success.
Having an advocate can be the difference between receiving appropriate accommodations in school and being left behind. It can also mean the difference between accessing essential healthcare services or being denied them. Advocacy is crucial for ensuring that individuals with disabilities have a voice and can exercise their rights. Without this, how can we grow to our full potential?
Unfortunately, not everyone has an advocate like this in their life. Many individuals with disabilities face systemic barriers that make it difficult to access resources and services they need to thrive. This is where advocacy organizations and advocates can come into play. These organizations work tirelessly to ensure that the rights of individuals with disabilities are protected and that they have access to the necessary resources.
As an individual with autism who has benefited tremendously from advocacy, I have a strong desire to give back to my community. I want to attend the local university and next law school, eventually holding a job in the federal government. My goal is to use my skills and education to help individuals who cannot advocate for themselves, just as my mother did for me.
I believe that advocacy is essential to promoting social justice, and I want to be part of that effort. I want to work towards ensuring that individuals with disabilities have access to the resources they need to succeed in all aspects of their lives. Whether it is access to healthcare, education, or employment opportunities, I want to be a voice for those who may not have one.
In conclusion, advocacy is crucial in the lives of individuals with disabilities. It is the key to ensuring that their intrinsic rights are protected and that each individual has access to the necessary resources to not just live but thrive in all aspects. I have personally experienced the impact that advocacy can have on myself and witnessed what it has accomplished for my brother. I want to use my skills, education, and passion to give back to my community and our society. Together, we can work towards creating a more inclusive and just society for all.
Follow my journey on Facebook, my Facebook Fan Page, Tiktok, Youtube & Instagram.
My name is Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum. I started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue post-secondary education. Help support me so I can continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams was released on March 29, 2022 on Amazon here for our community to enjoy featuring the stories of 100 autistic adults. 100% of the proceeds from this book will go back to our nonprofit to support initiatives like our autism scholarship program. In addition, this autistic adult’s essay you just read will be featured in a future volume of this book as we plan on making this into a series of books on autistic adults.
