A little education can go a long way towards understanding & acceptance.
When I was diagnosed with autism in 1992, the numbers of autism were 1 in 1000 being diagnosed in the U.S. Back then, my school and businesses didn’t do any type of autism related events to educate students and adults on this community. Today the #’s of autism are 1 in 59 – the fastest growing developmental disability in the country. With over 3.5 million Americans having autism and over 70 million worldwide, you will most likely have a friend, family member, coworker and/or colleague who is on the autism spectrum. With that, more and more schools and businesses are hosting autism & diversity related events to make sure they are truly being inclusive of our community. People with disabilities make up the largest minority in the world yet sometimes go the most underserved.
Schools are understanding things like that when they host events such as these that bullying tends to drop significantly as those with autism are 2/3 more likely to be bullied compared to their non-disabled peers.
Businesses are seeing that when they host events like these that workplace bullying drops while being seen more favorably in the community showing an increase in people with autism and other development disabilities more inclined to want to work at these companies (and for their family members to purchase their products).
One of the times during the year it has become popular to host these events is during April which has been proclaimed by the United Nations as World Autism Month. April 2nd has also been proclaimed as World Autism Awareness Day. Bringing in speakers who also have autism not only educates but helps provide a first-person perspective to a truly unique community.
I was considered by experts on the severe end of the autism spectrum but today have been a professionally certified speaker for the past 9 years who speaks on topics such as Defining Autism: From Nonverbal to Professional Speaker, Autism 101, Bullying Prevention, The ROI Benefits Of Hiring People With Disabilities In The Workplace, How To Succeed In School With A Learning Disability, Dude, Where’s My IEP: Succeeding in College with a Learning Disability and much more! If you are interested in starting a dialogue on how we can bring an event to your area and what that looks like contact me anytime here for more details. – Dr. Kerry Magro
