Let Autistics Be Counted

Let's look at a couple of statistics on autism and population. A prominent statistic used today is that one in every 150 childen in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism. There are probably some more who are autistic, but have not been diagnosed.

Today there are over 300 million people in the U.S. according to the Census Bureau. Again, there might have been a few who did not get counted.

For the sake of simplifying the statistics, if the rate of autism was constant since the beginning of census-taking, you could see how roughly 2 million people in the U.S. might have been diagnosed with autism.

The number of autistic people in the U.S. has been reported as high as 1.5 million by Autism Speaks, while others dispute this number and say there are less than one million, and maybe as few as half a million people with autism. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, or maybe roughly a million.

As a race, there are way less than 1 million pure Hawaiian people in the U.S., although many more people of mixed ethicity still consider themselves to be Hawaiian -- I am among them.

People who have autism have a voice. Go to where autistic people speak, such as in online forums like Wrong Planet, and listen to what they have to say. The way they speak may be very different, but if you listen carefully, you might be amazed at what they're saying. Many accept the fact that their thought processes are different, and many celebrate this diversity in thinking.

Presently, I don't believe there is a "cure" for autism like there are cures for cancer. Sure, some people may be inclined to treat symptoms that autistics suffer, like depression, anxiety, or attention deficit disorders. This applies to other people as well. However, there are some autistic people who have accepted who they are and do not want to be "cured." Many benefit from their ability to think differently.

Sometimes we need to listen to people who have autism, and let their voices be counted as well.

Aloha, Joe