(Originally posted for The Voice of Heard on
March 25, 2012)
A few weeks ago, I spotted a curious article on the front page of The
New Uxbridge Times during one of my shifts at Goretti’s Supermarket where I
work. It discussed an Uxbridge resident who was selected to represent the Doug
Flutie Foundation for Autism in this April’s Boston Marathon. I check out their
website and learned that it was founded by Doug Flutie, a former
NFL quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, in honor of his son, Doug Jr., who
was diagnosed with autism, specifically Childhood Disintegration Disorder
(CDD), at age three. Through that organization, he provides aid to financially
struggling families in order to provide the support and resources they need to
help relatives with autism. More details can be found in this link to the website.
Yesterday, I have also took notice to a few flyers autism-related
programs supported by UMass Lowell while I was taking part in their study of
autistic adults’ emotional responses to one-minute samples of music. One of
those is their annual Disable the Label Week, which is held in the first week
of April as part of UMass Lowell’s Autism Awareness Month. One of the events
held that week on Tuesday is a performance by the Asperger’s Are Us comedy
group comprised of four young men with Asperger’s Syndrome. Another event held
on Wednesday during the Disable the Label Week is a free movie night show
a movie titled Temple Grandin, a biopic of the autistic woman
who is an expert in animal behavior who promoted humane treatment of animals in
livestock handling facilities. More details can be found in this promotional
flyer.
As an autistic man, I find these latest autism news updates to be
really good since the Doug Flutie Foundation and UMass Lowell’s Disable the
Label Week are both concerned with raising autism awareness and providing ways
for autistic individuals and their families to improve the quality of their
lives; I was especially glad to know that they are not portraying autism as a
disease to be cured and affected individuals as “an infected population to be
isolated and quarantined” as organizations like Autism Speaks would.
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