WRIT-340 Thesis/Argumentative Posts

The Autism Effect: How Powerful Influences Shape Our View of the
Disability

Dr. Stephen Shore, who has autism, famously said, "if you've met one person with autism, you've
met one person with autism." This observation parallels the wide range of symptoms and their
severities people with autism experience daily. Despite the diversity and medical progress of the
autism community, stereotypes plague its image in the media because news stories and
entertainment programming, which play a significant role in American life, are typically based
on a limited number of perspectives. Without more comprehensive information on autism in the
media, partial details about the disability could unfairly prejudice teachers and police officers,
who do not possess the education to decipher its facts from fiction, and who thus might develop
negative misconceptions about people on the spectrum. Such misinformation sometimes causes
these professionals to mishandle individuals with autism because those on the spectrum often
have more difficulty expressing emotions than neurotypicals. For example, two Chicago
substitute teacher's aides were suspended in September when one of them struck a nonverbal
student with autism in retaliation, and an Arizona teenager with autism was tackled by police in
July after his mannerisms were mistaken for drug use. Although the media and adult leaders
might believe their current actions appropriately address autism, they must change their practices
to communicate more effectively to the autism community, so that people with the disability can
succeed in making positive contributions to American society.

Journalism outlets and entertainment programs seek to represent society through engaging
content, but their strategies for accomplishing this goal tend to showcase autism in a hyperbolic
light. Producers and editors for news outlets organize their rundowns and layouts so the most
important news stories are shown to the viewer first, including police incidents. Though this is
standard reporting practice, it inadvertently negates the autism community because repetitive
stories involving police and autism will lead to the public forming an opinion that those on the
autism spectrum are dangerous. Another stipulation of the press is the 50/50 fairness rule, which
entails giving both sides of a story equal chances to argue their positions, and it is often
exemplified in reports regarding parents not vaccinating their children. While nearly 90 percent
of children in the United States are fully immunized, an article by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health explains how some parents are not vaccinating their children in fear the
vaccines cause autism, though the original study concluding the connection has been
scientifically debunked and "14 studies involving millions of children have failed to show a
causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism." Despite this, stories on vaccines will often
include representatives from each position, even if the overwhelming majority of the public and
data support one side. By contrast, entertainment programming faces the opposite problem in
that productions, like the film A Mile in His Shoes, attempt to portray those on the autism
spectrum in a positive light, yet they can exaggerate facts about the disability in the process. As
an illustration, ABC's The Good Doctor centers around a boy surgeon with autism who has
Savant Syndrome, but the condition is present in only 10 percent of people with the disability.
Until the media creates stories that more accurately represent autism facts, the wrong ideas of
who a person with autism is and how to deal with them in vulnerable moments will become
ingrained in the minds of many.

Teachers and police personnel must undergo extensive training before they are allowed to
perform their roles, but they generally lack knowledge on how to manage individuals with
autism. Most states do not require autism teaching competencies for regular educators, an
absence in policy that has resulted in general education teachers averaging only 1.5 special
education courses in their degree curriculum. According to a story in The Atlantic, a 2009 study
found teachers do not know how to implement individualized instruction because the pressure of
covering mandated academic standards in a short time frame forces them to teach in one style.
Frustrations in this miscommunication, like other situational factors, can trigger students with
autism to have an emotional meltdown, which many educators will have a tough time managing
since they were not required to learn how to teach specialized students. Police officials also face
difficulties interacting with individuals on the spectrum because not all law enforcement
personnel are properly trained to deal with encountering people with disabilities. In 2008, 80
percent of police officers in a survey were unable to correctly identify the characteristics of
autism despite the fact a third to half of individuals killed by law enforcement are disabled. One
plausible reason deputies are unclear about how to engage suspects on the spectrum is because
there are conflicting scientific research conclusions on the relationship between the autism and
criminal justice communities. In an interview I conducted with Linsey Smith, a USC professor
who teaches two autism courses, she noted how current police techniques also put those with
autism at a disadvantage. "[Police officers'] training is to react to situations that seem unsafe,
and so I think they have to go against their natural training when they're seeing some of these
behaviors that they may have been trained to look at that and say, 'This is unsafe. I need to do
what I need to do,'" Smith said. Policies teachers and police officials follow are designed for
neurotypical individuals, but they frequently lead to decisions that can complicate matters when
dealing with people who have autism. Therefore, the media and adult leaders must modernize
their approaches for achieving their objectives if they want to improve their communication with
the autism community.

It is impossible to fully capture the realities of people living with autism because every person on
the spectrum has a different experience, but there are multiple ways media personnel can
represent autism more accurately and adult leaders can educate themselves on interacting with
someone with the disability. News outlets must be upfront about autism facts and journalists
should be trained to abandon the 50/50 rule when interviewing people if public opinion on an
issue is clearly unbalanced. Additionally, although I understand the current vaccine schedule
represents the medically most effective timeline, I call for a spread out vaccination schedule, an
idea President Donald Trump mentioned himself, as a temporary way to help dispel the fear of
an autism link. In terms of providing positive autism publicity, television companies can
produce more documentaries, like NBC Dateline's On the Brink episode, that explore the lives of
individuals on the spectrum. To assist in this endeavor, the Hollywood Health and Society
program, which "provides entertainment industry professionals with accurate and timely
information for storylines on health, safety and national security," should start a comparable
initiative to the American Humane Society's protection of animals in productions by creating a
board of people with autism to approve scripts and acting scenes pertaining to the disability to
ensure accurate representations of its characteristics. To enrich the knowledge teachers and law
enforcement officers have about autism, they should attend seminars focused on the disability as
part of earning and maintaining their credentials. This movement has already started for
educators as academic institutions like Virginia Commonwealth University's Autism Center for
Excellence are working directly with school districts to provide comprehensive training methods
for staff who work with students who have autism. In a major step forward for police personnel,
Florida's state government passed a law this year requiring police departments to offer training in
how to recognize the signs of autism in suspects and how to respond if a suspect displays those
symptoms. The precedents set by these entities can guide educational leaders and law
enforcement in creating mandated trainings and workshops focused on properly addressing
situations involving those with developmental disabilities, which will cause stigmas and negative
publicity surrounding autism to deteriorate and give people on the spectrum more chances to
engage in societal change.

I realize my propositions will take time to enact because they will require increased public
support on new standards for media techniques and education, but in the meantime I predict
smaller strides will be made in autism awareness by those affected by the disability. Many
people in the autism community are prepared to impact our lives in powerful ways if they are not
held back from pessimistic stereotypes. Temple Grandin has established her role as one of
autism's most famous advocates from her journey of being nonverbal until three years old to
writing books, hosting conferences, and making numerous national television appearances to
discuss living with autism. Grandin's accomplishments have led to her inductions into the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Women's Hall of Fame. Jason
McElwain broke the headlines in 2006 when he came off the bench as his team's equipment
manager in the closing minutes of a high school basketball divisional title game and scored 20
points, a performance that won him an ESPY for the Best Moment in Sports. McElwain wrote a
book on the event and now travels the U.S. to raise money for autism, all while still volunteer
coaching for his high school basketball team. Kerry Magro originally was non-verbal, but he has
since graduated with a Master's Degree from Seton Hall University, made professional speaker
appearances at more than 700 venues, written multiple best-selling books, and is the founder of
the disability advocacy and housing non-profit corporation KFM Making a Difference. As more
people on the spectrum have their feats published in the media, positive awareness of the autism
community will grow and spark a movement for large-scale innovations. By encouraging the
media to adjust its strategies for telling stories focused on autism traits, as well as training
teachers and police personnel to have more peaceful encounters with people with autism, the
disability will be viewed more favorably and those on the spectrum will have an open path to
exhibit their talents.
 Autism Treatment: The Power of Natural and Civic Force

One of the greatest medical mysteries affects more than 3.5 million Americans. There is no
known cure for autism, which has varying degrees of symptoms and intensities. Doctors often
treat autism through medication to deal with behaviors that interfere with social and living skills
people with autism tend to lack. Individuals on the spectrum also often take medicine for
comorbidities of the disease, like sleep disturbances, seizures, and gastrointestinal distress.
Many intervention programs are available for children who show signs of autism, but there are
substantially less options for those on the spectrum who are young adults or older. This
problematic phenomenon can be explained by several important factors. Physicians trust
medicines since they undergo rigorous testing before becoming available on the market. Drug
companies also incentivize doctors to order medications, which is demonstrated by a study
published last year that found when a drug company spent $13 on a doctor, the company later
experienced an extra "107 days of prescribing brand-name drugs." Additionally, insurance
providers economically dominate the medical field as exemplified by UnitedHealth generating
$46.5 billion in one quarter alone last year, and yet their practices do not favor the use of
alternative therapies. From a governmental standpoint, resource programs, which help people
with developmental disabilities locate and pay for life-enhancing services, are controlled by
states instead of at the federal level. Since there are numerous medical avenues for autism care,
it can be difficult for people on the spectrum to follow an informed, cohesive, and affordable
health plan. Thus, while having multiple stakeholders can complicate the process for autism
treatment, these entities should collaborate their efforts to produce more beneficial results,
including positive impacts on the American economy.

Although an estimated 50 percent of children with autism are on medicine, medications play a
limited role in improving symptoms. Commonly prescribed medicines include selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) along with antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood
stabilizers, stimulants, and anticonvulsants. These products can cause serious side effects,
ranging from obesity to tremors, and research studies have found individuals with autism
experience high rates of suicidal thoughts (10.9% – 66%), and suicidal behaviors (11% - 30%).
Average medical costs range between $17,000 and $21,000 extra per year for parents of
offspring with autism compared to parents of neurotypical children. This is not the path the
medical field should follow if it wants people with autism to succeed in their lives. Since doctors
prescribe medicine for autism based on research for treating other diseases, they ought to follow
similar policy when considering alternative therapies. Acupuncture is a 3,000-year-old
traditional Chinese medicine therapy focused on stimulating specific anatomic points through the
insertion of needles into the body. The therapy is not approved for autism treatment, but it is
clinically approved to treat autism symptoms, including sleep deprivation, digestion, migraines,
and emotional well-being. By contrast to how acupuncture is performed, neurofeedback
involves using head electrodes to extract a person's brainwave information and then utilizing
video games to promote certain brainwave frequencies to ultimately shape activity toward "more
desirable, more regulated performance." Using this information, it is clear to me medical
professionals can use neurofeedback to identify and treat irregular brainwaves often found in
individuals on the spectrum. In another hands-on approach, therapeutic horseback riding focuses
on proper riding and rein skills in lessons adapted for people with disabilities. Based on their
procedures, alternative therapies are safer and less intrusive methods to tackle key characteristics
of autism head-on, and they could revolutionize natural autism treatment for many years with the
proper assistance of the government and insurance providers.

When children with autism are in school, it is easier for parents to access accommodations for
them since schools must provide the necessary resources for students to receive "a free
appropriate public education for all students with disabilities" to comply with the federal
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997. The use of therapies can abruptly end when
those children graduate as locating and financing therapy then falls on the family instead of the
school. State-run resource programs assist families on this journey, like California's regional
center program that helps people with developmental disabilities find and pay for independent
living, transportation and employment services. If individuals with autism do not use programs
for services, paying for them can be exorbitant. Speech and occupational therapies, acupuncture,
neurofeedback, and therapeutic horseback riding run between $35 to $250 per hour or session.
Insurance providers usually do not help for a variety of reasons, including a therapy being an
excluded diagnosis from coverage, requiring a doctor's prescription, or categorizing as a
recreational activity instead of therapy. Insurance providers are also selective with coverage, as
indicated by Aetna covering neurofeedback for constipation, but not for cardiovascular disease
or chronic pain, as well as the National Institutes of Health finding that only 25 percent of people
in a 2012 study had insurance that covered acupuncture. As an adult with autism, I cannot
fathom being able to research and afford disability therapies and programs on my own. Because
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution states a federal government duty is to provide for the
"general welfare," I suggest our elected officials mend these issues at the national level before
too many adults with autism fail to become productive citizens as a result of not receiving
appropriate help from their representatives.

The federal government has the resources to afford health system improvements. As part of
California's 2017-18 Governor's Budget, $6,423,741 was allocated to support operational costs
for regional centers. If the government enacted my idea of a national resource program, its cost
based on implementing California's budget in all states would be more than $321 million per
year, a price tag of about only a tenth of one percent of the $260 billion per year the government
spends on its two biggest disability programs. A federalized program would make eligibility
requirements and offered services consistent in every state and allow individual cases to be
transferred between states. Considering the Affordable Care Act recognizes habilitative services
and chronic disease management as essential health benefits, I also recommend government
officials draft legislation mandating insurance providers to cover speech and occupational
therapies, acupuncture, neurofeedback, and therapeutic horseback riding under those categories.
In addition, I call for the government to pursue ending loopholes allowing medical professionals
to be financially influenced by drug companies. These legislative actions would improve
affordable access to resource programs and alternative therapies for people with autism and
encourage doctors to be receptive to non-traditional treatment methods. I realize progress in this
direction might take years given Congress has recently struggled to reform healthcare and many
of the top insurance providers in the United States spend millions of dollars a quarter lobbying
government officials, but if our legislative representatives want to hold their Constitutional
obligation to protect the public's health true, they could gradually initiate policies to reconstruct
the autism treatment regimen.
The federal government should consider investing money for a national resource program and
pass new laws on alternative therapies because the country's workforce will profit from adults
with autism, of which more than 80 percent are unemployed. Adults on the spectrum tend to
possess unique strengths, including excellent long-term memory, visual skills, and
comprehension of numbers and facts, that stem from how their brains operate differently. These
attributes give prospective workers with autism the qualities necessary to perform high-demand
and skilled jobs like a lab technician, a role the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will
grow by 16 percent by 2024, which is much faster than the national average. As a result, a few
companies have begun tailoring their hiring processes to job candidates on the spectrum. For
example, Microsoft's Autism Hiring Program combines workshops with interviews to calm
potential employees so they may "more fully demonstrate their skills." Some parents of children
with autism are also launching their own entrepreneurial social enterprises to provide
employment for those on the spectrum. To aid these efforts, endowments like the University of
Miami's $515,000 Awakening the Autism Entrepreneur grant are subsidizing educational
workshops and innovative activities to support people "pursuing social enterprises employing
people with autism." The autism employment revolution is clearly underway in the job market,
but it will not reach its maximum impact until the government becomes a proponent in the
movement. By taking action, the government will prepare job seekers with autism for the
workforce so they may succeed in using their talents to supply the demand for high-skilled jobs
and move the country's economy forward. With 50,000 people on the spectrum graduating into
adulthood every year, we must give individuals with autism proper assistance so they can
accomplish that mission. The future of autism treatments and programs rests in the hands of
political personnel, and with the right changes, the autism community will have the chance to
show its true value to American society.