Disability Futures

Contrary to much media spin, autism is neither a tragedy nor a looming public health crisis. Autistics have always been here and research over the last decade has shown that while diagnosis has increased over time, the actual percentage prevalence of autism has not risen.1 What is a tragedy is how underserved we are. I am a 49-year-old Autistic and I have spent much of my adult life homeless and hungry because, like so many of us, I was sliding through the cracks; one agency would turn me away for being “too high functioning” and another would turn me away for being “too low functioning.”

I had a very hard time in school and left unprepared for independent living, higher education, or a career. I could make it through an interview for a minimum wage job but couldn’t manage to keep those jobs for more than a couple of weeks before I was “let go” with no explanation. Since my lack of formal education only qualified me for the lowest income employment to start with, I couldn’t keep a roof over my head. Being forced to change jobs two to four times per month left too many gaps in an hourly wage that was already painfully low.

My disability-related poverty is more than just a personal anecdote. The U.S. Census Bureau has statistics about poverty and disability that are jaw-dropping: at the same time that the overall poverty rate in the U.S. dropped to 14.5%, the poverty rate for disabled people rose to 28.8%. My struggle to provide for myself is echoed by a U.S. study that found that only 17% of Autistic adults between the age of 21 and 25 have lived independently, compared to 34% of non-autistic 21- to 25-year-olds with intellectual disability.2  I may not have been living with parents or in a group home or institution, but sleeping in the park and eating from dumpsters is not exactly what I would call “independent living.”