Adults with autism finally receiving attention at Pittsburgh conference

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Elliott Frank does not worry about his son Nathan's ability to handle college course work.

"He's got the intellect to do that," Frank, a Detroit native who lives in Franklin Park, said about his autistic son, who is 15 and a freshman at North Allegheny High School. Nathan Frank aspires to be an aviation historian.

What does concern Elliott Frank and other parents of autistic children is their children's ability to adapt to many of the social aspects of college -- such as making friends, being organized and handling anxiety.

Adult autism was the subject April 18 of a meeting that featured educators, employers and those afflicted with autism.

"The focus with autism is on small children, diagnosing them early and getting them through school. When they get out of school, people with autism are usually neglected," said Carolyn Komich Hare, the founder of AHEADD — Achieving in Higher Education with Autism/Developmental Disabilities, a Pittsburgh-based national group she founded seven years ago.

One of 150 children in the United States is diagnosed with autism. Yet, nearly all government funding for autism is directed toward secondary school-age children, she said.

"That is starting to change. In the next three to four years, many autistic kids will be finishing school and will need help with the transition to work or higher education," said Komich Hare, a one-time special education teacher the mother of an autistic child.

On such program is ACCLAIM — The Autism College and Community Life Acclimation and Intervention Model, a program started last year by Michael Greisler, a social worker and a doctoral candidate at Duquesne University.

"This is a preview of the college experience. For some, this was their first experience purchasing lunch," Greisler said.

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication and restricted and repetitive behavior. Signs of the disorder start before a child is 3.

Many people, like Dan Hackett of Mt. Lebanon, are not diagnosed until much later — he was 17. Hackett, who is 22, has Asberger's syndrome, a type of autism where intelligence and cognition is normal and social impairment is less severe than in other forms of autism. He works as a customer service representative for a financial services company. He has completed two years of study at the Community College of Allegheny County in political science and hopes to become a lawyer.

"I am doing well. I tell people I have Asberger's, and they do not know what it is," he said.

Some private companies are working to employ adults with autism.

"We have a desire to open doors for people with disabilities," said Laura McCool, a human resource representative with Walgreens, a company that has opened distribution centers in Massachusetts and South Carolina that each employ 40 percent disabled people.