This year is the seventh time that autism organizations around the world have been celebrating the World Autism Awareness day. A day dedicated to raising awareness of autism as a global phenomenon, to educate the public about the condition and to encourage discussion. Let us use this April as an Autism Awareness Month.

Two weeks ago, the World Down Syndrome Day was observed with a wonderful video made for the occasion: Dear Future Mom. It sent a powerful message that made me think. Of course, as of now, autism cannot be determined by prenatal testing but will only be diagnosed later in the infant’s life. But just like the parents of children with Down Syndrome, parents of autistic children are likely to fall into the same deep hole of despair once the diagnose is clear. All of a sudden, they face a frightening and uncertain future. Many questions arise: How do we go on? What can we do for our child?

Therefore, I feel that we ought to produce a similar video to promote autism awareness – a video showing that the diagnosis of autism is not the end of the world, that there are many things parents and carers can do to help these children along their path.

Unfortunately, it is not that easy to create a video to professional standards. But I am not about to give in to doubts and thoughts of futility before I even started. I believe we can do this. Therefore, I would like to invite you to join my campaign “Think positive!”

I would like invite you all to write something positive about autism. I will collect and publish your responses on this page.

If you are autistic, I would like to know about your perspective and your own positive experiences. If you are a parent, sibling or relative, we would like to know about the lighter side of living with a person with autism. If you are an employer, tell us what you value about your autistic employee.

I would love to hear about all those things in order to give a little hope to parents whose child has just been diagnosed with autism. They need to know that it is not the end of the world but that life with an autistic child can also be interesting and rewarding – and fun.

Please keep your comments brief but do enter as many as you like – either here as a comment, in an email to me (Imprint) oder via Twitter @querdenkender. Please let me know how you would like to be mentioned (name, alias, twitter handle etc.).

N.B.: I will publish your blog commentaries directly on the campaign page.

I am looking forward to your thoughts!

Aleksander

P.S.: Perhaps this will all be part of our own video in the end? Fingers crossed! 🙂