5 Questions with Alexis Wineman: Miss America’s First Autistic Contestant

When Alexis Wineman, 18, takes the stage at the 2013 Miss America pageant this Saturday in Las Vegas, the reigning Miss Montana will become the first autistic contestant to compete for the crown. Diagnosed at the age of 11, Wineman’s platform is to raise awareness about the developmental disorder. She spoke to TIME about her start in pageants, Honey Boo Boo and what she plans to do after this weekend’s competition.

Read more of Fei Fei Sun's Time article HERE.

Experts brace for wave of autistic adults

By Erin Allday from SFGate

Guido Abenes appreciates their concern, but he'd really like his parents to stop worrying about him.

He's 25, he says, and he's doing fine. But he's also autistic, part of the generation of young adults who were born during the first big wave of autism cases in the United States two decades ago and are now struggling to strike out on their own.

"I tell them sometimes, 'Stop it, I'm doing things, I'm resourceful,' " said Abenes, who is a student at Cal State East Bay. "They're getting the message, I think. But they still worry."

Abenes, who wants to be a therapist someday and travel the world, is fortunate. He joined the College Internship Program in Berkeley, which provides him with a two-bedroom apartment he shares with a roommate, along with intensive, daily academic and developmental support to help him continue to thrive into adulthood.

But Abenes' situation is unusual, say autism advocates and experts, who are bracing for a flood of adults with autism who lack the support they had as children, and are entering a world that isn't ready for them.

Skyrocketing rates

It was in the late 1980s and early '90s that rates of autism started skyrocketing in the United States. A condition that once was considered rare, with fewer than 2 cases per 1,000 births in the United States, is now thought to afflict 1 in 88 children, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. It's unclear exactly what has caused the increase, but factors could include greater awareness and better diagnosing of the condition, as well as an actual rise in cases, perhaps related to environmental factors.

Read more HERE.

Autism and the media: loose lips that sink ships

From Laura Shumaker, Writer and Autism Advocate's, SF Gate article:

My son Matthew was home over the weekend, and I did everything in my power not only to protect him from the 24 hour news coverage of the horrible massacre in Colorado, but to make sure he was closely supervised at all times. Even with all the work I have done to increase autism awareness and acceptance, people still are uncomfortable with his social quirks, and are hyper-anxious around him after events like the one in Aurora. And who could blame them?

It was a long and emotionally draining weekend.

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Really Joe?

I don’t think that Mr. Scarborough meant to imply that all murderers are on the autism, spectrum, but he did, and he shouldn’t have, so he should RETRACT, with a sincere apology. Unfortunately comments like his are twisted and turned and float around forever from other loose lips.

Read Laura's article at SFGATE HERE.