Letters to the Magazine

Thanks for your well-researched article on the shortage of services for adults with autism. My 30-year-old daughter is one of those victims who fell off the face of the earth when she turned 21. Massachusetts, like most states, has laws that mandate services for children, but not adults. When Katie aged out of the school system, she was lucky enough to find a group home. However, the experience soon turned into a nightmare. I was horrified at what I came to learn of how she was treated in her first and second group homes. As a single mother, I pulled her out of the system, left my job, bought a house, hired a staff and set up my own program. In our third year, we are hailed as a model by state officials and families with autistic adults. Now we're helping other families work through the complex system of laws governing housing and services for this population--a patchwork of revenue mentioned in your article. Seeing Katie smile as she does her daily paper route and runs errands for her house makes the journey worth all the sleepless nights.

Anita Perkins

Founder, Katydid Foundation

Newburyport, Mass.

As a 38-year-old with Asperger's syndrome, I'm disappointed you didn't discuss the growing autistic advocacy movement that holds that autism is simply a different way of being and should be treated as such. We find the concept of a "cure" for our condition as offensive as African-Americans would find the concept of a "cure" for dark skin. But more important, though your article was about autistic adults, you didn't interview any high-functioning ones. I don't think anyone is better qualified than an autistic adult to inform people about the many widely held misconceptions about our condition.

Parrish S. Knight