A Closer Look Into the NATIONAL (Posh Posh) Autistic Society

Welcome back to the Audacious Aspie! Today, we will continue to look at the National Autistic society, check in on-em abit, and see just what exactly it is that they do. And if their name is anything to go buy, they are known NATIONALy as the best support group in the UK (or are they?), with a NATIONAListic fervor of supporting autistic people. Now enough with the puns, let’s back to a NATIONAL argument.

Because this is Britain, I bet they feel like they deserve a crown. So here they are. An image of a crown, with no head band. That still counts as a crown right?

 

So, what DO they do exactly? Will, they started the first autism-specific school in the world waaaay back in 1965 (THE first in the world, not A first in the world. It’s like that THE best thing in the last post), back when the Beatles was still dominating the music world. Since then, they have been testing different ways (on autistic mice, obviously) to support everyone, man, child and man-child alike, who are on the autistic spectrum. Thay now run everything from residential, to social groups, all the way to autism centres in mainstream schools.

 

Now that’s quite the bit of programming going on, but what about information and advice for those who are on the spectrum or know someone who is? The National autistic society has that covered to: after gathering info for the past half century (like I said, it’s not British unless it’s un-godly old), you tend to discover certain things, eventually becoming the Sauron, or the all-seeing-eye, of your neighborhood. With helplines, membership programmes, training for family members and more, there is no where the ring can go that you won't see.

Take this ring traveller, and bring it to the mountain of doom. Oh, and while you’r at it, subjugate some lands for me yeah? For business reasons, you understand.

 

And, of course, there is support for the professionals. What kind of support? Its not another database is it? No no my friends, it’s about: training courses, conferences, consultancy (the three C’s) plus am autism accreditation program where professionals (this IS about support for professionals, silly) learn how to work with autistic people. That’s literally what it means without all the flowery language. There is even support for employers who want to make there workplace attractive for autistic people. Here’s the link for more information from the site: http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/about-us/whoweare/whatwedo.aspx.

 

Will, this has been a closer look at the NATIONAL autistic society. No more puns on that name here, honestly. In the next post, I hope to be able to look at another organization that claims there is a problem with with how resources in the UK offer services to the autistic community. Specifically, who they focus the spotlight on and who they leave behind. But remember: with some resources, they are like companies, they all want to be one thing. In the words of J.R.R Tolkien:

One entity, to rule them all,

One entity to find them.

One entity to bring them all,

And in the darkness, blind them        

 

Until than, this continues to be, the Audacious Aspie.