Autism can be seen as a challenge to rise beyond our limitations, our routines and the way are lives can be fragmented into separate compartments so that we can perceive how the many simultaneous challenges posed by autism relate to each other — which should help us address the challenges strategically.
Some people see autism as a challenge to be fully present with and open to people with very different ways of being. This means moving beyond categorizing people with labels and opening the way to new possibilities.
Being present with each person in this way, no matter what they “can’t do,” can stimulate a profound desire for a way of living and a way of organizing the world so that it facilitates this presence. It also opens the way to valuing what each person CAN do, which may be atypical but full of integrity and value.
Being present with these challenges can also stimulate a profound desire to eliminate physical, social, environmental and institutional factors, and practices that get in the way of this quality of presence, that get in the way of health and well-being, and that create obstacles or loss of options.
