When her son Chase was diagnosed with autism in the summer of 2005, Clarise Shelby-Coleman, who works in Campus Safety and Emergency Management Services as a residential community safety officer, searched for community support and resources that would empower her with a better understanding of Chase’s diagnosis so she could help him live a full and fulfilling life.
Back then, autism spectrum disorder, which encompasses a range of conditions related to individual differences in sensory, perceptional and cognitive processes, was not as broadly shared, discussed or celebrated as it is now. “When Chase was diagnosed in 2005, the chances of being diagnosed with autism were 1 in 151. Today it’s 1 in 68, and 1 in 45 for males,” Shelby-Coleman says. “Tomorrow a caregiver will get a diagnosis and wonder, as I did, ‘where are all the adults with autism? How do I prepare him for this world?’”
Read the full story at Syracuse University News.