Autistic West Virginia teen, William Brown, 16, has started his own awareness campaign... with a twist.
Brown said, "I do a lot of research for my high school debate team, and recently I found some research compiled by Kronos.com that indicated that 4.4 million American workers show up late for work on the day after the Superbowl. Similarly 1.5 million American workers don't bother to show up at all on Superbowl Monday."
Brown said he imagined that there would be some guilt associated with missing work, and perhaps aligning the missing work hours with a worthy cause would be a good fit for everyone.
He said, "I've done Jump Rope for Heart and March of Dimes walks and all kinds of awareness campaigns, but this is a no-brainer. Seriously, how hard is it to sleep in? I'd pay five bucks for that."
Because Brown is not interested in collecting the money himself, he encourages folks to donate to their local autism charities. Several autism charities have jumped aboard, including autism groups in Rhode Island, Texas, Illinois and West Virginia. National groups have also endorsed Brown's awareness campaign, including NARPAA.
"Awareness starts with me. People who know me, know I have autism. It doesn't 'have' me. I'm stepping out and using my voice, because I have one. A lot of other people with autism can't speak out. One in every 100 kids knows what it means to be autistic. That means that the other 99 have a lot to learn."
More information about Sleep-In for Autism is available on Facebook at "Sleep-In for Autism." William Brown's CNN interview about changes to diagnostic criteria for autism is available at http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-11/health/aspergers.autism.dsm.v_1_asperger-autism-diagnoses-autism-spectrum-disorders?_s=PM:HEALTH.
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