WSJ Opinion: Don’t Forget Americans With Severe Autism

I don’t begrudge Bill Gates’s musings that he would have been put on the autism spectrum if he were a child today. Yet as a parent of a young adult who is nonverbal with severe autism, I’d like to bring into focus a sharper picture of the disorder amid the current trend of self-diagnosis (“Bill Gates: I Coded While I Hiked as a Teenager. Was I On the Spectrum? Probably,” Review, Jan. 25).

More than a quarter of people with autism experience its most severe forms and face major obstacles in daily living. That can mean pervasive communication impairments and behavior challenges, including self-injury, along with serious medical issues such as seizures and catatonia. Too many people with severe or profound autism, and their families, face isolation and societal invisibility.

It is more than a matter of being left out of the media conversation. In recent years, government-funded research and federal policymaking have often excluded or overlooked this population. People with severe autism face acute shortfalls in housing options, the caregiving workforce, access to medical care and other areas.

A moral, caring society must look at the full picture of autism, focus resources where they are most needed and seek better lives for all.

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