Important Facts You May or May Not Know About the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Community

Derrick Wesley is a doctoral candidate in the field of education at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. His critical dissertation research has returned striking findings, shared here because an informed society is a key component to improving the lives of neurodivergent individuals and appreciating the value they bring to the world.

Key economic and education facts

• Research shows an increase in prevalence of 1 in 36 children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in December 2020 — up from 1 in 44 in 2018 and 1 in 150 in 2000.
• Over the next decade, an estimated 700,000 to 1,116,300 teens will enter adulthood and age out of school-based services.
• More than half of young adults with autism remain unemployed and unenrolled in higher education in the two years after high school — a lower rate than that of young adults in other disability categories, including learning disabilities, intellectual disability, and speech-language impairment.
• Of the nearly 18,000 people with autism who used state-funded vocational rehabilitation programs in 2014, only about 60 percent left the program with a job. Of these, 80 percent worked part-time at a median weekly rate of $160, putting them well below the poverty line.
• The cost of caring for Americans with autism reached $268 billion in 2015 and would rise to $461 billion by 2025 in the absence of more effective interventions and supports across the lifespan.

Key health-care facts

• Preventive and primary medicine is more cost-effective than emergency medicine, and prevention and treatment of chronic conditions lead to better health-related quality of life. However, half of children with ASD visit the emergency department for treatment of conditions that could be prevented or cared for in a primary care setting.
• Children and adults with autism are more likely to have inpatient stays — those stays are often longer and more expensive.
• Specialty care may be harder to access due to increased cost, lack of availability, or inability to get needed referrals. Need for specialty visits and therapy is often greater than children with other special health care needs.

Key economic and racial disparities

• More children with autism live in lower-income households compared to children with other social, emotional, or behavioral health needs and children with no special needs.
• Two-thirds of children with autism from low-income households were headed by a single mother, and had at least one sibling with a special health need.
• A larger proportion of low-income children with autism were Hispanic and a smaller percentage were white, relative to the total population of children with autism.
• Native children comprised 4.1% of the group of children with autism, but almost 56% of the subpopulation of children with autism from lower-income households.

If you are interested in learning more about Mr. Wesley’s work, please connect and follow him on LinkedIn.