Hello! What I want to do with this blog is two things.

First of all, I want to bring awareness regarding autism to a European audience. I am guessing that for the vast majority of readers autism (or even disability in general) is something that barely touches your lives on a day to day basis. I want to make you aware of the issues faced by autistic people. Starting with that most basic of issues - the right of self determination. To that end I hope to invite autistic Guest Bloggers on from time to time so that they can give you an idea of what sort of things they encounter in their daily lives. I hope to be able to give you an overview of what parenting an autistic child can be like.

Secondly, I want to discuss autism science - and bad science (and theres a lot of it) - and what the European community can do to support good quality science with political willpower. Research that will actually help autistic people on a daily basis in areas such as education (child and adult), living and accommodation for adults, support in the community, opportunities with regards to careers and career development etc.

I mentioned bad science briefly and there is an unfortunate amount of it around. I discuss this frequently on my personal blog Left Brain/Right Brain so I may not discuss this as deeply but I will discuss key scientific papers, explain why they are maybe not so good and how a European political response to mandating quality science with regards to autism would be very desirable.

So thats what I intend to blog about. As for me personally, I'm a 39 year old married web developer with 3 kids of whom my middle child is severely autistic with accompanying learning difficulties. I live and work in the West Midlands of the UK.

So, welcome to Autism Talk. I hope to see you commenting!