Growing Pains

I listen to the Nightline podcast from time to time and they recently did a show on adults with autism. I give Nightline credit for doing a story on adults with any kind of disability. Every local news station in the country probably has an entire shelf in their archive labeled “Cute Handicapped Kid Stories.” But adults with disabilities aren’t as cuddly, at least not according to the media. (I happen to be very cuddly, but that’s another entry.) The story discussed the enormously important role that parents play in the lives of their grown children with autism, and how the transition to adult services can be quite jarring for these families. School is the bedrock in the lives of a lot of kids with disabilities. School gets them out of the house and is often their only forum for making friends and building social skills. When that familiar setting is gone (and a lot of people with developmental disabilities crave routine), it takes a lot of effort to replace it with something else that gets them out into the community.
And where the hell are the disability podcasts? I just did a quick Google search and the results were disappointing. There are podcasts out there featuring people talking about, I shit you not, their bowel movements and we can’t come up with a disability-themed podcast? Don’t make me do it myself. The disability community must have a bunch of better-sounding people than me who could do a weekly podcast. So where are you?