If I had only one message to get out in "Autism Awareness Month" it's this: Almost everything you can find to read about autism is wrong. Put another way: Autism - it's not like you think.

Now that's very sad, because it means that there is a whole lot of bad information out there; and that means that autistic people are suffering because their way of being, their condition, or their disorder (if you prefer) is badly misunderstood.

It's much easier to point people to the very few sources of good information on autism than it is to list all the bad, heinous, and even criminally misleading sources of misinformation out there.

Instead of wasting time reading misinformation, I recommend that you visit these websites and use them as resources:

Anything from Dr. Morton Ann Gernsbacher. She's an autism researcher, a language comprehension researcher, the mother of an autistic son, and a strong promoter of autistic self-advocacy. You can find a lot of good stuff on her website. http://psych.wisc.edu/lang/MGcover.html http://psych.wisc.edu/lang/autism-research.html The topics listed on her autism-research page link to pdf files of papers and articles that are very helpful and encouraging and even better, contain accurate statements about autism. They are 100% hysteria free.

The autism-hub bloggers. http://www.autism-hub.co.uk One reason that the hub bloggers are a good source of information, as a group, is that many of them are autistic people themselves, and they represent different kinds of autistic people. They aren't all "Asperger's" folks with PhD's, some are "classic" autistics who need support to live independently or who might be living at home. The parent bloggers on the hub are almost all hysteria and hype free. Occasionally I don't agree with something some of the write, but there are some fantastic parent bloggers on the hub and as a group they have a tremendous amount of experience parenting all kinds of different autistic kids and teens and adults. Several autism parent bloggers from the autism-hub are blogging here on Trusera, too!

Anything from Michelle Dawson. Michelle has an autism-hub blog, but she does most of her writing for the Internet on her "QuickTopic" board. http://www.quicktopic.com/27/H/vJvhV4fDnBgw7/ Michelle is autistic (she has "classic autism," or "Kanner autism" or "autistic disorder" as opposed to PDD,nos or Asperger's syndrome). Michelle is also a published autism researcher who works with a widely respected group of researchers out of Montreal. Michelle Dawson is totally amazing, and I have had the privelege of meeting her (at an IMFAR -autism research- conference). She will usually be able to answer questions about autism and autism research fairly quickly on her board, that is, those questions that are within her scope of knowledge (which is impressive). Sometimes she is busy with preparing research for publication or she may be preparing (or recovering from) a speaking engagement, but she's still pretty timely with responses. She has regular readers there who may also be able to give you answers good answers about autism. For the most part, foolish people don't hang around her quicktopic board, so you won't have to wade through lots of foolishness that you might on some other boards or blogs.

Autistics.org, especially their library http://www.autistics.org/library/ autistics.org is run by autistic people, and is run on a shoestring. They accept donations, if you find something you think is especially helpful to you, you might consider donating to them. They have PayPal donation buttons on their home page.

Neurodiversity.org Neurodiversity.org has many, many good articles on it and loads of links to just about everything on the web about autism (in English). The neurodiversity weblog http://neurodiversity.com/weblog/ is one of the previously mentioned autism-hub blogs. I highly recommend the "Library of the History of Autism Research, Behaviorism & Psychiatry" http://www.neurodiversity.com/library_index.html

The Posautive group on YouTube. http://youtube.com/group/posautive Loads and loads of videos about autism. 100% hysteria free. The videos are postive but not unrealistically Pollyanna-ish.

The Autism Acceptance Project http://www.taaproject.com/ Out of Toronto, Canada. Interesting art by autistic people and much more.

From England, the National Autistic Society (NAS) http://www.nas.org.uk/ The NAS does a much better job of advocating for autistic people than any organization based in the United States. They are much more attuned to the needs of autistic adults than almost any other organization in the world, with the exception of a few that are run entirely by autsitic adults.

The website that accompanies the book Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism http://www.unstrange.com/

ASAN The Autistic Self Advocacy Network http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/ founded and run by autistic adults and youth.

and, let's not forget, right where you are now, on Trusera.com, you can find some very good advice from parents of autistic children, teens and adults; and from people on the autism spectrum. I hope you will think that my advice is usually helpful and my thoughts mostly insightful, and always 100$ hysteria free. :-)

I would say that there is enough on the above websites to keep anyone busy for a good while. Further, I think that if you avoid websites that promote a very negative image of autism and autistics then you will not only be better informed, but you will also be a better parent (if you are a parent) and better citizen of your community because you will have a more accurate picture of what autism is and a more accurate view of the reality of your fellow citizens who are autistic.