I am privileged to introduce a friend I recently met on Twitter. Welcome our Guest Writer, Alan Stokes, the Founder and Author of Autism Light. Please share his guest post with someone you know!
About Autism Light...
On June 21, 2011, I started the Autism Light blog. I had
been looking online for hope and light for being a better autism father to my
then six year old son Jonathan. I stumbled across the story of Carly
Fleischmann having a breakthrough in communication and wanted to preserve the
details, links, and inspiration that I found so I could reference it later. So
my first post was on Carly Fleischmann and she was Autism Light #1.
400 posts later I still use that same style of giving each Autism Light the
next consecutive number and introducing each new post with that number.
My goal for my blog is to continue to build a relevant
collection of content about autism from diverse voices in the world. As the
number of posts on my blog continues to increase I am working on updating some
of the biographical details in older ones and creating more index pages by
geography and themes that make it easier for people to find older posts in
multiple ways. We are nearing half a million page views on the blog.
I have been asked how I select and find subjects to write
about at Autism Light. I am constantly reading and researching things about
autism on the Internet and when a story touches my heart I try to work it in to
my blog in the future. I attempt to give consideration for building diversity
in the overall collection and also spotlight themes for holidays when possible,
such as my Martin Luther King, Jr. Day series.
I think the autism community is blessed like none other
to have such a diverse and vibrant source of heroes who really care about
autism and are giving of part of their heart and soul to shine a light for
autism. Our differences do not have to divide us. Although none of us
experences the Autism Spectrum in the same exact way, as we look at the wisdom,
experiences, and passions of others we can find a ray of Autism Light for our
journey.
The Reason I Blog...
I wanted to take this opportunity to share four reasons I
think more people should have an autism blog.
1. It’s
Free: There are free platforms such a Blogger that can host one's
blog and the promotion can be done through free social media accounts like Facebook,
Twitter, and Google Plus.
2. It Can Help Others: When the content of
a blog is placed on the internet it can be used to inspire and give hope to
people from around the world. People who come to autism with their unique needs
and who nevertheless will usually remain anonymous.
3. It Helps One Learn About Autism: It
really is true that one of the best ways to learn about a subject is to write
about it. If you want to become more knowledgeable about autism I can think of
no better way than to write a blog.
4. It
Helps One Put Their Situation into Perspective: When one interacts with the
autism world at a level necssary to create content for a blog, it becomes clear
that every family is fighting their own battles. No matter what the
situation is that one is facing, someone else has it a little harder. Other has
been there and done that and survived.
I wholeheartedly recommend autism blogging. Feel free to
contact me if you have recommendations for content on one of my blogs or would
like to collaborate on something constructive related to autism awareness and
acceptance.
About Me:
Alan Stokes is an autism father from the Lansing,
Michigan area who started the Autism Light blog in June, 2011 The blog spotlights diverse autism organizations, resources,
human interest stories, celebrities, people with autism, and parents shining a
light for autism from anywhere in the world. He also maintains the Autism Rest,
Autism Shares,
Autism Sites,
and Autism Quotes blogs. You can email him at AutismLight@gmail.com. Also, be sure and follow him
on Twitter @AutismLight where links to any new blog posts are shared
immediately.
