The transition into adulthood funding mainly allocates funds for disabled people to actively participate in the community. A lot of organizations offer voluntary hours for disabled to participate and public places like zoos and museums offer discounted entrance.
When my son was young, even without our knowing we started taking him out into the community. We never felt uncomfortable to the fact that he had behaviors or had sensory needs. Maybe these public outings were ersatz to a typical social gathering like a birthday party or a marriage.
This was much easier since we controlled the amount of exposure and fine tune it to my son’s needs.
We also did extensive traveling to New York for a particular vision therapy which we thought would help in his learning. I don’t have a tangible figure as to how much he gained but the residual effect was that we visited a lot of places in the city and enjoyed the drive between New York and Boston.
As I look into my memory box of pictures I am deeply indebted to my husband who patiently helped me during those times. The late night drive back to Boston was not easy with an autistic kid and a five year old who was just a witness of all the juggling act his Mom was making as she had deeply immersed herself with Dr. Google.
As I finish up this post I need to make a point. Most of the activities we do with our son is a substitute of something original that a normal society does. But over the years that has become a normal for us. As I learnt the meaning of Ersatz, it said not genuine or something substituted. We had substituted so much of his food and clothes, but changing our way of living was one big adjustment we had to make.
For RDP Wednesday: Residue
For Your Daily Word Prompt: Ersatz (not real or genuine)
Special Mom’s blog 
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