Silver Spring, Md. March 25 — It all started when Jennifer Ethirveerasingam looked at her April issue of Parents magazine. Mother to a child with autism and aware that April is Autism Awareness Month, she began to page through the magazine, looking for an article—anything—about autism. Finding nothing, she told some friends, who posted on the Parents magazine Facebook page under the heading "Lack of Autism Coverage."
"What a missed opportunity to raise awareness, provide information and to include families with autism in your parenting discussions," wrote Beth Andersen, the first to broach the topic on the magazine's wall.
Within hours, this slight gained traction in the online autism community, collecting dozens of comments on the Facebook posting and inspiring a string of posts around the blogosphere criticizing the magazine for neglecting a demographic that makes up a sizable chunk of the parenting population.