The Ipad, Changing Lives..Hundreds Of Dollars At A Time.

This a small clip from the last episode of 60 Minutes. This mother nearly broke me when she described what it had been like for her to try and communicate with her child day in and day out. I had to leave the room because I actually did burst into tears.
Our son is just a toddler and I believe he will talk, he makes big efforts to and can say a few words so eventually it will come.
 There are families effected by autism that can never speak to their child. They are raising their child basically by mind reading and looking for clues, a nearly impossible task. Sometimes they are able to figure it out and sometimes they aren't able to.
Autism has been described to me as being trapped and I have seen this in research and through my own child. Which means someone effected by autism who is nonverbal, may be thinking their needs and have thoughts just like you and me, with no way to get it out. The body and mind are not working together to form verbal communication.
If you spent an entire day without speaking and trying to communicate your needs in whatever way you could just imagine how frustrated you would be. One day being nonverbal would be exhausting for you and the people around you. Now imagine taking that one exhausting day and turn it into years.
The Ipad is opening doors for some autistic families in regard to learning and speaking through technology. For many people that is a gift from God, to finally be able to get to know their child's thoughts, sense of humor, and needs. Even better to meet those needs without having to play charades until they figure it out, if they figure it out.
The problem? Many people can not afford an Ipad. The cost of raising an autistic child alone is overwhelming and now there is a feeling the Ipad is necessary on every level. So, what we need is affordable programs that mimic what the Ipad offers. Not mass distributed at 600$ a piece or more, but at an affordable price that is not based on billion dollar sales. Instead based on changing lives without putting more families deeper into debt.
Maybe one day this will be available to everyone, but it may take someone with autism to create it and make it easily available. Autistic people tend to live in a logical world, and what seems logical to me is changing lives. Making communication programs available to anyone who will benefit from it because dangling a program in front of families who can't speak to there children for hundreds of dollars and waiting for sales to hit an all time high, is cruel and doesn't make any sense to me.
1 in 88 children are living in a world of logic, and logic is putting human need ahead of profit. Personally, I think that would be a pretty amazing world to live it.