Quite understandably, many parents and pupils are eager to return to school. Many 'special needs' children, including those with autism, are dreading this 'return to normality.' Those whose domestic circumstances were conducive to study have found the absence of school pressures, sensory overloads, and difficult human interactions a profound relief.
If our society prioritised the needs of autistic children, it would be engaged in a radical rethink of these children's education. The unspoken assumption is that autistic children have to adapt to difficult circumstances, whatever the emotional and psychological cost to them. Resources to fund 'reasonable adjustments' are increasingly not available ; when they are, they serve to mitigate a neurotypical environment, not to create an ideal situation in which autistic children can learn. Often, autistic children are excluded because of behavioural problems which arise from the intrinsic difficulty of their operating in a neurotypical world.
It is an understatement to call this a criminal waste of human potential. When the technological means exist to address this problem, the failure to do so is beyond excusable.