How one Texas parent is trying to solve a growing problem

RICHARDSON -- Her daughter's autistic behaviors worsened six months after high school. Austen Wheeler was screaming more. She was crying. She was biting herself and watching Sesame Street and Blue's Clues -- TV shows that the 18-year-old hadn't watched in years.

Jamie Wheeler-Matlock was beginning to see the answer to a question she had long feared: What would happen when her autistic daughter graduated?
Austen loved going to Lake Highlands High School. She sang in choir and performed in theater. She had so many friends that her mom called her the school mascot.

Then, Austen graduated. Choir and theater stopped. Her friends left for college.What was once a full day of activities shrunk to a daily two-hour autism transition program taught through the Richardson school district. The program was meant to help Austen find a job, but less than 16 percent of autistic adults find full-time work, according to a 2016 survey from the National Autistic Society. The survey also revealed that 51 percent of autistic adults who work have jobs beneath their skill set.

That's what happened with Austen.She cleaned tables at a nursing home. She blacked-out magazine addresses in hospitals. She ripped out hard-drives in a windowless room at a computer repair shop. The menial jobs frustrated her. Like many autistic people, Austen is creative. She once taught herself how to read and loves talking with people.

Both Jamie and her husband worked, so every week, it was a challenge to find someone to watch Austen. They tried a day-school program, but those can be expensive and cater to low-functioning special needs adults.Jamie was running out of options. Last December, two years removed from high school, Austen was spending her days alone in front of a TV or computer.

No organization existed for higher-functioning autistic adults -- one that was affordable and provided a group of friends and daily opportunities to interact with the community. So in January, Jamie created one:  Austen's Autistic Adventures.

On a recent Tuesday morning, seven months after she started the nonprofit, Jamie was pulling out of her driveway on her way to the Gentle Zoo in Forney.She quit her job as an adjunct professor in May to pursue Austen's Autistic Adventures full-time. The nonprofit schedules daily activities for high-functioning autistic adults, which typically means they can communicate, use a restroom and follow requests.

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