Established by the General Assembly 30 years ago, the Kentucky Autism Training Center serves autistic individuals and their families in all 120 counties.

Part of its mission is training first responders on how to have successful interactions with autistic people.

Our Makenzie Spink tells us more about how the training center works to improve the public safety of Kentuckians with autism.

According to the Autism Society, approximately 1 in 5 young adults with autism will interact with law enforcement before the age of 21.

The Kentucky Autism Training Center wants first responders to have the tools they need to ensure these interactions are safe and effective.

Our goal is not to create autism experts.

Our goal is to provide tools that help responders recognize situations, communicate more effectively, and achieve safer outcomes.

The center's deputy director says individuals with autism can often have communication differences that make it difficult for an officer to interpret their behavior.

As you can imagine, for that officer, their wheels are turning.

What on earth is going on?

Why is this person not responding to my questions?

Why are they pacing?

Why are they by this busy roadway?

Different observers may come to different conclusions.

So some of the most common that individuals might consider are that the individual is simply not compliant, or maybe they are under the influence of some substance, or maybe it's a mental health crisis occurring.

In reality, that individual may simply be autistic and overwhelmed by the environment.

The Autism Training Center surveyed its participants over the last four years, and found that 23% of first responders said they felt knowledgeable about autism before the training.

That number increased to 91% after the training.

It's just often a few simple adjustments that are needed to help support that interaction.

It could be something as simple as helping the individual get to an environment that has less input, right?

That's not as noisy, not as many people.

It could be that you need to shift your language and maybe use very direct language.

And maybe it's also that whenever you are asking questions of this person, you are doing it too quickly to rapidly.

Not giving enough time for them to process the information and provide the answer.

Kuli cook says the demand for training is only growing.

In 2000, the centers for Disease Control estimated that there were approximately 1 in 150 children with the diagnosis of autism.

Today, estimates are approximately 1 in 31.

Today, virtually every first responder in Kentucky will interact with autistic individuals throughout their career.

The Autism Training Center provides this training for free, not only to law enforcement groups, but also to search and rescue teams, hospital staff, fire departments, and more.

For Kentucky, Edition, I'm McKenzie Spink.

The Kentucky Autism Training Center is housed at the University of Louisville's College of Education and Human Development.