Birmingham, Alabama – KultureCity is an organization that helps families with autistic children as well as increasing acceptance of autism in our society. The organization was set up by Julian Maha.
“Our goal, really, was to engage the community, have them start thinking about autism, and how they could change their practices and their businesses, not in a huge way, but in very subtle ways and help accept these families and children back into the community,”
The organization have now introduced a sensory box that is full of different toys that can occupy an autistic child while out to dinner. Julian Maha said:
“For kids with autism, this is what stimulates them. This is what gets their brains working. It kind of engages them and helps them to develop.”
Mr Maha who has an autistic son got the idea for a sensory box while having dinner out with his son. The first restaurant that they tried the sensory box in was the Post Office Pies in the Avondale area.
“We wanted it to be a restaurant that had good, quality organic food, that was local, that had a very low key environment, and had great pizza.”
The sensory box contains noise cancelling headphones for children with autism as well as an iPad with games for children with a visual need and textural toys.
KultureCity are looking to expand the program to other family-friendly restaurants in the metro area.
To learn more about KultureCity, please visit their website at www.kulturecity.org.
The original article by Nic Gulas on the WIAT.com website can be found here