Why I Built KnowAutism
A few years ago, one of my closest friends got the call. Her daughter had been assessed. Autism spectrum disorder.
The diagnosis was not the hardest part. In some ways, it brought relief. There was finally a name for what they had been seeing, and a direction for what to do next.
What came after was harder.
She registered with AccessOAP and got a confirmation number. Then she waited. No clear timeline. No visibility into what came next. No simple way to understand what support her daughter might be eligible for, what expenses would be covered, or how long any of it would take.
So she did what thousands of Ontario parents end up doing. She figured it out herself.
She read government pages late at night. She sat on hold to ask basic questions. She searched for providers one by one. She tracked receipts in her own spreadsheet because there was no better system. She learned the rules because she had no choice.
And while doing all of that, she was still parenting. School. Therapy. Forms. Phone calls. Work. Dinner. The next day. Then the next.
I kept thinking about how wrong that was.
This is not one family's problem
Ontario families are dealing with a system that is hard to navigate even before services begin. Tens of thousands of children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program. Many families wait years for a Core Clinical invitation. Even after registration, parents have to manage disconnected program rules, static provider lists, manual expense tracking, and separate applications for related supports like SSAH, the Disability Tax Credit, school accommodations, and respite programs.
This is not a rare edge case. It is a structural problem in how the system works today. What my friend went through is what families across Ontario go through, in every region, at every income level.
That is why I built KnowAutism
The Program Finder exists because families should not have to piece together eligibility across disconnected programs.
The funding guides exist because parents need clear answers, not policy language.
The provider directory exists because finding someone with the right fit and actual availability should not mean calling dozens of places.
Privacy from day one
KnowAutism does not store your child's health information. The Program Finder runs in your browser. When you close the tab, your answers disappear. No account required. No database of family information.
For full details, see the privacy page.
This site exists to make Ontario autism support easier to understand, easier to use, and less exhausting to navigate.
No family should have to figure all of this out from scratch.