WILKINS, Iowa — A group of local Autism Moms are celebrating after symbolically giving birth to the first-ever Autism Mom Font.
Led by longtime resident Sherri Plack, the group, Social Clique of Autism Moms, came up with the idea after agonizing over this year's T-shirt design.
“Being a mother of a child who just happens to have autism is a full-time job on its own!” she said. “Creating a new shirt every year for Autism Mom Awareness Month has just gotten harder and harder; we've nearly exhausted the 700 fonts available in our editing software over the past three years! There has to be a better way.”
A standard Autism Mom shirt typically contains six to seven different typefaces, three to five different colors and at least three puzzle piece symbols. And because these elements are often combined with an entire standard T-shirt's length of affirmations, complaints, grievances and declarations, just choosing typefaces and colors requires hours of design work.
But now, with the Autism Mom Font, Autism Moms everywhere can assemble a shirt design in minutes without having to resort to readable and accessible typefaces, font sizes and colors.
The Autism Mom Font automatically changes the typeface and size with every sentence and cycles through no less than 64 colors per character used. Also included is an optional puzzle piece symbol pack, added at random.
Though critics have pointed out the possible penalties involved in using some protected typefaces, Plack isn't worried. “My beautiful son — who is the sweetest boy on earth and makes his mother proud every day — is worth some mild copyright infringement.”
Other Autism Mom groups have taken notice, drafting a petition to have the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee adopt the font as the official font of Autism Mom Awareness Month (AMAM).
“The Autism Mom Font will go a long way to ensuring everyone around us knows we're Autism Moms,” Plack commented.
As of publication, the Autism Dad Font has yet to be released.