A free app for autism families, now fully live on iOS and Android, with a new provider directory and guidance that stays current as the rules change.
LITTLETON, CO, UNITED STATES, July 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — When Jessie Fielding’s daughter Ellie was diagnosed with autism, Fielding did what most parents do. She started Googling. What she found was a maze of state agency websites, contradictory advice, and forms nobody could explain. She spent two years piecing it together on nights and weekends, then built the app she needed back then.
That app, Autism Pathways, is now fully live and free for every family on iOS and Android.
The app walks parents through the parts of the journey that overwhelm families right after a diagnosis. It covers applying for Medicaid and appealing a denial, preparing for an IEP, finding and applying for Home and Community-Based Services waivers, and tracking a child’s development over time. A separate Potty Pathway tackles toilet training for autistic children, a subject Fielding says most autism resources leave out entirely.
Families are navigating that system at an unusually uncertain moment. Rules for special education, Medicaid, and home- and community-based services are being debated and revised at both the state and federal levels, and what a child qualifies for, or how to apply, can shift from one year to the next.
In response, Fielding built the app to keep itself current. Autism Pathways tracks changes to IEP management, state waiver processes, and Medicaid, and updates its guidance as those rules change, so the steps a family follows reflect the latest requirements rather than last year’s. Parents do not have to monitor agency notices or legislation on their own. The app does it for them.
“Policies keep shifting, and parents are the ones left guessing,” Fielding said. “I built the app to keep up with those changes on its own, so a family does not miss a deadline or lose a benefit simply because a rule changed and no one told them.”
The app also added a Provider Directory. Families can search for the professionals they need, including behavior therapists, speech and occupational therapists, pediatricians, and school-support specialists, and reach out to them directly. It answers one of the questions Fielding heard most from other parents. Not just what to do next, but who can actually help.
“Parents kept telling me they finally understood the steps, and then they hit a wall trying to find someone to take them,” Fielding said. “A family should not have to cold-call twenty offices to find a provider. The directory puts them in one place.”
At the center of the app is its waiver directory, a searchable, county-level database of developmental disability agencies across all 50 states, with agency contacts, waiver program names, eligibility requirements, and application links. The supports behind those waivers, from respite care to behavioral therapy, can take years to reach because of long waitlists.
“The waitlists for these waivers can be five, seven, even ten years long in some states,” Fielding said. “The date you apply is the date your clock starts. Families lose years they will never get back simply because no one told them to get on the list.”
In its first weeks, more than 130 families have downloaded Autism Pathways, many of them hearing about it from other parents. One early user put it simply: “I’ve been loving this app, and the people I’ve recommended it to are just loving how user-friendly it is.”
Fielding built Autism Pathways without a co-founder, a development team, or outside funding. Approximately one in 31 children in the United States is diagnosed with autism, and her goal is simple. Every one of those families should have a clear path forward on the same day they get a diagnosis.
The core of the app is free, including all of the guided pathways and the full waiver directory. Optional premium features are available for families who want more.
“I am not a doctor or a lawyer or a policy expert,” Fielding said. “I am a mom who figured it out the hard way and wrote it all down so the next family does not have to.”
Autism Pathways is available now, free, on the App Store and Google Play. Families can learn more at autismpathways.app.
Jessie Fielding
Autism Pathways LLC
contact@autismpathways.app
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