With friends, sometimes you can go “home” again. Last August our autistic son Ian, along with his two parents, took a one-week vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It was unusual for a number of reasons. First, the vacation was with four of Ian’s neurotypical friends, whom he hadn’t seen in almost 10…
The 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, established by Congress in 2020, launched on Saturday, July 16. The lifeline number is a three-digit code that people can call to connect with mental health crisis counselors 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Both English and Spanish language callers can use the number and texting…
Has OAR made a positive impact on your experience as a member of the autism community? If so, please help us reach a wider audience and raise funds by reviewing OAR on the GreatNonprofits website. Once you add your review, spread the word to your friends and colleagues. Reviews can be as brief as a…
Hire Autism welcomed 12 volunteers at the end of July to its fourth navigator training in 2022. In the virtual training, volunteers from all over the United States logged on to learn what it means to be a Hire Autism navigator and their role in helping autistic job seekers navigate the job search. Please join…
OAR is delighted to announce the first winners of Synchrony Tech Career Scholarships. Unlike the existing OAR scholarships, which support autistic students pursuing college studies, these scholarships support autistic adults interested in obtaining technology-related certifications and pursuing a career in the tech sector with awards up to $5,000. Congratulations to these scholarship winners: Casey Gonzalez…
Going to college can be an exciting opportunity for students to discover new interests, live independently, and develop self-advocacy skills. All college students deserve to have a fun and fulfilling experience, and that includes those who are autistics. OAR’s Finding Your Way: A College Guide for Students on the Spectrum was created to help autistic…
In 2021, Vanessa Bal, Ph.D., an associate professor and the Karmazin & Lillard Chair in Adult Autism at Rutgers, and Evan Kleiman, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the psychology department, led a one-year OAR-funded study, Developing Supports to Address Mental Health Needs of Autistic Students in Postsecondary Education, that examined an intervention to help autistic…
Academic settings can be turbulent environments for autistic learners, especially in collegiate settings. For many, it’s their first time living away from home and being solely responsible for many small but important things, like eating in the cafeteria, using a calendar, getting from one place to the next, and setting and maintaining deadlines. There’s a…
Today, I am awestruck as I watch two of my sons laugh, roughhouse, and play soccer in the backyard. For most families, joyful moments like these between siblings are frequent, everyday experiences. But for some families with autistic children, positive interactions between siblings can seem out of the norm or even rare. In our case,…
The word “autistic” has always been stigmatized, its meaning is eclipsed by ideas of screaming children and socially unacceptable behaviors. But autism affects every person differently and is often not seen by the public eye. For me, autism has always played a large role in my life. Although I am not autistic, my younger brother…
