The late Maya Angelou, a great African-American poet and civil rights activist, once said, “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” Besides birthdays and anniversaries, there are two months out of the calendar year that have extraordinary significance for me. In…
From ASAN’s website: “The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is now accepting applications for the 2017 Autism Campus Inclusion (ACI) Summer Leadership Academy! The ACI Summer Leadership Academy prepares autistic students to do disability advocacy at their colleges. Accepted students will travel to Washington, DC and participate in advocacy training from June 10th to June 17th,…
A self-advocate shares his experience growing up on the spectrum and offers some advice. My name is Russell Lehmann, I am 26-years-old and I happen to have autism. I have come a long, long way in life. Fourteen years ago, at the height of my distress, I was pretty much non-verbal. I was too afraid…
“Many of us are told all our lives that our social communication is deficient. We apparently have ‘poor social skills’ and ‘poor communication.’ I will refute that here and now as complete rubbish.” Self-advocate Jeanette Purkis writes from her perspective on coming to find pride and community around the way she communicates. This post was…
Self-advocate Erin Clemens reflects on accepting the way her brain processes differently amid the changes in routine during the holidays. This piece was originally found on the Mighty. This year, for the Thanksgiving holiday, I did everything in my power to stick to my routine. I knew it would be important for me as someone…
Tucker James Collins (TJC): When I was a child, my mother told me that she thought I had Asperger’s Syndrome. She framed this in terms of me being socially awkward and intelligent. My siblings complained about me being “weird”, and no adults in my family dissuaded them from using this label. I received no services,…
As an individual on the autism spectrum, I have struggled with and achieved many types of independence, such as going to college, living on my own, learning how to cook, and starting my own business. While I did receive varying degrees of assistance with each of these endeavors, sexual independence was something I had to…
As an autistic self-advocate, I consider myself fairly lucky to have been relatively unaffected by bullying for most of my life. However, it is an unfortunate fact that many other autistics are very likely to be affected by bullying at some point in their lives. We have trouble making friends; we have interests that might…
