For this issue looking at safety and the criminal justice system, OAR sat down with Haley Moss to get her perspective on safety, criminal justice, and autism. Haley Moss is an attorney, author, advocate, artist, and consultant. Diagnosed with autism when she was 3 years old, Moss now uses her personal and professional experience to…
Autism presents a range of safety challenges across the lifespan, including difficulty interacting with law enforcement, communicating with others, and unknowingly engaging in illegal activities. OAR’s Life Journey Through Autism: A Guide to Safety helps parents prepare for these and many other safety issues. The guide offers practical strategies for caregivers and first responders to…
Autistic individuals, like all of us, are likely to encounter law enforcement officers at some point in their lives, whether it is in the community, during a routine traffic stop, at a concert or large community event, or as the result of a suspicious person or aggressive behavior call to 911. Unfortunately, media reports consistently…
For me, it was very apparent at an early age that there was something different about the way our son Fynn was developing. Fynn didn’t speak more than three words, he didn’t attempt to pull up or walk, and he didn’t interact with the people around him. All these delays signaled to me that he needed…
In June 2022, a group of researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz published a paper in Autism in Adulthood, updating a 2011 study published in Disability Studies Quarterly that found that autistic people were overwhelmingly represented as children by parents, charitable organizations, the popular media, and the news industry. 2011 Study The 2011…
The RUN FOR AUTISM Endurance Challenge is back for its third year! Join us for this 30-day exercise and fundraising challenge dedicated to autism research. Starting on November 1, we challenge participants to complete one, two, or all three endurance challenges by November 30. Walk, run, swim, and/or cycle for the 30 days in November while logging your mileage as you…
Inclusion is not a new concept to society or education. The belief that all students, regardless of their background or abilities, should be included in the general education setting and in our communities has roots dating back over 50 years. Early efforts that laid the foundation for inclusion include the civil rights and disability rights…
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…
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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,…
