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Life in the Time of COVID-19: An Autistic Perspective
Like many autistics, I have been drawn to science fiction as far back as I can remember. The idea of an epidemic infecting the human race has always been a common theme in science fiction and is probably as old as the genre itself. As such, I have seen and read more stories about pandemics than I...
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How We’ve Always Done It
I remember the day exactly. It was an unspectacular Sunday and I was headed to the last job I would ever take working for somebody else. It was a low-paying, hourly, management position for an animal nonprofit and just about the only benefit of the job was that I was in charge of making the...
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Dating and Relationships: A Perennial Challenge for Many Autistics
This is one area about which, like so many on the autism spectrum, I can hardly be considered an expert. Nevertheless, because of its importance to so many in the autistic community, I feel the need to share what little I have learned on the basis of meeting and talking to others who have faced...
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Different is My Identifier
I was eight years old the first time I remember being aware of my difference. It didn’t have a name yet, that was still decades away, but nonetheless, suddenly at the ripe old age of eight, I was cognizant of that I was indeed different. For the seven years of life prior to that, I happily lived...
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Be Mindful, Be Present, Be You: How to Handle Crisis Anxiety
With the world around us a chaotic mess, it is getting harder and harder to avoid becoming a giant, swirling, ball of anxiety. The current pandemic has disrupted our lives and the world as we know it is on hold for the foreseeable future. It has interrupted routines, forced schools to close, and...
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Neurodiversity: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and A Call for Unity
When I hear the word “neurodiversity,” I immediately become concerned that it will be dismissed as simply another form of “political correctness,” and not seen as encompassing a wide variety of serious issues that affect virtually everyone in the Asperger Syndrome / autism spectrum...
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Stuck Between Two Worlds: Having a Brain that is Half Autistic and Half Neurotypical
We often talk of Neurodiversity in terms of a binary between Autistic and Neurotypical when in reality it is much more complicated. We all know Autism exists on a spectrum but commonly assume if someone is on the spectrum, they are one side of a binary line, regardless of where they fall on the...
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Social Activities and Communities for Individuals with Autism: Meeting a Basic Human Need
Social activities, as engagement with a community to which one belongs, are an essential part of life for most people. Unfortunately, for autistics, there are often barriers that prevent them from participating in such. Before I address these issues, however, I need to emphasize that the commonly...
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Older Adults on the Spectrum Face a Variety and Number of Major Challenges
In spite of being fortunate enough to have avoided many of the challenges presented by aging on the autism spectrum, I nevertheless feel that I am in a position to write about these as an older adult on the spectrum who recently became a senior citizen. I was already a middle-aged adult (age 44) at...
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There are No IEPs in College: Succeeding with Accommodations
For many students, college is a series of firsts. With independence comes responsibility for many things they previously had assistance with. These firsts are challenging for many, however students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face additional, unique challenges — significant impairments in...
