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NY State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara’s Personal Mission of Advocacy on Behalf of New Yorkers with Disabilities
Life is almost never a straight path. If you try to make a plan, you will sometimes head in a direction you never could have imagined. For me, the journey has not been simple, and it is has not always gone as I expected. My parents are both Italian immigrants. They left their homes in...
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Autism Saved My Life
For 36 of my 40 years, I was disabled. I was cut off from the world but for the tiny bubble that was my bedroom. Barely able to care for myself, angry, scared and lonely, I felt hopeless and broken. Suicidal thoughts were a daily reminder of my inadequacies and failures. I was certain there had...
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Supporting Students on the Autism Spectrum: Many Things Need to Change
It has been a long time since I was a student. In fact, it would be many years before most people would even have heard the word autism, and decades before I was finally diagnosed on the spectrum. As such, I never received any supports or accommodations. Fortunately, I managed to succeed...
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The Face of Grief Before and After the Autism Spectrum
My husband Cedric and I used to joke we should have known from the beginning our extremely introverted daughter preferred not to be bothered with the rest of the world. Despite trying to arrive early at 35 weeks, at 42 weeks labor was induced and Jordan arrived. I remember the nurse saying,...
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Students with Disabilities and the Juvenile Justice System: What Parents Need to Know
Students with disabilities, including emotional and behavioral disorders, or learning and developmental disabilities, are at a higher risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system. A disabled youth may enter the “School-to-Prison Pipeline” because of the lack of an Individualized...
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Who Should Take the Blame for Autism?
Last week, I saw yet another article that claimed to solve the mystery of autism. This time, it was gestational diabetes in the mother. It’s always something, isn’t it? Either autism is because of advanced paternal or maternal age, or the dot-com era, or people who eat gluten. the article...
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Is the Label or the Person the Focus?
People who are diagnosed with Autism are often seen first for the diagnosis that they have. Many times programs are developed by organizations that have expertise with the labeled disability. People with autism are often accepted into programs based on this diagnosis. This is not unlike many other...
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President Obama Signs ABLE Act
On December 19, 2014, President Barack Obama signed into law the Achieving Better Life Expectancy (ABLE) Act. First introduced in 2006, and subsequent sessions of Congress, the ABLE Act will allow people with disabilities (with an age of onset up to 26 years old) and their families the opportunity...
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Addressing the Lack of Attention Given to Autism and Mental Health Services in the South Asian Community
As the South Asian community is growing in the United States, so is the focus on the community’s needs and concerns, with mental health being one of the major needs. Such needs often go unspoken due to social taboos and hesitation. The same holds true for the issues related to developmental...
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Autism Science Foundation Hosts Autism Community’s First TED-Style Talks
On April 10, 2014, the Autism Science Foundation celebrated its fifth anniversary by hosting a Day of Learning and an Evening of Celebration at the Yale Club of New York City. For the Day of Learning, ASF presented the autism community’s first TED-Style Talks, which were given by nine experts in...
