NY State Governor Hochul Announces 30 Awards Statewide Totaling $25 Million to Expand Health Clinics and Improve Access to Healthcare Services for People With Developmental Disabilities

On Monday, April 13, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul announced 30 awards with a $25 million investment to help address health equity for people with developmental disabilities who often find it difficult to find comprehensive healthcare that meets their needs. This critical statewide initiative was...

Bringing the Arts into Direct Support: How Theatre Programs Empower People with Developmental Disabilities

A career on Broadway isn’t the only way to incorporate a love for theatre into a job. Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) often find meaningful ways to include the arts and performance into their work every day. Shayna Stroh, a DSP at Family Residences and Essential Enterprises (FREE), who has...

2025 Autism Research Year in Review – Scientific Progress During a Challenging Year

2025 has been a monumentally challenging year for scientists in general and for autism researchers in particular, but despite drastic federal funding cuts, scientists continued to make progress toward understanding autism’s causes, improving diagnosis, and developing more effective treatments and...

Large-Scale Study Finds Autistic Youth Far More Likely to Be Hospitalized for Mental Health Conditions

Authors Call for Multifaceted Approach in Addressing Critical Care Gap Autistic youth are hospitalized for mental health reasons at dramatically higher rates than their non-autistic peers, according to a new peer-reviewed study led by Catalight researchers Ben Pfingston and Lindsey Sneed, Ph.D.,...

Autism Science Foundation’s Next Gen Sibs Project Expands with Support from Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA)

University of Miami and King’s College London added as new sites On October 14, 2025, The Autism Science Foundation (ASF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and funding innovative autism research, announced it would expand its Next Gen Sibs Project from six to eight university...

NY State Governor Hochul Announces $25 Million to Expand Access to Health Care for People With Developmental Disabilities

Grants Will Improve Access to and Quality of Physical Health Care Services in ‘Health Care Deserts’ Delivers on Governor Hochul’s State of the State Proposal to Create Regional Disability Health Clinics On Thursday, September 25th, 2025, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that $25 million...

Coalition of Autism Scientists Push Back Against HHS Claims on Tylenol and Leucovorin

Autism Spectrum News Position Statement: Autism Spectrum News (ASN) is committed to providing accurate, evidence-based information to the autism community. In line with this commitment, we fully support the positions outlined by the Coalition of Autism Scientists regarding recent HHS claims...

Reframing Pathological Demand Avoidance: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Perspective

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is an unnecessary and dehumanizing label. It has become frequently mentioned in the autism community as a new diagnostic label often driven by anxiety and a need for control describing adamant refusal of everyday demands, often driven by anxiety and/or need for...

Coalition of Autism Scientists Sound Alarm on NIH’s New $50M Research Initiative

On May 27, 2025, the National Institutes of Health announced the Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI) and opened a request for proposals with plans to award $50 million, purportedly to boost research on identifying the causes of autism. While the amount available for this ADSI is significant,...

Governor Hochul Announces New Ombuds Program to Help New Yorkers With Developmental Disabilities and Their Families

On December 13th, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the new Ombuds for the developmental disabilities’ service system, headed by Community Service Society of New York, is now open and ready to accept New Yorkers’ calls in need of assistance navigating services, resolving complaints,...