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Living and Aging Independently on the Autism Spectrum: An Inside View
Having been diagnosed late in life at the age of 44, I lived for the better part of my life on the autism spectrum without myself or anyone else being aware of it. During the time in which I finally knew about this, I was already an older adult and, most recently, a senior citizen. Unlike so many...
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Autistics, Law Enforcement, the Law, and Unfortunate and Tragic Encounters
I am not an attorney, nor do I have any legal background. As such, I claim to have no knowledge of the law, and do not offer legal advice of any kind. What I am writing here is strictly my own opinion and impressions and is based entirely on personal experiences and stories I have heard from others...
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A Tale of Two Diagnoses: Older Adults and School-Age Children
When I was first diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in late 2000 at 44 years, I was already a middle-aged adult. For most of my life, I had always felt that I was different from most people my age in a variety of ways, not to mention frequently reminded of such by others (usually in a very unpleasant...
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Advocacy on Behalf of Less-Impaired Autistics
In the more than two decades since my diagnosis, I have attended countless autism community events of just about every kind, not to mention numerous others in which issues concerning autism somehow came up. In virtually all of these, I routinely disclosed that I was on the autism spectrum and on...
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Autism and Adolescence: For Many, the Most Challenging Time of Life
It is a well-known conventional wisdom that adolescence, or the teenage years, are a difficult time of life for everybody and that this has probably been the case since time immemorial. It is equally well known in the autism community that middle school (or, as it was known in my day, junior high...
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Autism and Its Many Comorbidities: Conditions, Deficits, and Challenges
There is a popular and common saying within the autism community that “when you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” It becomes clear that this is true when one considers the variety of conditions which occur comorbidly with ASD. Being on the autism spectrum is...
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Autism and Education: One Size Does Not Fit All
Having attended many talks, workshops, and education-related autism community events, I often hear the expression “one size does not fit all” used by teachers and other professionals who work with students on the spectrum. It is always gratifying for me to hear people having the most experience...
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Autism, Technology, and Older Adults: Facing an Unexpected Set of Challenges
As an engineer who has been involved with technology his entire life, and an older adult on the autism spectrum, I have always felt that, in my case, there was always a strong connection between the two. Although the notion that autistics are generally inclined towards technology has become a...
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Inappropriate Behaviors in Adult Autistics: We Mean No Harm
During my long involvement with the adult Asperger Syndrome / autism spectrum community, I often make the disclaimer, when criticizing inappropriate behaviors of other autistics, that I have probably been guilty of similar behaviors, at least to some degree, at some earlier time in my life. Also,...
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Autistics and Employment: Far Too Many Rivers to Cross
For as long as I have known about autism, I have heard reports that autistics have the highest unemployment rate among all disability groups - or, for that matter, just about any demographic. Even at the time of my own diagnosis (late 2000), by which such milder variants as Asperger Syndrome had...
