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Why Spider-Man: Brand New Day Is Resonating with Neurodivergent Audiences
(Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day.") Something was fitting about seeing Spider-Man: Brand New Day at a packed 7:30 a.m. screening in Brooklyn (yes, I said a.m.). As the lights went down, I wasn't just watching Peter Parker – I was watching New York. And,...
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The Power of Presuming Competence: A Nonspeaker’s Call to Action
I stop and think about what I went through as a young child all the time. On a scale of 0 to 10, so many of the therapies that overtook my life would get a negative number! It wasn't that the therapists were bad people; it was because the initial premise of the treatments was fatally flawed. How? I...
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Giving Voice to Non-Speakers: Language, Respect, and the Power of Naming
For the longest time, I used the term non-speaking synonymously with non-verbal, having been taught ‘non-verbal’ in graduate school. Since that time, new terms and definitions have emerged with the advent of a variety of disability rights movements. Person-First Language Person-first...
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Building Community and Advocacy: From Voiceless to SEEN and Heard
I got used to being silent. It was the loneliness and being invisible that was soul crushing. Being able to finally say anything I wanted as a nonspeaking autistic with apraxia was liberating. I have never been able to communicate by using my mouth. When I was a child, I did speak a few...
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“The Best Medicine Is Respect!” Creating a Supportive Healthcare Environment for Nonspeakers
For around 30% of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), verbal speech is limited, unreliable, or unavailable (Jaswal et al., 2026). Autistic people who are nonspeaking use a variety of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to communicate; this includes picture-based systems,...
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A Stronger, Unified Voice for Autism Professionals
I went to my first ABA conference recently as a newcomer twice over: as a psychologist who had spent a career adjacent to the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) without ever truly stepping inside it, and as the parent of an autistic son. As a psychologist, I built a multi-disciplinary...
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Access to Public Recreation and Leisure Opportunities for Autistic People as a Measure of Societal Acceptance and Inclusion
Sometimes a break is more than just a break. The value of hobbies, special interests, and other recreational activities is often viewed through the lens of respite from more serious pursuits, and with good reason. Going to the bowling alley after work every Friday is a good way to relieve the...
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Resilience, Resistance, and Making a Difference While Cultivating Autistic Joy and Living in Community
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. Children are terrified of going to school. Families are being separated forcibly and deported. Peaceful protestors, including Renée Good and Alex Pretti, have been killed in the streets of Minneapolis. Warehouses are being converted into jails....
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The Real Priorities in Advocacy – Keeping the Whole Child, the Whole Family and the Big Picture in Mind
In my observation, an effective Autism Advocate is someone who is often isolated from the rest of the “typical” society because they are the parent of a child with Autism, which is a 25 hour a day job. They become consumed in caring for their child on top of their other life duties such as...
