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Navigating Autism and Stigma in the Hispanic Community
In many Hispanic and Latino communities, stigma around autism remains a painful barrier to support. From whispered judgments at family gatherings to systemic bias in healthcare settings, families often face an uphill battle to accessing services and feeling supported and understood. Georgina...
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Scientific Setbacks: Medical Stigma and Political Interference Threaten Autism Healthcare
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently said many autistic children were “fully functional” and “regressed … into autism when they were 2 years old. And these are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll...
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Studying Us to Death: The Lethal Cost of Autism Research Without Autistic Investigators
I was formally diagnosed with autism and ADHD at the age of 44. I finally had an explanation for why so many things in my life seemed so much harder for me than for others. There was a reason I often felt like the people around me were having two conversations – one with words that I had full...
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How Stigma Creates Invisible Barriers for Autistic Individuals in Healthcare
As more individuals are diagnosed with/identify as autistic, societal awareness continues to grow. With the neurodiversity perspective, which views neurological differences as natural variations rather than deficits, also gaining recognition (Pellicano & den Houting, 2022), the U.S. healthcare...
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Insights from Amy Gravino: Autism and Sexuality Awareness and Advocacy
For millennia, sexuality has remained one of the most stigmatized and overlooked topics in the autism community, particularly when it comes to autistic adults. This stigma largely stems from decades of misinformation and a lack of understanding. In this interview, I speak with leading autism...
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The Mental Health Effects of Autism Stigma
Autism, in itself, is not a disorder of mental health. Yet autistic people are disproportionately affected by depression, anxiety, and suicidality. The connection is not biological alone — it is social. Much of the psychological distress experienced by autistic individuals stems from how they are...
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Medicaid Cuts Will Put People Like Me at Risk
My name is Jimmy Tucker. I have a learning disability, and I am on the autism spectrum. In school and in adult life, I never felt like I fit in. I’ve always felt different, and that made things harder for me. But Medicaid-funded programs have helped me find my way. These are the supports I rely...
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Autism in Cuba
Ground Rules: Context “Context,” the word, is not at risk of vanishing just yet, but “context,” the concept, could soon go the way of “critical thinking,” or “racism,” wherein parties that seemingly know little about these terms have the power, through the act of thoughtless...
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Empowering Safety: A Foundation for Physical Health and Emotional Wellness for Autistic Individuals
Safety is often seen as a way to avoid harm, but it is much more than that. Safety is a cornerstone of physical health and emotional wellness, especially for people on the autism spectrum. It provides the foundation needed to navigate life’s challenges, build independence, and maintain a sense of...
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Improving Health Care Communication for Autistic Teens
Effective communication is essential in health care for accurate diagnoses, quality patient care, and positive outcomes (Ratna, 2019). However, communication barriers can significantly impact the health care experience, particularly for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Saqr et al.,...
