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Adults with Autism Face a Unique Set of Dangers and Hazards
The dangers and hazards of the world that are faced by autistic children and adolescents are very well known, and much has been said and written about them. Adults with autism, however, all too often face a variety of threats not frequently encountered by neurotypicals. I will be discussing these...
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Online Dating and Neurodiversity
Much has been written about the basic safety considerations of online dating, yet little research has been conducted to understand the nuanced difficulties that may be present for individuals on the autism spectrum who date online. A survey by Roth and Gillis (2015) found the most commonly reported...
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Analyzing Health Informatics to Ensure Safety and Wellness
As the amount of data recorded in classrooms continues to expand, so, too, does the opportunity for individual, organizational, and systemic improvements informed by that data. One area of increasing focus is the collection and analysis of health and wellness data, collectively known as health...
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Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Unique People Services Creating Community Connections
On a sunny day in August, on a typical tree lined suburban street in Queens, NY, a knock opens a neighbor’s door. “Are you coming?” asked a client of Unique People Services (UPS). UPS was holding an open house to introduce the community to their newest neighbors: six women with varying...
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21st Century Sexuality Teaching Resources for Youth with Autism
The twenty first century brought a long-awaited focus to sexuality and ASD. Although a paucity of data still exists regarding sexuality education and ASD (Loftin & Hartlage, 2015), most publications do provide recommendations for the who, what and when components of teaching about sexuality....
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Sexual Misconduct on Campus: A Brief Introduction to Title IX Guidelines and Policies for Parents and Caregivers
A young woman waits in line with friends at the counter of a college cafeteria, discussing topics from a class they attended earlier. Nearby, a young man who also attends the class watches the young woman intently, looking for an opportunity to catch her attention. He calls her name a few times,...
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Special Challenges and Creative Solutions When Providing Services to Females with Autism
The majority of individuals with autism are male, and females with autism are often overlooked in discussions of needs and program planning. Special challenges exist in serving individuals with autism who are female. In addition, females may be vulnerable in ways that are often not acknowledged or...
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What Parents of Children with Autism Should Know About Abuse
It is true that parents of children and adults with ASD, if asked, will admit to having long-held fears that their child may become a victim of abuse. However, it is also true that when I have provided classes for parents of young and adult children with autism at Los Angeles-based Regional Centers...
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Autism and Hospitals: A Difficult Match
As a resident, you always have that one patient who sticks out in your mind—the one who had some profound impact on your practice of medicine and your life outside of medicine. For me, though, it wasn’t just one patient. It was one patient after another with the same challenge: autism. Having...
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The Dangers of Social Media for Individuals with Autism
The Disability and Abuse Project publishes a weekly news feed of all articles that have been published in the past week on abuse of people with disabilities. These focus on intellectual and developmental disabilities. Recently there has been an increase of articles describing solicitation by...
