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From High School to Life After School: Supporting Communication, Problem Solving, and Self-Advocacy in Autistic Students
The transition from high school to the "real world" is often challenging and stressful for many young adults. This period involves a dramatic shift in expectations and experiences related to college and postsecondary education, employment, friendships and romantic relationships, independent living,...
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Don’t Give Up: Lessons From My Decade on Social Security Disability
My name is Katherine and I am 37 years old. I have been receiving Social Security Disability and Medicare for the past ten years. I have a learning disorder, autism, mental health issues, and a host of physical conditions making it impossible to work outside the home. It was not an easy...
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Communication Over Compliance: Promoting Assent, Autonomy and Self-Advocacy
Consider an individual participating in a learning activity who suddenly turns away, throws their markers on the floor, and places their head in their hands on the table. A compliance-focused approach might interpret these behaviors as task refusal and encourage the individual to continue the...
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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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Re-Envisioning Our Unnecessarily Disabled Futures
Most disabled adults are forced to live segregated, impoverished lives absent of the security, life expectancy, community, and agency that all human beings deserve. For those of us from historically marginalized communities, including non-speakers, the isolation can be even more profound. The life...
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Lessons From Listening to a Typer: Stony Brook Medicine School of Social Welfare Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Other Related Disabilities (LEND) Fellowship Program
Director's Perspective It was July 2022, and I had just finished my first year as the Director of the Stony Brook University Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Other Related Disabilities (SBU LEND) Program. Invited to present on the Research Panel for the I-ASC Motormorphosis...
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Presuming Competence: What It Really Means and Why It Is Life Changing
Presuming competence is such a core foundational principle for people working with non-speakers to understand. It is the very first thing we talk about in our training programs and a topic we revisit in every coaching session. Parents, staff, therapists, teachers, and anyone else interacting with...
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Beyond Accommodations: Building Belonging for Autistic College Students
For many autistic students, receiving a college acceptance letter is not the end of the journey; it is the beginning of a new set of opportunities and challenges. While conversations surrounding autism often focus on early intervention and K–12 education, far less attention is given to what...
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How Developing a Freelance Brand Changed My Career
One thing I never expected in my professional life was creating a freelance brand that empowers me. I originally developed it as a way to showcase my talents, much like a website portfolio. I’ve always blended my lived experiences with my professional interests; human services and special...
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Navigating Change on the Autism Spectrum: My Journey to Grad School
When you live life on the autism spectrum, it’s easy to become so used to your own patterns that you miss the problems those patterns cause. You fail to see the obstacles that keep tripping you up, and why. I want to share a story of my own pitfalls when it comes to the autistic aversion to...
