Ian always planned on moving out when he was 20. To Sausalito. To a houseboat. Or maybe a mobile home. Ian is always thinking about plans for the next step. The summer of 2014, after Ian left high school he started reminding us it was time for him to move out. Janet and I were both “yeah, yeah, yeah…

In the autism community, one of the most fiercely debated topics is how to refer to people on the spectrum. Here’s the difference between saying a child with autism vs. autistic child. While some prefer the term ‘people with autism’, others lean towards ‘autistic person’. Then there are those …

Researchers have engineered two generations of monkeys with mutations in SHANK3, a top autism gene. The first generation shows traits reminiscent of the condition, according to a study published today in Nature1. The researchers are the first to engineer monkeys using the gene-editing tool CRISPR an…

Congratulations to Michael Miller and his son Jonathan ABC Persons of the Week. See the story here. ‘TOYS ACROSS AMERICA’: There have been thousands of surprise packages landing on doorstops across America– you may think it’s the holiday season, but these gifts are coming from a special father-son t…

Any man can be a father, but it takes a special type of person to be a Dad. On this Father’s Day the Art of Autism shares a TedX talk by one of the most dynamic dads I know – KultureCity founder Dr. Julian Maha, a very special dad, who is creating environments around the world that are …

In early 2018, Spectrum asked Katie Carey to illustrate a special report on mouse models of autism. For a topic that could have been weedy and dry, Carey chose a colorful palette and created a series of illustrations that were sharp and whimsical, yet captured the scientific points beautifully. For …

Y Films which is an Indian film company that makes short films and puts them on youtube came out this year with a series of six films dedicated to love – called Love Shots. Today they released the 6th film about two sisters. One of the sisters is getting ready for a date while her autistic sis…

February is Black History Month. If you have someone you’d like to add to this post, please comment below. The list is dynamic. 1. Anita Cameron Anita is one of the original disability rights activitists in the United States. She worked on the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act …

“…my artists are reminded every day that we are not just advocating for ourselves, but for people with disabilities all over the world, because we are showing them that this is possible. This is the only art studio in the country that is managed by artists with disabilities,” Mehri…

Certain neurons in the brains of finches are tuned to the songs the birds hear early in life rather than being hardwired to respond to specific sounds, a new study shows1. The findings support the view that song learning in birds is a good model for language learning in children, including those wit…

Sixteen years ago, Henry Evans was driving his kids to school when he suddenly fell sick – He started slurring his words and had trouble seeing. In a matter of hours, he went into a coma. When he came out of his coma, he couldn’t move or speak. Several years later, Evans is using a new s…

By Debra Muzikar Tonight I was impressed that PBS News Hour is focusing on adults on the autism spectrum. John Donvan, co-author with Caren Zucker of In A Different Key: The Story of Autism, visits a program in Phoenix, First Place Transition Academy, that is creating independence, meaningful work a…

In order to make conversations a lot easier for deaf people, Google recently introduced a new app called Live Transcribe that will convert people’s voices to text in real time. Using Google’s cloud based automatic speech recognition, Live Transcribe captures people’s speech and con…

Update 12/10/2016 I’m collecting favorite quotes about autism from some of my favorite people. Please share your own in the comments and if I like it, I may add it to the list. 1. “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism,” Dr. Stephen Sho…