If you use Google products like Android phones or Chromebook, you probably already know how well their accessibility features work. Google is constantly working on improving existing features and adding new ones to make their devices much more accessible and friendly for people with disabilities. Re…

Pregnant women, like everyone else, get sick. And like everyone else, their bodies try to fight infection and, importantly, keep it from reaching the growing fetus. If the mother’s immune system successfully defeats the virus before the developing baby is exposed or if the virus never crosses the pl…

A new tool relies on abilities rather than diagnoses to steer clinicians toward personalized treatments for conditions such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Researchers presented the preliminary findings yesterday at the 2016 International Meeting for Autism Research in…

Augmented reality for navigation is a hot topic in assistive technology.  In our analysis, we found that more than 600 articles on AR and assistive technology have been published since 2000, many within the past 5 years.  Why is that? What’s the big deal with AR, anyway?  In this article, we’ll take…

As a woman, I’m expected to drop what I’m doing and be attentive to someone else’s needs, which means staring at them. If I don’t do this, I’m perceived as a selfish bitch. Before my diagnosis, I worked at a snobby restaurant, taking reservations (left). One night, two…

Brady is the funniest, sweetest boy who works so hard everyday to overcome his challenges. He is smart, caring, inventive curious and wants to please his parents, teachers, and friends. His mind never stops thinking, creating, and imagining how things in the world work and how he can make them bette…

A new technique enables scientists to isolate, and chart gene expression in, tens of thousands of cells at once1. DNA is typically wound around specialized proteins, forming a complex called chromatin. The shape of the complex leaves some genes accessible to be transcribed and others closed off. Mut…

The cerebellum, often summed up as the brain’s motor region, is in fact involved in mediating the pleasure people derive from socializing, a new study suggests1. This unexpected finding, published today in Science, may explain why the region consistently pops up in studies of autism. The findings ar…

Black people with autism have historically been underrepresented in research, a problem compounded by the fact that there are relatively few Black scientists setting research priorities for the field. Spectrum spoke with three Black scientists about why they got into autism research, what keeps them…

The Art of Autism thanks Bob DeMarco and Keri Bowers for creating a short film documenting the history of The Art of Autism that was shared for the first time in April on the big screen at San Diego Autism Society Autism’s Got Talent event at Del Mar.  The film highlighted some of our many pro…

By Nils Skudra This week I took the opportunity to watch The Theory of Everything, a 2014 biographical film about the renowned cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking who struggled with ALS (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) throughout his life but achieved remarkable success and internation…

Conversations between an autistic and a typical person involve less smiling and more mismatched facial expressions than do interactions between two typical people, a new study suggests1. People engaged in conversation tend to unconsciously mimic each other’s behavior, which may help create and reinf…

People with visual impairment have very limited access to the outdoors, especially when it comes to activities like hiking. Hiking trails typically are uneven and sometimes treacherous, proving to be unsafe. In addition, blind people are unable to read signage available because they are usually not …

With keen interest, and dedication in making sure that every organization, and every person, including those with disabilities, is empowered, and given the ability and tools to flourish, Microsoft announced a pilot job hiring program last year to specifically hire people on the autism spectrum. Micr…