Dr. Grandin taught me that I did not need to blame, shame, or hate myself just because I was different. By Wendi E. Powers As an over-forty college graduate, I attributed my difficulties to complex childhood trauma. Although I was in therapy for PTSD and Dissociative Identity Disorder, I become dis…

By Kaelynn Partlow Often those of us on the autism spectrum do things that neurotypical people have difficulty understanding. To outsiders, autistic behavior can look “odd” or seem “not to make sense.” Sometimes a person’s behavior can even be frightening. It’s not uncommon for autistic…

By Pamela Urfer A lot of people are put off by Jesus because they think of him as a stern taskmaster who is just waiting to whack us if we step out of line. This concept is particularly anxiety-making for neurodiverse people who are, by definition, always out of line. As a woman on the spectrum, I h…

“you get line dancing, you get the dance trains going on, you get party circles happening, dance-offs, air guitar  …” By Austin John Jones This blog post is all about fun and releasing excess energy. This time I am going to talk about what I like to call “Random Public Dance P…

“The Dove of Peace, more than anything that’s something this world needs, peace. He is flying through the city at night in front of a billboard that shows the earth holding a banner reading “Peace”. I love to draw. I think it’s because it calms me down. For whatever reason I a…

Mozart and the Whale is a film adapted from Jerry Newport and Mary Newport’s autobiographical book Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger’s Love Tale. By Nils Skudra I first watched the 2005 film Mozart and the Whale several years ago and have since viewed it numerous times. I just saw it aga…

Mauricio and Claudia Urrea’s daughter Daniela inspired them to create an organization that partners with companies to find work for those on the autism spectrum. By Mauricio Urrea Spanish version here. 19 years ago, God chose us to take care of a special angel. As parents we never imagined how…

Call for Artists for Art Without Boundaries, a new book featuring autistic artists If you are on the spectrum and you are an artist or an aspiring artist, this is a great opportunity to share your work. It is also an opportunity to share your story and help other people understand what it means to b…

An interview with Stuart Duncan, creator of the computer game Autcraft, a safe alternative to Minecraft By Stephanie King Stuart Duncan has given the community something to talk about, Autcraft, a Minecraft server with special admins and rules designed with children on the spectrum in mind. I wasn’t…

For those on the autism spectrum a 9 to 5 job doesn’t always work By Morgan Giosa One of my biggest struggles in life has been adhering to a structured work environment. In school, my teachers and I were always at odds. I was a bit of an eccentric troublemaker and experienced a lot of anger,…

By Ryan Smoluk I have always been fascinated by the National Geographic magazine. The photographs are amazing. It helped to connect me to the world around me. That was back in the days before the internet. Looking back now I understand that the magazine helped develop my artistic ability and encoura…

Vivint Smart Home, one of the leading smart home companies in North America, will be giving away four free smart home systems in honor of Autism Awareness Month in April to four families affected by ASD. The giveaway is open to any North American household with at least one member with ASD. To enter…

By Amanda Ronan In my first years of teaching in the early 2000s, very few students had been identified as having Autism. Throughout my ten years of teaching, though, that number began to grow rapidly, as Autism diagnoses and awareness began to increase. I felt like I knew so little about how to hel…

By Angela Weddle When the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil came on the scene, I immediately knew I had to have it. This was the digital art platform I had been dreaming of. I had done digital art off and on since high school. Using Photoshop version 4 and Mac G4s, and later crude digital painting apps on v…