The rate of suicide among autistic people is three times higher than the typical population. Autistic females as well as people with additional psychiatric conditions are disproportionately affected. One potential reason for this higher risk may be that autistic females are typically diagnosed and …

“Synesthesia is a gift but it is also a beautiful language that needs its own translation.” Jeremy Sicile-Kira The essay below was written by 17-year old Abigail Delizo for a University of Toronto assignment for a course on Creating Community: Art, Identity and Belonging. Communicatio…

October is National Disability Employment Awareness month. I struggled for years with employment; I am now gainfully employed going on 13.6 years in the mental health field and 18 years part-time as a professor of theology and speak at over 70 events a year. As I refined my talents and special inter…

Love Beyond Convention and Appearances Header Art: M. Mithum Whimsical is the effect of this, our final Art & Poems Series 2021. See all blog posts here. See all art submitted in 2021 here. Of all the many submissions this year, those included herein exude themes of hope beyond sight, love b…

By Suzanna Chen (she/they pronouns) I proudly identify as Autistic. I am reaching out to you as a member of Detester Magazine, a non-profit platform dedicated to amplifying BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) youth activism on socio-political issues. We, alongside the platform, Learn fro…

Recently I told Debra Muzikar (editor of the Art of Autism blog) about the book I wrote on Buddha Shakyamuni’s life entitled “Symphony for India Buddha and Freedom.” In this book, Siddhartha behaves like a person on the autism spectrum since early childhood. Debra asked me to write an article on wh…

From a woman on the autism spectrum By Bea Mienik Can you paint with no color? As this year’s Disability Pride Month came to a close last month many companies pledged their support for disability inclusion. Where is the walk behind the talk? Ours is a society that is daily becoming more and m…

What? College classes start this week. This summer just sped by! We were all so happy to be at least partially out of COVID confinement that we crammed as much fun and adventure as we could into this summer. We surfed, kayaked, went whitewater rafting, enjoyed playing in the parks and hiking through…

I am a blossoming flower. By Angela Chapes My childhood had many challenges and I wasn’t the happiest person. I wasn’t always kind or nice. Fortunately, I had great influences in my life like my mom and my grandmother. They had such sunshiny personalities; I have worked to become that way too, by e…

“I believe God gives each of us a purpose. To the horse, it’s to run across the prairie. For a cowboy, it’s to ride,” Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau) By Nils Skudra This evening I just finished watching The Rider, a compelling biographical western film directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Bra…

“I have what’s kind of a stereotypical autistic memory for details and facts, which has been helpful in different ways as a priest.” Matthew Schneider By Ron Sandison Father Matthew P. Schneider has over 65,000 followers between Twitter and Instagram and is completing a doctorate in moral theo…

“The COVID-19 pandemic, horrible as it has been, has given us the perfect opportunity to redesign our society and systems to be more inclusive of the rights and desires of people with disabilities. There are numerous bills in congress that can support people with disabilities in achieving the Americ…

By Ron Sandison The killing of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers sparked riots and public debate on the conduct of law enforcement, even having some suggest disbanding the police force. What if the law enforcement is not the main problem but how it operates for profit and lack of tra…

By Aaron Bouma For much of my life I have been mainly focused on military history and military affairs as my main special interest. Many Autistics have a strong interest in a specific topic which we fixate on. In 2007, a year after I graduated from high school, I attempted to join the Canadian Force…