by Temi An I sometimes find myself saddened into silence. Under the weight of grief, the brain signals that are supposed to tell my vocal chords to move don’t make it to their destination. The inertia doesn’t just stop at my throat. My diaphragm heavies up like a two-tonne brick. My lung…

by Emily Steinbach The restaurant biz is never easy, especially when you’re a waitress with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The atmosphere is generally chaotic and plenty of harsh customers can make things feel much more difficult. For those who are on the Autism Spectrum, working in the food …

“Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist.” Header Art: Kathy Crabbe Art Art by Ansh Batra Ansh’s Dreamworld As a mother I can surely tell you one thing, these are Ansh’s emotions and unsaid words which most of us are blessed with. Art is his way of expression, a sou…

Until I began my career in creative chemistry, I hadn’t considered my characteristics of my autism as evolutionary advantages. By Burnett Grant In recent years, it has become clear to me that higher education is viewed by many people as a means to get a job, something that hadn’t occurred to me whe…

“Empowering your young person is the key to giving them the skills they need to live an independent life. If you do things for them that they could learn or even do for themselves by themselves, then you are DISEMPOWERING your young person,” Tom Iland By Debra Muzikar What is your first…

The Va-J-J House, a Tapestry of Life Written from the Heart of Aunt Lea Lance As a friend of The Art of Autism, Aunt Lea has shared in blogs and discussions on this forum. This time, to protect the privacy of fictionalized characters in her novel, she is using her pseudonym: Aunt Lea Lance –…

The United Nations has declared April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day. We love this image by contributing artist Steve Selpal. While some including the White House are lighting it up blue, others are lighting it up gold or sharing rainbow-infused images. We at the Art of Autism believe Autism Awaren…

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind,” Virginia Woolf By Patrick Jasper Lee Autism and fiction aren’t commonly mentioned in the same sentence. It took me some time to realize that there seems these days to be f…

By Tom Iland When you have autism, social interactions can be one of the most difficult aspects of life. Uncertainty and an underlying fear of rejection may cause people with autism to avoid interacting with others rather than seizing the opportunity to get to know people. People like me on the au…

By Keri Bowers and Debra Muzikar As part of the Art of Autism California Road Trip in May, The Art of Autism honored people who are unsung heroes in California. As we traveled up and down the state we had the opportunity to stop at people’s homes and their businesses. This is a five-part blog …

I believe much of my misery was rooted in my perceived inability to make thoughtful, empowered and meaningful choices in my life—choices about my thoughts, my attitude, my perspective, and my behavior. By Emily Grey Berman The Vision I always wanted to be a mother. I had this vision of raisin…