by Joel Ashton-Fogle Waiting Room 1 Arriving in a state. Heart racing. Bracing self and pacing, chasing, facing wait with weight Afraid of light. Afraid of sound. Each breath exploding, foreboding Eroding ground Concrete ejection seat Might hurl me into obsolete. Confiscation, condemnation, Where is…

Becoming a professional speaker takes hard work, confidence, and practice. By Ron Sandison In April for Autism Acceptance Month, I spoke to 3,500 students and staff. During the past 7 years, I have spoken to over 250,000 people and I have presented everywhere from Israel to Madagascar. I speak at ov…

By Aaron Bouma When people think of autism, sometimes they think of the television series The Good Doctor or the robotic talking Rain Man. What people don’t realize is these misconceptions harm autistic people and are stigmatizing and ablest. How do you cope with these misconceptions? How do …

Art of Autism announcement: Autistic Pride Day is June 18 – send your art, poetry and blog submissions to info@artautism.com. By Ron Sandison The Honey Badger Award: a Fierce Advocate: A Force to Be Reckoned With is given each April by Spectrum Inclusion to celebrate an entrepreneur and advoca…

Even if the change seems small, it will still need to be processed and preferably before you go to bed! By Catherine Londero Consider anything that is unexpected I have always been aware that struggling with change is a trait of being autistic and I definitely identified with that with the bigger ch…

By Amanda Porche For as long as I can recall I have always felt like and outsider. I believed that I was this deep, dark individual that nobody could possibly understand. Some of this comes from being an autistic child and starting school with significant verbal and developmental delays. I knew I wa…

“The buzz from the show opened doors for me to expand my reach, which is extraordinarily gratifying!” Kaelynn Partlow By Ron Sandison I enjoyed watching the Netflix series, Love On the Spectrum and hearing each participants’ story and the challenges they experienced with dating. The show beautif…

My goal is to create a video game that would teach people about autism and other differences, which is also made with a team of autistic people. While in the United States I’m looking for input (see below). By Dennis Kinghorn Who am I? I’m an autistic adult and I live in Northumberland, Engla…

By Ron Sandison I enjoyed reading Carolyn Stern’s insightful book . Autism causes me to experience difficulty expressing my emotions and Carolyn’s book has taught me to use emotions for my advantage as a leader. In leadership positions I often felt anxiety in small group settings. Learning to expre…

“…it is highly significant that a young actor with autism was selected for the role of Alan and that the filmmakers worked with him in a very sensitive and empathetic manner.” By Nils Skudra I recently had the opportunity to watch Dear John, a heartwarming 2010 film based on Nichol…

By Ron Sandison I learned to develop healthy habits by reading Coach Dave Martin’s book Make That, Break That. Most New Year’s resolutions fail within the first month; not from a lack of motivation but a failure to make the resolutions into a habit. We are creatures of habits and good habits can dev…

The Art of Autism asked artist Ronaldo Byrd to share some portraits of people he admires for Black History Month. Ronaldo Byrd “Ida B. Wells” Ida B. Wells was a civil rights activist, journalist and educator. I admire her because she was one of the founders of the National Association fo…

“A meltdown is a highjack of our emotions.” Ron Sandison By Ron Sandison Most neurotypicals pay little attention to their sensory processing. When you feel cold, you put on a sweater. When music is too loud, you turn down the volume. For me and many other people with autism, our senses provide unrel…

Artist Ryan Smoluk shares his process of learning and painting about Mozart this last year. Cover image: Ryan Smoluk “Ode to Mozart” By Ryan Smoluk So much has changed in the past couple of year on a global level. The pandemic caught us all off guard, so many are still struggling. We ar…