There is a stigma associated with the lack of eye contact in communication. We are seen as rude and/or disinterested. I find it incredibly difficult to make eye contact for a few reasons. I’m hypersensitive to sight, sound, taste and touch which affects my communication greatly as I find it very dis…

…young children do not necessarily perceive disability in negative terms. Instead they are curious and welcoming of differences. By Dr. Barbara Gibson, University of Toronto A colleague of mine, Crystal Chin, is a young woman with cerebral palsy who now uses a wheelchair for mobility. Crystal …

By Tom Clements As a teen, when most of my schoolmates were out exploring the world of dating and relationships, I remained the inveterate oddball, choosing instead to indulge my special interest in maps and to engage in the sort of activities that had as little to do with physical intimacy as possi…

Sundays are special at Autistry. The workshop combines older teenagers, generally juniors or seniors in high school, with some of our college age students (Friday guys). When not studying for their college classes, the older students help the others with their projects and often join in LARP (Live…

Update 11/21/2016 I’m collecting favorite quotes about autism from some of my favorite people. Please share your own in the comments and if I like it, I may add it to the list. 1. “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism,” Dr. Stephen Sho…

Diagnoses like autism, ADHD and dyslexia, to name a few, are examples of neurodiversity. The battle may be harder, but hope is not yet lost. By Carly Fulgham The last civil rights battle just got harder. You may think I mean the fight for equal pay for women, or equal protection under the law for no…

By Patrick Jasper Lee This film is a dedication to some of the great artists, writers, and composers and their contribution to to our understanding of life. Many of these artists if they were living today would have been given labels of autism, bipolar or schizophrenia. “Tomorrow We Won’…

The main challenge I faced as parent of an adult on the spectrum faces was how to direct Colin’s remarkable talents and passions into a fulfilled, meaningful and impactful life. By Donald Cohen My son, Colin, blows me away every day. He is 28 years old and was diagnosed with Asperger’s at a young …

By Debra Muzikar Last year The Art of Autism posted a blog on Person First Language (PFL) which proved to be educational for me and I hope for others. This year I’m tackling the word neurodiversity, which is much more complex. I didn’t know some people object to the word until I moderated a neurodiv…

As we move into the last months of 2016, I’d like to give you all an in-depth, inside look at the Autistry Core Workshops. In 2017, we will launch the Autistry Comprehensive Adult Program (ACAP) which will expand our services to include Education, Vocation, Life Skills, and Physical Fitness/Healthy…

“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…

“Autism is a person who has discovered something more interesting than social interaction,” Tony Attwood By Ron Sandison On Thursday 10/17/16 at a conference in Michigan, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Tony Attwood, an English psychologist and world renowned expert on Asperger’…

My feeling of being waste material stuck to my soul early in life, and it’s been my biggest challenge to release that sense of worthlessness. By Eva Angvert Harren What is it about relationships that’s so hard to get? I know that “everybody” has challenges with relationships, however when you are on…

I am very much a lone-wolf and an intrepid one at that. I venture into hot pot restaurants most white people would consider too foreign or too edgy, I read the menus in their original Chinese and order my food in either Mandarin or Cantonese which I’ve taught myself. By Tom Clements Aspergians are n…