Autism Stories

"Definitely being aware and working out when your executive functioning is most impaired by your menstrual cycle is a really good thing to do. Then trying to schedule that particular week or two week period with less demands in it, you might find using more visuals too," says Robyn Steward. Robyn joins us to discuss her book The Autism Friendly Guide to Periods and how periods look and feel like a...

"It's a space to explore what autism and D.I.D. is like for me and it's a place where I can learn about the other people inside of me because I know I have alters. I also don't always remember who they are so it's sort of a way where we can get to know each other," says Autistic Selves. Autistic Selves joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss being autistic and having dissocative identity d...

"In this group specifically we absolutely saw a lot of positive changes after 50, people being less likely to  after 50 be suicidal, less likely to be on medication for depression, more likely to have positive experiences overall personally and interpersonally. They were more likely to celebrate their differences than try to hide them," says Eric Endlich. Eric joins this episode of Autis...

"The struggle, I try to share a lot of humor as well, what I'm hearing a lot from the community is how disenfranchised they are and they are tired of validating their experience. They are feeling like this is a safe place they can all come together," says Kirsty Clark. Kirsty joins us to talk about her popular Neurodiversally Unbroken page on facebook and why so many autistic people have found it...

"SAP has a really good mentoring program. However, it was really based on neurotypicals doing the mentoring of autistic employees. When I ran a women's group at SAP, I thought we (autistics) could be doing peer mentoring. We could do it better," says Carrie Hall and Louise Stone. Carrie and Louise join us to discuss the creation of the Autistic Women's Alliance and how they are encouraging autisti...

"The amount of pain we are in is often grossly underestimated by providers. So many of us deal with chronic pain that we are so used to a certain level of pain in our bodies at all times.  Autism does create difficulties in communication so we don't often communicate pain in a conventional way, if we communicate it at all," says Sarina Gregoire. Sarina joins this episode of Autism Stories to...

"Animation is a gateway to a different reality if you will, as autistics they got bogged down by the reality of the world we live in. I think animation is not only a visual representation, but also an internal representation of what people with autism want to be as they live their lives," says Jeff Snyder. Jeff joins us to talk about how the world of animation helps autistics and discuss  his...

"I was almost 47 when I was diagnosed. How can you advocate for yourself, how can you know your needs if you don't know yourself? I didn't know myself. I say self awareness is the greatest gift you can give yourself," says Wanda Deschamps. Wanda joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss her work on increasing the participation level of the neurodiverse population in the workforce. To be upda...

"I didn't even know what an instructional designer was. I did my own research and from what I read thought this would actually be a pretty interesting field. When you don't learn like everyone else you feel left out. I realized as an instructional designer I might be able to help shape curriculum or instructional materials for people on the spectrum," says Dennis Hammers. Dennis joins us to talk a...

"Nothing about us without us. We must include those people that we are creating policies, making decisions, they have to be at the table in equal seating. Alot of these programs are born out of a deep desire for the community, but if you don't include neurodivergent people when you doing neurodivergent hiring programs or any of these initiatives you are greatly undermining your own success,"says A...

"A whole lifelong developmental embodying experience, when you look at the black community and they talk about passing, the LGBTQIA community and they talk about the closet. These are notions that marginalized groups talk about all the time. The autistic experience to this is often unique to autistic people in terms of how we do that. This the narrative of masking that is completely missed because...

"It's just a lot easier for everyone to be given one task at a time. The person giving the task might think oh thats a real pain because the person has to come back to me and then I have to tell them the next task. That may be inconvenient for you, but its your gift to that person youo can give only one task at a time and why wouldn't you give them that gift?" says Sam Warner. Sam joins us to talk...

"We need more self directed services, our society needs to start planning and designing for disability. It shouldn't have to happen to you for it to matter to you," says Nicole LeBlanc.  Nicole joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss how she has supported the disability community in advocating for their wants, needs, and rights throughout her career. To get in contact with Nicole emai...

"The big factor that people don't think about is that it eliminates anxiety over the environment. If you are doing a remote interview you can get control over your environment and thats really huge" says Carly Fulgham. Carly joins us to discuss about her work at Bank of America, how remote meetings are helpful to some autistics, and her work on a national non-profit board.  To be updated on t...

"There are  pretty good amount of autistic people out there who would like to learn to read tarot, but are convinced they won't be able to do it. I think a lot of that comes from non-autistic people not understanding what we are capable of because even if we can do it, we don't do it the same way they do," says Kelly Martinez. Kelly joins this episode of Autism Stories to talk about her exper...

"It turns out its a lot easier than I thought. Remembering those things as a kid that made me happy, walking outside in nature, looking at ants under a microscope, starring at the stars at night.  Walking through the world with a sense of wonder, very focused on the moment isn't that cool that is autistic joy," says Johnny Knapp. Johnny joins us for this episode to discuss autistic joy and th...

"Sometimes because of the challenges we stay away and I understand that, but a real change can only happen if we persist and insist that we have something to offer to church. The church is not complete without the voices of the disability community. We have to know our value and say we belong," says Dr. Lamar Hardwick. Dr. Hardwick joins us on this episode to discuss his new book "Disability and t...

"The medical community needs to get a lot better at sorting difference from distress and disorder. We have to stop pathologizing difference," says Dr. Laura Weldon. Dr. Weldon joins us to talk about the trauma-informed care she provides to neurodivergent clients and people living with chronic illness. To learn more about Dr. Weldon visit https://www.weldonwellness.com/ To be updated on the latest...

"Everything in the world is lined up, we organize things, thats what we do as human beings. I think the autistic child probably starts doing these things at a different time, thats the difference. We are doing something at age 3 that a non-autistic kid isn't doing and vice versa.  Nobody is looking at that because of the negative narrative around autism and deficit model.  It's always li...

"Walking has always been my meditation. As I'm walking its given me the much needed meditation especially when I'm sharing so much on this project. I'm sharing vulnerable parts of myself. I hadn't opened up much about my autistic story before, by doing this the walking gives me a chance to relax, kind of regroup, and of course time to think about how I can improve the next talk," says Abby Brooke....

"When I hear autistic people having struggles and I hear parents having struggles, they are almost always the same struggles.  What it is, is the system isn't helping us so I'm trying to get us all  on one side to fight the system that isn't working for us," says Tiffany Joseph. Tiffany joins us to discuss being an autistic parent and to talk about  her instagram  account nigh...

"There are some difficulties that people like me have with websites, technology, and with other things that often don't get addressed.  I say have you considered this, considered that, can we do this? They are like oh we didn't think of that. I think because I have autism my voice, my opinion is more meaningful in these conversations," says Shea Belsky. Shea joins this episode of Autism Stori...

"Even in stores, this time of year with christmas music, there's no reason for it be at that level over and over again. There's no need for that constant input of noise.  If autistics ran the world we wouldn't have piped in music, big bight lights in box stores and open space," says Michelle Baughman. Michelle joins us to discuss autism through the lens of trauma theory.  To learn m...

"I don't think there is anyone that specializes in money and autistics. If there is a money topic, its a general or  boring money topic thats usually directed more at parents of children with high support needs. There was a gap and I think that gap comes from the way autistics learn, pick up information, and the way we are not taught towards that," says Becca Lory Hector and Andrew Komarow. B...

"It might take a little more training, but if you have someone neurodiverse they might have new ways of doing that position and it might  end up being more efficient and better for the company," says Tom Moloney of Blue Star Recyclers. Tom joins this episode of Autism Stories to talk about being a disabled senior level employee and the benefits Blue Star Recyclers receives from this. To learn...