Autism Stories

" As we look at wrestling as a society with the complications of this virus, it's essential that autism, developmental disability, neurodiversity, be at the table. We're one of the populations that's most at risk for negative outcomes for this virus, both mental and physical. Nothing about us without us! We are not disposable", says Nicole LeBlanc. Nicole returns to Autism St...

"I do think that we should definitely remind neurotypicals, gently, that it is absolutely okay to have autistic character headcanons. Because we don't have a lot of good representation for our groups in the media, whereas they get to see themselves represented in media almost all the time. It's not hurting you, or detracting from what you see in the character. If anything, it's ac...

"It's at the start of session, I get a box of stim toys out. I go and put them on the desks, and then I sit down with the occupational therapists and the consultants. I start talking to them about it. They all look at me like, this is really, really weird, why are you talking about these things? But at the end of the session they're all playing with them! ", says Loren Snow. Lore...

"It's a gift to be able to say this isn't really right. How can we make this better? That's what I do with my clients. My goal as a doula is to make the world more accommodating, because I don't think the world is accommodating enough. I've had tons of experiences with what it's like to not be accommodated. If I can make anyone's experience on earth a little softer...

" Research is showing that there actually isn't a lot of benefit to homework. When I have parents request homework, I will send it, but I also encourage them to make it playful. Let's say I have some students struggling with reading basic sight words. I will send home those sight words they're struggling with. But I'll say, parents, instead of doing flash cards, to make it int...

"Misconceptions of Deaf people is that hearing people, people who can hear around 100%, views would be that Deaf people cannot drive, read, write, understand English, and that is far from the truth. Being Deaf does not and should not hinder someone, yet it does, because of these stereotypes of what Deaf people can and cannot do", says Kaishawna. Kaishawna joins this episode to discuss mi...

"There were great schools, but none of them were very neurodivergent-friendly. It was all very, very fast paced. You never really learn to talk to clients. You're just kind of given a dog. There will be 20 other students and one teacher and you just have to figure it out as you go. Even someone who was neurotypical, they were struggling with it", says Stephenie Calhoun. Stephenie joi...

"Autistic students are very often not given services and supports that is evidence-based according to atypical evidence-based. Meaning that, very often, I think, autistic students on campus are expected to camoflauge, to mask, to fit in, to be like everyone else, as opposed to just be themselves", says Rabbi Simcha Weinstein. Rabbi Weinstein joins this episode to discuss being a college...

"Because I'm autistic, I avoided a lot of games that involve reading people's faces. I was really averse to games like poker where it's basically just 100%, wall to wall, reading faces. What's really different is there's a bluffing element to Star Wars: the card game...the thing that made a difference for me was context. Because with poker, there's no context for why s...

"There still is a lot of stigma towards medium support needs and high support needs autistics. There's a lot of stigma about not being able to act neurotypical. I think there needs to be more talk about why that is. Why exactly do we feel the need to act neurotypical so much? I also want people to include all of the excluded types into the conversation- that needs to happen more", sa...

"It's hard to contend what it means to be a living creature in an area where it doesn't necessarily belong. I think I felt a lot of connection to the Lantern Fly because they're very beautiful and strange, and people don't understand them. I think that I felt a connection to being an LGBT person and then also being an autistic person, where I often feel like misunderstood and...

" I've been learning how to play the guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, ukulele, mandolin, and the harmonica...I've been taking guitar lessons for 6 years. I used to take a little bit of drum lessons, but not anymore. Everything else, I've been self taught", says Ryan Woodard. Ryan  joins this episode to discuss being a musician, being recognized by John Mayer, and plays one of h...

"When the speech therapy didn't help, my family have always been an avid lover of books. We just have piles of them in shelves everywhere. It was obvious that I would feel more drawn to that, rather than speaking to somebody in person and face-to-face", says Alice Hack. Alice joins this episode to discuss her career working in a library, important LGBTQ+ of the past, and learning tha...

"Growing up, what I had come to learn was that my autistic identity was wrong; it was undesirable. People wanted me to be something else. I actually found that me as a drug user was more acceptable, me as an addict was more acceptable", says David Gray-Hammond. David joins this episode to discuss discuss autism and drug addiction, harmful stereotypes regarding schizophrenia, and how medi...

"Brevity is not my strong suite. I'm the kind of person who writes a lot. I'm hyperlexic, I'm hyperverbal. When I write, I can't just write a simple 500 word article to explain something. I have to write a dissertation every time.  For me, when I wrote this book, I had to force myself to be pretty short with it- to make sure that it was concise and easily accessible", say...

"For the longest time, I kind of used makeup to hide behind. Hide my face, and hide acne scars, and hide everything else. But then it developed from that into being a creative outlet. I've created elf looks and clown looks. I think it's a really cool way to become either a visual representation of what you feel on the inside or what your soul looks like, or it can be something to comp...

"I got on the show, but then I quickly realized, yes, I had done a great job preparing for the questions and the mental part. But I had done nothing to prepare for the emotional part. Suddenly, I'm there. You're in a studio, there's people 360 degrees around you... the studio's designed to make you nervous", says Ogi Ogas. Ogi joins this episode to discuss being a game sh...

"I have also learned from the neurodiversity movement, which reframes autism as differences in brain-wiring and it's natural variation in the diversity of human experience, as well as pride in our autistic strengths. It is the self-confidence and belief in ourselves to set high standards, to strive to reach our goals", says Tim Chan. Tim joins this episode to discuss finding connecti...

"I don't start my day with a to-do list or a task-list. I start my day deciding what I want to play with! Do I wanna play with nerdy stuff? Do I want to make something? Do I want to do arts and crafts? I float around playing with things. I also play with code", says Jamie Knight. Jamie joins this episode  to discuss the importance of play, digital accessibility, and the factors that...

"That's a lot of what I invoked in my character, Nick, in, 'The Brick Builder Challenge.' Nick very much wants to do it his way. Growing up for me too, it was always...it's not that I didn't want to cooperate with other people, but it was just so hard to just let go of my way. I'm still like that", says Jen Malia. To learn about Jen and The Infinity Rainbow Club S...

"Ironically, wanting to do stand up is the thing that got me into public speaking in the first place. Because of stand-up, I am a lot more sociable and more relaxed when meeting new people", says Rian Reyes. Rian joins this episode to discuss being a stand up comedian, voice acting, and neurodivergence in BIPOC communities. To learn more about Rian visit https://www.instagram.com/rianspe...

"The really nice thing about Buddhism, which only occurred to me very recently, was that it's so accepting of being solitary, being alone, being quiet, renunciation, and finding quiet spaces. Because that's part of the crucial practice of Buddhism that you need to find that time to reflect, and that suits us down to a tea", says Chris Jarrell. Chris joins this episode to discuss...

"That's what inspired me to write "Rainbow Girl" was I need to get this story out in the world. Because I need everyone who's going through this to know that they're not alone, and especially for them to know that there's hope and that full recovery from an eating disorder is possible", says Livia Sara. Livia joins this episode to discuss autism and eating disor...

"Many artists I cast in the show don't use the word disabled for themselves personally. A lot of that has to do with it being we live in a society that's not safe for Black, Indigenous, Latinae artists to be openly disabled. But the artists I cast who don't use the word disabled for themselves personally, know they are part of the disability canopy and that Disabled Delight is a s...

"As someone who's autistic and travels, there wasn't a lot of information online coming from someone who was autistic. I saw some from families and industry professionals. When I was able to get some messages from members of the autistic community who were saying that they found it and they were happy to get some information about different places, perspectives, tips and stuff, that&#...