The Autistic Me

School must  be better today than in the 1970s or 80s, right? Especially since we know so much about autism. Probably. Maybe. Or it is bad in different ways. As students, teachers, support staff, administrators, and others head back to campuses across the United States, I anticipate the annual questions about what to expect. Unfortunately, there are no good or easy answers that apply to everyone. Be sure you know what your rights and your student's rights are, and are not. They vary by age, type of school, and state. Remember that federal regulations are only minimums, and states can have stricter requirements for providing supports to students with special needs. Learn what you can about the alphabet soup of legislative requirements and federal programs. IDEA, ADA, IEP, OSEP, OVR, and so on. Work with  teachers and administrators, not against them. Start by asking how to help them help you and your student. What documentation does the school need? What is or isn'

Autism advocates I admire have recently shared their "burnout" with online followers. These advocates are not seeking sympathy, nor are they wallowing in self-pity. Sadly, they must anticipate negative reactions before taking a break from online and real life activism. I separate online from real life because the online world can be more exhausting and far more negative than the physical spaces in which advocates operate. Online statements are easily misconstrued, taken out of context, and magnified both intentionally and unintentionally by readers. Trying to maintain civil discourse online can be an impossible task. In the physical world, what I still consider the real world, people pause before speaking. Rarely can they hide behind anonymity before being cruel. Public cruelty can at least be exposed in many settings. Online, different rules seem to apply to human behavior. Decency is lacking. When I fail to follow a particular Twitter account, like a Facebook page, or

In 2011, there were 169 posts to The Autistic Me . That number has steadily declined, by almost half every two years. For 2015, only 17 posts have been composed. (The blog started in 2007 and took some time to grow.) The blog activity is a feedback loop, or an incentive cycle. As readership and responses fell, so did my impulse to post new content. With less new content, there was less reason for readers to stumble upon the blog. The decline of RSS readers, the decline of various Autism portals, and a general shift to social media contributed further to the decline in activity. How many times can I post about… …the challenges of living in or even navigating urban settings? …the sensory overload of mass transit? …the exhaustion that follows social events? …the (un)employment situation for people with physical and neurological challenges? …the insular nature of academia? The posts here simply aren't that varied. The same topics repeat. I pulled the "Ask a Quest