Most autistics struggle with sensory processing issues on a daily basis, and they need a safe place to provide respite from stressful and overwhelming environments. A sensory-friendly home is an environment optimized to meet the sensory needs of an autistic child and is crucial to decreasing stress and increasing functionality and overall happiness.…
Ben is twenty-seven and works for the University of Notre Dame as an Event Setup Supervisor at the campus hotel. He considers obtaining this position one of his major life accomplishments. I recently spoke with Ben about autism advocacy and his experience growing up on the spectrum.
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“Awareness” is a vague, hackneyed noun that every supporter of any cause in the world touts as their primary advocacy goal.
But what does it mean to be more aware of autism? Or breast cancer, or childhood leukemia, or poverty, or heart disease? Knowing that someone suffers doesn’t mean that much unless people are compelled to act. There must be a secondary agenda beyond awareness.…
The Learn from Autistics logo. Everyone has a voice. Let’s listen.
My introduction to autism came in 2000 when I was in high school and my younger brother (who was in eighth grade at the time) was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. I didn’t know a lot about autism then, but I had lived side-by-side with my brother long enough to begin understanding what autism can look like and some of the struggles autistic people face in an unaccommodating environment.
I understood autism more intimately when my first son was born in 2008.…