Accommodations Archives — Page 4 of 6 — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM

Photo from the perspective of someone standing at a train station. To the left is a small transit shelter structure with six vertically stacked square translucent windows on the inner portion, and an array of larger translucent windows framed with bright red crosspieces. There is a curved roof overhang visible at the top of the structure. A sidewalk runs directly ahead, patterned with the shadows of trees and architectural features. To the right are tracks, a road with vehicles on it, and a line of green trees, in that order. The sky is dotted with a stylized pattern of detailed leaves, and the image overall is high contrast to emphasize details and edges. Photo © Anne Corwin

Please Stop Playing “Gotcha” With Autistic Accommodations

January 18, 2022 • By Anne Corwin

Pro tip: it’s fine to want to understand your autistic friends’ sensory and accommodations issues, etc., but please don’t frame it as a “Gotcha.”

Black-and-white photo of a crowd watching a 1962 nuclear bomb test in Nevada.

Autism Checklist of DOOM

January 15, 2022 • By Shannon Des Roches Rosa

This checklist is for people who aren’t autistic (or whose autistic traits differ from those of their child/charge) to understand what may upset an autistic person, and cause them distress.

Model wearing a dark gray long-sleeved tube neck top and matching pants.

An Autistic Passion for Fashion

December 5, 2021 • By Emma Seely-Katz

For a person with heightened sensory sensitivity, clothing and accessories can make or break an entire day out; here are suggestions for clothes, accessories, and miscellaneous accoutrements that might work.

A photo of Jordyn Zimmerman, a smiling white woman with long curly brown hair.

Jordyn Zimmerman on This Is Not About Me, a Remarkable New Film

October 18, 2021 • By Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Jordyn Zimmerman’s story, as told in the new documentary This Is Not About Me, is an example of how non-speaking autistic people can blossom when communication becomes possible.

Woman with braided hair and purple glasses is bent over a notebook with a character sheet for "Veri Truestone." There are various dice around her, a rainbow set, a ceramic set, some resin sets and two metal dice in a tiny glass jar. There is a dice vault with rainbow colors, another with wood burning of a map, and then a dice bag with purple fabric.

Learning Life Skills or Just Gaming? Why Can’t It Be Both? An Autistic perspective on TTRPGs

August 23, 2021 • By Shawna Spain

You know where I didn’t learn how to figure people out like that? Anywhere that was not a game. Not in previous jobs, not in books, not in school. I learned these life skills using a table top role playing game (TTRPG), purely by accident.

A small group of people, seen from behind, standing between bookshelves in a library, under a large white suspended sound dampening board.

Sound Dampening for Autistic People with Auditory Sensitivity

June 3, 2021 • By Autistic Science Person

Sound dampening a space, especially at home, can be helpful for a lot of reasons: Many autistic people have auditory sensitivity, and sounds can be a reason for sensory overload.

Photo of Anne Corwin, as a child of about 7 years old with pale skin and dark hair with bangs. She is sitting on a tree branch while leaning against the trunk and looking into the distance.

On “Energy Budgeting” and Acknowledging Internal Autistic Realities

May 28, 2021 • By Anne Corwin

All humans deserve to be able to do energy budgeting in ways that make sense for us, and I hope to see the day when support for autistic people toward this end is considered a matter of basic ethics and decency.

Illustration of the character Tom Sawyer talking another boy into painting the fence that Tom is supposed to paint.

When Adaptation Looks Like Laziness

July 9, 2020 • By Emily Paige Ballou

For instance, autistic inertia means that it’s harder for autistic people than it is for other people to stop, start, and change activities.

Selfie of Julie Roberts, a smiling white woman with long straight blonde hair.

Finding the Right Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) For Your Autistic Child

May 14, 2020 • By Julie Roberts, M.S., CCC-SLP

After your loved one receives a diagnosis of Autism, people may bombard you with (possibly unsolicited) advice for next steps. One such step you may actually want to consider is to seek the services of a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP).

High color contrast photo of a light burst, seen from through a car windshield from the perspective of a rear seat.

What Is Sensory Processing Like For Autistic People?

October 28, 2019 • By Reid Caplan

Autistic people process our senses differently, and that’s okay! Autism makes us who we are, and sensory processing is an important part of being autistic. People should try and understand autism and how it makes us different, instead of trying to change us.