I Don’t Use a Phone
I, an adult person, do not use a phone even though I can speak orally. In fact—and I’m really letting the team down here, according to a certain kind of motivational speaker—I can’t use a phone.
Autistic
Sensory Access Needs Are Human Rights
For people with sensory access needs (like reactions to scented products), accommodations are not acts of good faith or favors, they are our rights!
Headphones As Accommodations: My Letter to Bose
For someone like me—so sensitive to noise that I can actually perceive the bio-mechanical sounds of my own ears ringing aloud—my headphones are an incredible blessing.
Everything Is Always Shifting and Inconsistent: Autism, Language, and Listening
“It’s hard a lot of the time to know what I’m supposed to be paying attention to, what’s relevant to that particular conversation. I have to sift through all of the data and consciously keep track of what matters, and what doesn’t.”
Imposter Syndrome and My Late Autism Diagnosis
Part of my imposter syndrome probably has to do with the fact that, in the ’80s, an autism diagnosis didn’t exist for kids like me: I was considered merely an academically gifted, artistic, shy little girl. My autistic traits were explained away or overlooked.
Keep the Season Bright (Despite Being Light-Sensitive)
I bring a bag of things to do—a book, a journal and pen, a music player and headphones—for when I need to chill out. If I get too overwhelmed, I take a walk in the cold air. When I take enough breaks to disengage, I can enjoy spending time together with large groups of relatives!
(Not) a Little Slow
Literally speaking, I guess I am slow. My verbal processing—both receptive and expressive—is impaired to the point that I often need more time than the average person to understand or respond to someone.
Chanukah
On Chanukah accommodations: “All those candles A had carefully placed and lit, he blew them out. Technically that’s a no-no in Jewish rituals. But we march to the beat of our own little yiddishe drummer boy around here, and eternal or not a flame is still a flame.”
Passing: How to Play Normal
I started playing tuba at twelve, but passing for non-autistic is my longest running show. It takes more practice to fake facial expressions than make a forty-pound horn play sixteenth notes.
Jean’s Adult Diagnosis Story
I am very grateful to have this new piece of information about myself. I don’t consider my diagnosis to be an answer to all my life’s problems, nor do I consider it to be a deficit. What I see it as is a new lens to see my behavior through.