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AutINSAR Twitter Chat 2019: What Autistic People Need From Autism Research

What do autistic people need from autism research? What is current autism research doing right? How does research let autistic people and their families down, and why? And how can we convey these concerns to autism researchers? That is what #AutINSAR is all about: a conversation between autism researchers and autistic community members, both in person and on Twitter. We had fantastic conversations at IMFAR 2017 in San Francisco, and again at INSAR 2018 in Rotterdam, and are hoping for another fruitful discussion this year during INSAR 2019 in Montreal, Canada. AutINSAR will once again be a partnership between us and The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), NOS Magazine, Autism Women and Nonbinary Network (AWN Network), AutChat, and We Are Like Your Child. We welcome new 2019 partners Flow Observatorium and Autistics 4 Autistics Ontario. #AutINSAR Partner Orgs: ASAN, AWN Network, NOS Magazine, TPGA,  autchat, Flow Observatorium, and Autistic 4 Autistics…

What Are Autistic Research Priorities? Full #AutIMFAR Discussion at IMFAR 2017

Even though IMFAR is all about autism, researchers don’t always connect with #autistic concerns. Hence the #AutIMFAR Twitter Chat at IMFAR 2017, which was a conversation among autistic community members and autism research community members (with plenty of participants who were both). The onsite #AutIMFAR chat crew! Fab convo w/autistic and autism research folk.  [image: hotel conference room gathering of autistic & non-autistic researchers  and community members, of various genders & races, mostly white.] #AutIMFAR chat was a partnership with #autchat, The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Autism Women’s Network, NOS Magazine, and Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism. We provided pre-chat guidelines and details. [image above: The Twitter logos for five organizations: autchat: a rainbow background with a black infinity symbol and black text reading: “#autchat“;  The Autistic Self Advocacy Network: a spiraling rainbow heptagon on a white background; Autism Women’s Network: a pink lowercase “a” overlaid on a light-blue-and-brown illustrations  of dragonflies and flowers, above…

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#AutIMFAR Twitter Chat: Conversations Between Autism Researchers and Autistic Community Members

A delighted announcement: TPGA is partnering with The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), NOS Magazine, Autism Women’s Network (AWN), and autchat to host #AutIMFAR: a Twitter-based conversation between autism researchers and autistic community members.  #AutIMFAR Partner Orgs: autchat, ASAN, AWN, NOS Magazine, and TPGA [image: The Twitter logos for five organizations: autchat: a rainbow background with a black infinity symbol and black text reading: “#autchat”; The Autistic Self Advocacy Network: a spiraling rainbow heptagon on a white background; Autism Women’s Network: a pink lowercase “a” overlaid on a light-blue-and-brown illustrations of dragonflies and flowers, above the lowercase black text “autism women’s network”; NOS Magazine: a black circle on a white background, with an illustration of an incandescent light bulb drawn in white and surround by a sunburst in dashed rainbow colors; and Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: All-caps black text on a white background reading “Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism,” with “Person’s” in white text on a black arrow.]…

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Elizabeth Bartmess Interviewed on autchat, Autistic Community, and Autism in Fiction

Elizabeth Bartmess runs the autistics-and-cousins autchat discussions on Twitter, and also writes and critiques autism-themed fiction. We talked with Bartmess about why autchat matters, sometimes in surprising ways, and also about why “‘Autistic character learns empathy’ is the character arc I most wish would go away.” Elizabeth Bartmess [image: photo of a white person with short light brown hair and glasses, smiling.] Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Tell us about autchat. What is it, exactly?  Elizabeth Bartmess: Autchat is a Twitter hashtag by and for autistic people and “autistic cousins”—people who have similar experiences due to other disabilities like hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, ADHD, etc. We welcome people whether they are formally diagnosed, self-diagnosed, or wondering whether they might be autistic or similar. We have weekly hour-long chats on our experiences, with topics such as  accommodations, burnout, and sexuality. During a chat, the moderator asks 4-5 questions and participants answer them.…