TPGA Welcomes Five New Affiliate Editors

March 28, 2012January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Update: TPGA reorganized in Spring 2014, transitioning from a mostly-publishing focus to a mostly social media and information sharing-focus — and parted ways with our affiliate editors at that time. We remain grateful for their positive contributions to our community. —- We have big, wonderful, very exciting news: Five new affiliate editors have joined Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Kerima Cevik Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg Rob Gross Kassiane Sibley Sandy Yim We believe our new editors will bring unique perspectives to TPGA, and make us a better, more inclusive autism resource. We chose them because we respect them, we think they’re smart, compassionate, and fair, and we think they’ve consistently shown us where the holes lie in our autism coverage. You’ll see them on our Twitter and Facebook streams, as well as commenting on this site for TPGA. Please join us in welcoming them, heartily: Kerima Çevik is the neurotypical, married mother…

Disability

The Self-Advocate/Parent Dialogues, Day Ten: Paula C. Durbin-Westby

September 30, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We held a dialogue series last week between self-advocates Zoe, blogger at Illusion of Competence, and Ari Ne’eman, President and co-founder of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network; and parent Robert Rummel-Hudson, author of Schuyler’s Monster and blogger at Fighting Monsters With Rubber Swords. The series continued this week with Melody Latimer, director of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network’s Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter and blogger at ASParenting, Kassiane of Radical Neurodivergence Speaking, who prefers the term “advocate,” self-advocate Amanda Forest Vivian, blogger at I’m Somewhere Else, and autism parent Kristina Chew, who blogs at We Go With Him and Care2.com. You can read the entire series at thinkingautismguide.blogspot.com/search/label/dialogue Our thanks, once more, to everyone who had participated in the Dialogues. We’ll wrap up with a reminder of why we hosted this series in the first place: Because it needs to happen. Because being a parent of a disabled child is not the same experience…

Disability

The Self-Advocate/Parent Dialogues, Day Nine: Kristina Chew

September 29, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We held a dialogue series last week between self-advocates Zoe, blogger at Illusion of Competence, and Ari Ne’eman, President and co-founder of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network; and parent Robert Rummel-Hudson, author of Schuyler’s Monster and blogger at Fighting Monsters With Rubber Swords. The series continued this week with Melody Latimer, director of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network’s Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter and blogger at ASParenting, Kassiane of Radical Neurodivergence Speaking, who prefers the term “advocate,” and self-advocate Amanda Forest Vivian, blogger at I’m Somewhere Else. You can read the entire series at thinkingautismguide.blogspot.com/search/label/dialogue. Today’s post is by autism parent Kristina Chew, who blogs at We Go With Him and Care2.com. -The Editors —- What A Parent Can Learn From This Dialogue As I started teaching my first class (8am, Elementary Latin) of the 2011-2012 school year, the thought occurred to me: The freshmen students in the first few rows are just a…

Disability

The Self-Advocate/Parent Dialogues, Day Eight: Amanda Forest Vivian

September 28, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We held a dialogue series last week between self-advocates Zoe, blogger at Illusion of Competence, and Ari Ne’eman, President and co-founder of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network; and parent Robert Rummel-Hudson, author of Schuyler’s Monster and blogger at Fighting Monsters With Rubber Swords. The series continued this week with Melody Latimer, director of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network’s Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter and blogger at ASParenting, and Kassiane of Radical Neurodivergence Speaking, who prefers the term “advocate.” Stay tuned for two more autism parent posts: One from a neurotypical perspective, and one from an Autistic perspective. You can read the entire series at thinkingautismguide.blogspot.com/search/label/dialogue. Today’s post is by self-advocate Amanda Forest Vivian, blogger at I’m Somewhere Else. -The Editors —- This is just a theory, so be gentle. But I think a lot of problems between non-disabled people and disabled people might have to do with the fact that for most born-disabled people,…

Disability

The Advocate/Parent Dialogues, Day Seven: Kassiane

September 27, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We held a dialogue series last week between parent Robert Rummel-Hudson, author of Schuyler’s Monster and blogger at Fighting Monsters With Rubber Swords; and self-advocates Zoe, blogger at Illusion of Competence, and Ari Ne’eman, President and co-founder of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. Readers let us know that they wanted more, and more perspectives, so we’re continuing the series through this week, and original participants Zoe, Rob, and Ari are stepping back and letting other voices have the floor. This week’s first post was from a representative of both parties: Melody Latimer, director of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network’s Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter, and blogger at ASParenting. You can read the entire series at thinkingautismguide.blogspot.com/search/label/dialogue For those who note that these Dialogues are a challenging and thorny process, and wonder about the usefulness of participation, consider a comment left on Melody’s post by OutOutOut: “I’m tired of the fighting, too. I really am.…