Cover of the book Work it Out by Sarah Kurchak. The background is light aqua with a light gray grid pattern. In the center is a person seen from overhead, lying in a bed with their head on a pillow, holding two hand weights next to their head. They have brown skin, dark brown hair, and are wearing a yellow tank top.

Work It Out! An Accessible Guide to Starting Exercise

September 1, 2023September 2, 2023 by Eli Eggers

Sarah Kurchak’s Work it Out is a neurodivergent accessible guide to starting regular physical exercise. This is a handbook on how to get started for those who have had difficult due to any number of reasons (like stigma, physical and mental health, being neurodivergent in a world where instructions are not designed for your neurotype).

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.

Accommodations

On “Energy Budgeting” and Acknowledging Internal Autistic Realities

May 28, 2021May 25, 2022 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.

Disability

The Problem With Autistic Communication Is Non-Autistic People: A Conversation With Dr. Catherine Crompton

May 28, 2019January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Dr. Catherine Crompton is doing ground-breaking research on autistic social dynamics and communication, so we were thrilled to interview Dr. Crompton about her work on Information Transfer between Autistic and Neurotypical People during INSAR 2019. We were fascinated (and gratified) to learn about her findings that when there are communication disconnects between the two groups, it tends to be a mutual hiccup rather than an autistic-specific problem. Shannon Rosa of Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism (TPGA): I’m speaking with Dr. Catherine Crompton from the University of Edinburgh. Catherine is working on a project that examines whether performance on cultural transmission tasks varies, depending on the diagnostic status of the social partner, which basically, if you want to summarize that in layman’s terms? Dr. Crompton: It means that we’re looking at how autistic people interact with other people, whether that is different, depending on whether the person they’re interacting with is also…

Disability

When Chairs Are the Enemy

April 12, 2016January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Photo © Just Dining Chairs | Flickr / Creative Commons [Two taupe suede dining chair with blonde wood legs on a white background.] TPGA is observing Autism Acceptance Month by featuring accounts from autistic people about the differences accommodations (or lack thereof) make in their lives. Today’s example is from Aiyana Bailin, about how small accommodations changes, in this case choices regarding chairs, can have “huge results.” Aiyana Bailin restlesshands42.wordpress.com Once, at a convention of (mostly) autistic people, I observed a peculiar phenomenon. Chairs were arranged in a large circle, and perhaps 100 attendees gathered and sat. A handful of people, myself included, took their spot in the circle, but sat on the floor in front of their chair, rather than on the chair itself. This floor-sitting evoked no signs of disapproval; after all, most autistic people know that comfort doesn’t come in one-size-fits-all. But I’m used to people being…

Photo of a Bright blue floral prom corsage lying on beige background.

Advocacy

Inviting a Disabled Person to Prom Is Not Heroism

March 4, 2016April 22, 2022 by Jamie Pacton

Disabled people do not exist to make non-disabled people feel like heroes.