[In honor of Suicide Awareness Week] If you or a loved one are having thoughts of suicide, please reach out for help. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255 (TALK); there is also the Lifeline Crisis Chat online at http://www.crisischat.org/ . Your life has value. You are worth saving. Polly Pecan drives to school in… Continue reading “Your Life Is Perfect, So Why Aren’t You Happy?”
There are a lot of people in the disability community who use a popular article site called The Mighty as their platform to tell stories about their lives and to advocate for their needs and interests. There are also a lot of people in the disability community who are very angry at this website. Some… Continue reading Some Thoughts On The Mighty
Very large segments of my state are or have very recently been under water. 30 of our 64 parishes have declared disaster. In Denham Springs, one city alone, over 100,000 of about 130,000 residents have damage to their homes. A third of the homes in the parish I live in are affected. Statewide, over 30,000… Continue reading Louisiana Flooding: What Happened, What Is Happening, and What You Can Do To Help
[Yes, I know that I just wrote a post expressing concern about the use of “autistic” as an umbrella term…but this is how the word is used by most of society at the time that I’m writing this, and I don’t have any better ideas at the moment, so this is what I’m rolling with… Continue reading So, You’re Dating An Autistic Person
When a word comes to have too many meanings, it runs the risk of losing meaning at all. I am starting to wonder if the word “autism” is in such danger. We’ve used this word to describe a bunch of people with very different needs, from those who just need a little help with sensory… Continue reading The “Autism Spectrum” And Umbrella Labels: Is This The Right Direction?
“But I don’t blame anyone. I knew what might happen. But how it hurts.” There are some books that cut you in ways that never really heal. I first read exerts to the Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon in an eighth grade literature textbook (I would later read the full novel in 10th grade Honors English).… Continue reading Flowers For Algernon Hits Too Close To Home Sometimes
Many tech companies and production lines, from Microsoft to SAP to Freddie Mac, are eagerly seeking out employees on the autism spectrum for their “attention to detail” and “meticulous nature.” This is appreciated by both employers and employees–the unemployment rate is high among those on the spectrum, and increasing technological demands require an increasing workforce.… Continue reading Dear Employers: Non-STEM Autistics Make Good Employees, Too
