Ari Winters is a professional facilitator and creator of The Relating Languages. Growing up, they were drawn to the complexities of human interaction, acting as a bridge between different social circles and communities. This sparked their fascination with facilitating discussions and fostering connections between people from diverse backgrounds. They have worked with organizations such as…
Tejas Rao Sankar is a nonspeaking autistic who spells to communicate. Tejas is a passionate traveler who loves to dance and spend time with his friends. He blogs with Neuroclastic to contribute to our emerging understanding of autistics, by autistics. Tejas loves to read with The BookWallis – A social media book group. He also loves creating memes for social media with I-ASC’s Spellers & Allies, a network which works to bring advocacy to spellers’ causes. He has been a panelist presenter at conferences such as Innovations in Education. Tejas has been recognized by Congressman Max Rose and other legislators for the advocacy work he does.
Tejas, with his autistic friends, is a co-founder of CrimsonRise, a neurodiverse community. You can find him on social media – Facebook and Instagram. This week Tejas shared how his life has changed since he learned how to spell to communicate. He also shared his love of traveling and engaging with other autistic people.
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Magda is a blogger living in the U.K. and originally from Poland. She was diagnosed with autism at the age of 38 and has been advocating for teaching communication methods that were especially helpful for her since she has become aware of her autistic identity. She writes about her experiences on her website Autistic and Me. This week she discussed her path to a diagnosis and open-ended communication methods that she hopes are taught more widely among therapists/educators.
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Mikhaela Ackerman is an autistic writer and speaker. She blogs at Edge of the Playground where she shares resources for individuals on the spectrum and the families who support them. Mikhaela earned her Juris Doctorate in law in 2016 and plans to use her legal skills to advocate for others on the autism spectrum. This week she shared information about her advocacy work and how neurotypicals can be more aware and accommodating of sensory sensitivities.
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Facilitated communication (FC) techniques have been questioned for decades with autistic and non-autistic people on both sides of the debate. If you are a neurotypical who does not use facilitated communication, you may be too far removed from the conversation to have an adequate perspective. This article compiles some viewpoints on FC coming from the autistic community.
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This week we have the opportunity to hear from Alex Chrenka. Alex is a commercial artist with Asperger’s syndrome. He currently is working as a Graphic Designer for a real estate firm, but has side projects involving 3D modeling and illustration which can be viewed at chrenkaart.wordpress.com. He is currently illustrating a children’s book about his experiences growing up with autism. Alex is a strong advocate for awareness of autism and helping those learn to cope with it. He has experienced the effects of medication and has had many life-changing events through those trials. Self improvement and accomplishment are the keystones of Alex’s life philosophy, and he believes no matter how difficult life gets, you can work towards a happier one by setting goals, having a positive outlook, and being a better you.
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