The Voiceless Minority

  Love on the Spectrum U.S. won two Emmy Awards for outstanding casting and directing of a reality program. The docuseries highlights the dating experiences of individuals with autism, offering a rare look at their unique journeys. While some participants, like Abbey and David, find love, others leave without success or experience relationships that don’t last. So why are we still talking about this two months after the Emmys? Because the challenges faced by people with autism in areas like dating are often misunderstood or ignored. Love on the Spectrum U.S. not only shares the personal stories of its participants but also helps foster empathy and understanding, giving viewers a chance to see the importance of representation and inclusivity in media. Does my own dating journey mirror the experiences shown in Love on the Spectrum U.S. ? Not exactly. I was introduced to the concept of dating in junior high, and at the time, I had a very narrow view: meet someone, fall in love...

Today is America’s birthday. I live in the best country in the world. Whether you are liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, we all have opportunities in this country. However, just because we live in the greatest country in the world, it doesn’t mean that people don’t often surprise me. I do have all the opportunity in the world. My disability anywhere else would be 10 times more magnified then it is. I am grateful that I was born where I was, but sometimes I wonder about people. As most of you know I am 27 years old and I have a master degree in education, but that piece of paper doesn’t mean much to my social disability. Yesterday, I was out in Erie at a movie, and I got the following reaction from a lady in her mid to late 40’s. She saw me and my caregiver and her immediate response was awwww. To this moment I still don’t know what that meant, but it made me think.. Just because I have a physical disability doesn’t mean that I have a mental one, but apparently you cannot ...

So it’s been a while since I’ve written. I can’t say precisely why, but recently I’ve gotten inspiration back. I’m reading a great book by Fred Pelka, the first global history of the Disability Rights Movement that is actually told by people there. It is called  What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement . This book does a great job of two things: teaching someone who is disabled more about their movement because, sadly, I am not well informed, and secondly, backing it up with scholarly research. However, it’s this book and recent conversations that have caused me to write this blog.         There are several perceptions of disability but one perception of disability that irritates the disability community and me in particular. Fred Pelka has the medical model of disability. Rather than using this technical term, I refer to it as the “need to fix what is not broken.” Often in my life, I have encountered both person...

"Dreams are never destroyed by circumstance. They live or die in your heart. My dreams come true not in spite of my circumstance but because of it...For those of us in this life who are afraid to change, life will change for us. Then it is always a more painful experience...Dreams new dreams or dream old dreams in new ways. Think new thoughts or think old thoughts in new ways...The miracles of our lives do not come about by grand events, but by the little things we have chosen to do...The biggest problems come about because I avoid the little things too long...The difficult takes time; the impossible just takes a little longer" -Art Berg. I read this quote in a book that I’m reading by Chad Hymas. This is a quote from his mentor.  Yet again, nothing surprises me. Being disabled you are given a unique set of playing cards. Sometimes a few of those playing cards go missing and you find them later. Then you wonder to yourself, where is that when I needed it? This awful card ...