Karla's ASD Page: Thriving on the Autism Spectrum in a Neurotypical (NT) World

I've been enjoying Karla's ASD Page on facebook very much! Here's a description of the page in her words:

This site is dedicated to bringing together a collection of articulate, respectful and intelligent ASD Adults with parents/professionals and other Neurologically Typical [NT] caregivers and partners all with the goal of raising awareness of the shared cultures while creating resources and answers to help every ASD person THRIVE not just survive. 

Karla also has a wiki page on this topic. I really appreciate the way she talks about successfully navigating interactions with NT people. In order to succeed, an ASD person needs "to integrate in a culture that is foreign to their own. The way to SURVIVE is to tolerate the other culture, but the way to THRIVE is to understand it at a deep enough level to take a different perspective." The objective of the site is to bring NT and ASD people together to learn about each other's cultures.

http://asdculture.wikispaces.com/file/view/Slide2.JPG/283175268/Slide2.JPG

This is an idea I've encountered in the mental health client empowerment movement, as well. Treating cognitive and emotional styles as cultural differences makes a lot of sense to me. For people who are already familiar with multicultural ideals of honoring diversity, it removes the judgment implied by labeling something a disorder or disability and replaces it with a frame that fosters mutual understanding and respect. Thanks, Karla! The way you've described this resonates for me and has clarified my thinking. It reminds me that I tend to focus on each of us learning about ourselves, and I'd like to integrate more information about how to learn about and communicate with each other, too. I look forward to learning more from you about how these ideas apply to interactions between NT and ASD people.

The graphic that follows is an example of how Karla uses this frame to create a simple request for accommodation. What would you tell your boss about your needs? What would you ask for help with?