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Articles & Interviews
Please note: Some articles are pdfs and require
free Adobe Reader to view. Get
Adobe Reader. Others are word documents.
Most articles are in chronological order of publication, with the most recent on top.
GRASP on the PsychJourney
Podcast
An hourlong interview with GRASP's Michael John Carley hosted
by Deborah Harper, President of PsychJourney.
The OAR/GRASP DVD/wmv Guide for college professors.
Understanding Asperger Syndrome: A Professor’s Guide, a
12-minute video for use by college students with Asperger Syndrome as
a tool to educate their professors, teaching assistants, and others about
AS. “The idea behind this series,” said Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D.,
OAR’s president, “is to have adults with Asperger Syndrome
in effect teach what it means to be an adult with AS.” To that end,
the video features two people with Asperger Syndrome, Michael John Carley
from GRASP and Kiriana Cownesage, a doctoral student at NYU. Dr. Gerhardt
also appears providing information on “reasonable accommodations”
in the college classroom. The New York Times' Kathryn Herzog provides
additional narration. This is made available for free thanks to a generous
grant from the Schwallie Family Foundation.
Download the smaller version
Download the larger version
GRASP on "Childhood
Matters"
Another hourlong interview with GRASP's Michael John Carley and
Dr. Katherine Stewart of the Orion Academy on California's 98.1 KISS-FM
show hosted by Rona Renner, RN.
GRASP on Sports station WFAN
Yet another hourlong show with GRASP's Michael John Carley on
the nation's largest all-sports station. Notions of competition and the
culture of athletics are discussed towards the end. Bob Salter hosts..
The Truth About Autism: Scientists
Reconsider What They Think They Know By David Wolman
Recent WIRED magazine piece featuring Amanda Baggs and others.
Autistic Jason McElway's
stunning basketball performance from CBS Nightly News
Please note that this is video footage that is on a Windows Media Player
(which can also be played on a MAC) file.
Understanding Asperger's Syndrome
by Johanna Sorrentino
Education.com article that features GRASP and Executive Director, Michael
John Carley.
Who Says Autism's
a Disease? by Limor Gal
A piece on the differing ways of
viewing autism that appeared recently in Israel.
Radio
Rookies: A Sibling's Story by Sara Martinez
Haunting radio piece by teenager
Martinez. Produced by New York Public Radio (WNYC).
Free
to Be Themselves by Meg McSherry Breslin
Great Chicago Tribune article on
GRASP's Naperville, IL Teen Group.
A
Very Human Disconnection by Elizabeth Simpson
A lovely piece written about GRASP's
Virginia Beach, VA Network that appeared in the Virginia Pilot in May,
2007.
GRASP
on WHAM-13
GRASP and Michael John Carley on Rochester, NY's morning program. Mostly,
it's AS info, but there's some book promotion involved as well.
Living
With Asperger's Syndrome by Hannah Fjeldsted
A teenager (currently interning at Autism Speaks)
recounts her memories of growing up with Asperger's.
Autism and
Race by Kathleen Megan
A Hartford Courant article from May 14, 2007 that
finally examines racial disproportion regarding autism diagnoses.
GRASP
on "NEWSWEEK OnAir"
GRASP and one of NEWSWEEK'swriters
of their cover story on autism were featured in this companion to the
print article that came out in November, 2006.
Articles of Understanding
Autism Speaks and GRASP
have penned articles for each other's audiences in an effort to put a
human face on the rhetoric surrounding the debate over the word “cure.”.
The aim is to create a substantive and mutually respectful dialogue about
why they differ on using the word “cure” in relation to autism.
The articles are written by Autism
Speaks Senior Vice President Alison Tepper Singer, and GRASP
Executive Director Michael John Carley. In addition, Dr. Ami Klin, director
of the Autism Program at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, provides
introductory remarks regarding the controversy.
Autism Speaks, a non-profit
organization dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money
to fund autism research, uses the term "cure" in its discussions
about autism spectrum disorders while GRASP,
the largest organization of adults diagnosed along the autism spectrum,
does not. Click each link to download:
Introductory article by Dr. Ami
Klin
Article for GRASP’s audience by
Alison Tepper-Singer
Article for Autism Speaks’ audience
by Michael John Carley
------
GRASP
on NPR report by
Joe Shapiro
A surprisingly long piece (12:30) on the autism/asperger
self-advocacy movement that heavily featured GRASP. The piece aired on
June 26, 2006 (links to additional appearances on NPR,; including Terry
Gross’ “Fresh Air” and “The Infinite Mind”
can be found by scrolling down).
A Can-Do
Approach to Autistic Children and Athletics by Anahad
O’Connor
Published: August 3, 2006 in the New York Times.
Learning
the Power of "So What" by Michael John
Carley
Published in the Summer 2006 issue of Autism/Asperger
Digest. Carley talks about how those on the spectrum need to be taught
the idea that no one is liked by everybody.
The
Pressure to Cover by
Kenji Yoshino
Published in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine; Jan 15, 2006. Written by a Yale
Law School Professor, this is one of the more important, conversation-starting
articles to come out in a long time. It is not without its flaws, and
some of these flaws are vast. But like Harriet McBride Johnson's (preferable
and unflawed) "Unspeakable Conversations" from 2001, it has
global, far-reaching things for the autism world to think about despite
the fact that it does not specifically address the autism world. It contains
marvelous, imperative things for us to think about.
101
Uses for Body Lotion by
Kate Goldfield
Speech the young author made on a GRASP panel at the University of Pennsylvania's
inaugural autism conference.
How
Autism Feels by Kate
Goldfield
A lovely piece by a newly-diagnosed young woman who is a college student
in Baltimore. Originally published in the Baltimore Sun.
The
Origins of GRASP by Michael John Carley
Published in the Spring 2006 issue of The
Autism Perspective (TAP) Magazine. A short history of GRASP’s
founding.
Dodged
Bullets by Michael John Carley
Published in the February, 2006 issue of The
OARacle, the magazine of the Organization
for Autism Research. Includes a profile of GRASP from the same
issue. Carley talks candidly about why people missed his AS until he was
diagnosed at 36 years old.
Calling
a Truce in the Spectrum Wars by Michael John Carley
Published in the Spring, 2006 issue of Autism
Spectrum Quarterly. Carley explores the "competition of
suffering."
My
Sexual Evolution by
Trista Rupp Plott
A frank and brave narrative by GRASP Advisory Board member (and past-ERIE
GRASP Network Facilitator), Trista Rupp Plott.
Unspeakable
Conversations by Harriet McBride Johnson
Michael John Carley calls this article his inspiration
for saying yes to starting GRASP.
GRASP
Press
A large (7 mb, 30-something page) pdf file containing
select print media pieces featuring GRASP.
Hear
Three GRASP
Officials on NPR's "The Infinite Mind."
GRASP Board member, Dr. Liane Holliday Willey;
GRASP Advisory Board member, Stephen Shore (both authors of universally-hailed
first-person memoirs); and GRASP Executive Director, Michael John Carley
appeared together on NPR's nationally-broadcast program "The Infinite
Mind" hosted by Dr. Stanley Kramer. The show, an hour-long initial
part of a two-part series on Asperger Syndrome, also features interviews
with notables such as Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University.
Hear
Michael John Carley's Interview on NPR's Fresh Air
by Terry Gross
Click to hear the interview that was first broadcast
in May, 2004.
Hear
Michael John Carley's Interview on The Real World of Autism
by Chantal Sicile-Kira
Click to hear the interview that was first broadcast
in April, 2006.
Hear
Michael John Carley's Interview on Get Real
by Nicki Fisher
Click to hear the interview that was first broadcast
in May, 2006.
On Autism's
Cause, It's Parents vs. Research by
Gardiner Harris and Anahad O'Connor
NYTimes article from June 25, 2005 on the vaccine/epidemic
issue.
Three
Reasons Not to Believe in an Autism Epidemic by Morton
Ann Gernsbacher, Michelle Dawson, and H. Hill Goldsmith
American Psychological Society Journal piece closing
the door on the alarmist "epidemic" theories.
GRASP
is a Year Old: A Personal, and Very Unprofessional Look Back
by Michael John Carley
Written for GRASP's first anniversary (October,
2004) by its Executive Director.
Answer,
but No Cure, for a Social Disorder That Isolates Many
by Amy Harmon
The next massive round of diagnoses were caused
by this wonderful cover piece in the NYTimes.
Estate
Planning for Parents
a 40-page word document from News Digest that tells
parents of challenged folk their options in great detail.
Asperger's Confounds
Colleges by Elizabeth F. Farrell
A surge of students diagnosed with an autism-related
disorder poses new challenges-Great piece on colleges and their relations
to the AS/HFA community; from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The
Little Professor Syndrome by Lawrence Osborne
The article that told probably about 100,000 people
in the summer of 2000, that they had AS.
Through the Looking
Glass: My Involvement with Autism Quackery
by James R. Laidler, MD
One parent’s harrowing journey through the
“fix it” world that consumes so many vulnerable and ill-informed
parents.
Don't
Mourn for Us by Jim Sinclair
Jim and I have a friendly disagreement about which
comes first; the self or the autism, but Jim is a historic player in this
autism arena. GRASP exists because of the prior work people like Jim accomplished.
Autistics
Need Acceptance, Not Cure by Morton Ann Gernsbacher
Wonderful letter to an editor written by a parent
on why she hates Autism Awareness month.
Wearing
Two Hats by Phil Schwarz
A parent with AS describes what its like to also
have a son on the spectrum-first published in the MAAP newsletter.
Who
cares? Or: The Truth about Empathy in Individuals of the Autism Spectrum
by Isabel Dziobek and Kim Rogers
A preface to a larger version by Dziobek (probably
the most progressive-thinking research professional out there) and her
associate, Ms. Rogers.
Myth:
Autistic People Lack Empathy by Zosia Zaks
A wonderful breakdown that was too large for our
“Myths” section.
In Good Company
by Anonymous, Woodstock Times
Article about the historic Aspie School in
Boiceville, NY written the year it opened.