Looking for autistic college students/graduates

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Dmarcotte
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08 Apr 2015, 9:02 am

Hello all,
I have a website, www.asd-dr.com, where I am trying to provide information to help autistic teens and young adults go to college.

I want to provide a series of articles that provide specific information from autistic college students and recent graduates. Some of the ideas I have include:

1. On my first day of college I wish I had known.....
2. 5 things no one tells autistic students about college
3. 3 Things I love about my school
4. Tips on dealing with roommates
5. Tips on dealing with professors
6. Accommodations I use and how they work
7. Study tips for .....(math, science, or whatever)
8. ??? Anything else anyone thinks is important to share.

I already recommend the book from ASAN, Navigating College, but the advice is very general.

I want to provide specific, actionable ideas for autistic students who have been accepted to college or are seriously considering attending college.

I would love to have volunteers who wanted to write an article - otherwise I can provide some questions people can answer via email, phone or skype - whatever works for you.

I firmly believe in the saying, "Nothing for us without us." As I am not autistic I don't really feel qualified to write these kinds of articles.

If you know of anyone who might be willing to help with this project, please let me know or direct them to my website where they can contact me through the contact form. (www.asd-dr.com)

Thanks for your help with this.


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Dawn Marcotte
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www.asd-dr.com


Shoggothgoat
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08 Apr 2015, 6:53 pm

Great initative.
I rather like this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DPFF0ddDWc

Classrooms: Big classrooms/big classes are horrible.

For me there are basically 3 big problems with big classes
- Auditory: A lot of people in room means a lot of sounds which NTs seem to ignore. Typing on computers, writing, people slighly moving. These things make lectures more tiresome. I have no real way to mitigate this.
- Visual: For me to actually be able to learn/remember anything from someone speaking I have to sit at the front so I can visually focus only on the lecturer, creating a "bubble" of sorts. If I sit at the back of a big classroom all the visual "noise" of people moving slightly in their seats, computers scrolling and just the general massive amount of visual information means the voice of the lecturer becomes just one of many sensory inputs which means I essentially learn nothing. Sitting far back in a classroom of 200ish means I will only last about 45 minutes before I get overloaded and reach the somewhat peculiar point where I have strong urge to sleep, all the while being so extremely uncomfortable that I cannot sit still. I also wear a baseball cap so I don't see the glaring uncomfortable lights directly.
- Heat: Im hypersensitive to heat and hyposensitive to cold. A room with a lot of people will heat up if the ventilation system is not good, making the classroom into a rather accurat imitation of hell. Focusing when you are too warm just won't happen. Just don't wear that many clothes is the only tip i'v got.

I have also used my diagnosis to be allowed to do groupwork alone in cases where I knew doing it in a group would be extremely difficult.



Dmarcotte
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09 Apr 2015, 8:24 am

Thanks so much for your input - This is exactly the kind of information I am looking for.


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www.asd-dr.com


yelekam
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08 Jun 2015, 7:16 am

Perhaps I could help provide some information. I am currently attending university and some of my knowledge and experiences might help provide some useful information.