Sarah Hernandez - Autistic School board member/Proffessor

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Advocacy is relatively new for Enfield board of education member Sarah Selvaggi-Hernandez, an “openly and proudly autistic” politician and professor.

It wasn’t until running for office last year that Hernandez noticed that there weren’t many voices in politics for people with disabilities, she said.

Since then, Hernandez, a 38-year-old professor of occupational therapy at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Mass., said she’s taken every opportunity to talk to people about being their own advocates and excelling despite other’s expectations.

“You can and should be the most influential voice in your life,” Hernandez told a group of students at High Road Academy in Wallingford Tuesday. “Be bold in defining who you are and how you want to live this life.

Hernandez toured the school Tuesday and made a presentation to students, as part of Autism Awareness Month. She encouraged them to practice the things that make them nervous and to get involved with politics, if they’re interested.

“People with differing abilities can provide important perspectives needed in the political process,” Hernandez said. “After all, who is better at finding creative solutions to difficult problems than people with differing abilities? We have to successfully navigate a world that was not made for us every day.”

Gilleaudeau said she first reached out to Hernandez in October last year. She said she was excited to find someone who could talk to students at her school about high achievement despite the low expectations typically set for students with disabilities.

“It’s important for our kids to know that, ‘maybe I’m a little different, maybe I learn a different way, but I’m going to be able to go on and do something good,’ ” she said.

Tyler Wahl, 17, said he shares many of the challenges Hernandez talked about, especially dealing with other people’s expectations. The right guidance helped him focus on his own goals, he said.

“People told me I can’t do this because I’m autistic, and I started to believe that, but teachers here say don’t worry about that,” Wahl said. “When I was in middle school, I didn’t know how to read and people told me, ‘You are the only person who can tell yourself you can be able to read and you’re holding yourself back.’ When I stopped holding myself back, I can read really well now and I’m able to do a lot of things I couldn’t do.”

Wahl’s most important goal now is to put himself in a position to get a good job after he graduates, he said.

Hernandez said she didn’t give much thought to advocacy work until she was elected last year. Now, “if someone extends an opportunity, I take it,” she said.

“Running in the election put in perspective why it’s important for autistic adults to be visible,” she said.