Ollibean Think Tank

Sesame Street, This is an Autistic Speaking

Sesame Street knew nobody was missing, or lacking, anything. I was perfect! Everyone is perfect! But in real life, as I grew older, doctors and teachers convinced everyone that I was too broken to be worthy of any effort toward education and a future. Nobody saw me the way I was seen by my friends at Sesame Street.

Amy Sequenzia: Does it matter?

Should it matter that some of us are labeled intellectually disabled? Read the definitions, look at us in a realistic way and ask yourself; Does it matter? Aren’t we all worthy?

Amy Sequenzia : Friendship and Respect

It is a mistaken idea that we, autistics, lack empathy. It is also a myth that we are not social. My friends and I, we understand and respect differences. And we understand that we all have a lot to contribute, in a diversity of manners.

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This is not directed at anyone in particular. It is about several people I’ve met throughout my life. I sometimes need to remind myself that being me means following my own agenda and not pleasing the ones who will not be part of my story.

Disability Activist Keith Jones on Community

"So let us remember that when we teach, when we educate, we make policy, we make decisions that we do it with a conscience and that we remember that we are leaving fingerprints on forever." Keith Jones

Intersection of Law, Education and Civil Rights

As a deaf-blind student with very limited sight and hearing, Haben Girma '13 learned that you must be a self-advocate and come up with creative solutions to the problems you face. If that fails, she says, then the law can be a strong ally.