Official blog of NYT bestselling author, photographer, educator, neurodiversity advocate and automobile aficionado John Elder Robison.
This morning I was at the gym as part of my twice-weekly effort to halt my inevitable decline. As I lay on the floor, twisting myself in knots, two people were talking about their respective travels. One was just back from Virginia and Arizona after touring two schools with her son. The other had been to Louisiana and Pennsylvania for the same thing, and they compared their journeys and the…
Prior to the rise of the Internet, people found things through advertising, or referrals from trusted individuals. The more important the thing, the more likely someone was to seek a trusted referral. A prospective homebuyer might follow advice from a friend or acquaintance who recently bought a home. That might lead to the selection of a realtor, who in turn would suggest a home inspector. When…
I have been involved with autism advocacy for 25 years. Throughout that time, particularly during my 15 years of government service, I mostly advocated for autistic people younger than I. But at age 65, I am here to ask: What about the older autistic population? We have unanswered questions, and we also need support. I’d like to share some of the things I’ve experienced. All autistic people have…
If you like photographing people and action, it's hard to think of a better venue than the Big E - the Eastern States Exposition Fair, which happens in West Springfield, MA over 17 days, encompassing the last two weekends of September and the first weekend of October. I have photographed the Fair for 25 years, and in that time I've see the transition from black and white to color, from film to…
It has been 45 years since I first got the idea of writing things people would notice. The first things I wrote were descriptions of electronic circuits I had designed – how they worked and what they would do. I did not have the literary skills of an author, but I had technical competence and a decent command of language. Most of all, I had a gift for explaining things in ways others could…
December 13 - It’s hard to believe 2020 is coming to an end. In Decembers past I sometimes assembled photos of places I’d visited. Prior to the pandemic, I spent a dozen years on the road, sometimes traveling 120,000 air miles in a year. This January started like many others. We spoke at some events in Florida, and Cubby came along to visit the alligators at Wakulla and my aunt and uncle from…
This is a complex subject, but I'll do my best to explain . . . . Over the past 20 years we have made some progress understanding the biological underpinnings of autism, and by extension, ADHD and other related neurodevelopmental conditions. We have long known of links between autism and dysregulation of the immune system. One marker of that is abnormal cytokine levels found in some autistic…
This # coronavirus outbreak is causing a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety, especially among people with autism and other disabilities. Many of us have expressed fear that we may be seen as expendable and we are likely to be more at risk due to other medical complications. As an autistic person the best thing I can offer by way of calming is some logic and reason, based on good facts. Our…
Neurological diversity is a biological fact. Neurological function varies between individuals just like other human traits. The difference is that neurological diversity has gone unrecognized until now, while physical diversity has always been plain to see. Human diversity emerges as a result of genetics and environment. There is a large heritable component to some neurotypes, just as body shape…
Every September I look forward to photographing the Big E - New England's state fair and carnival. The Fair draws about one and a half million people over its seventeen-day run, and I race to capture as much of the action as I can. The Big E has run since 1917 at this location in West Springfield, Massachusetts. It was started as an agricultural fair, and still has a large agriculture component,…