Dena Gassner Archives - Spectrum Women

Autism April

VIDEO: NIMH Special Event – A Woman’s Voice: Understanding Autistic Needs

May 7, 2019 Spectrum Women

browser does not support iframe Run Time Approx 1 hour 40 minutes Event source page https://iacc.hhs.gov/meetings/autism-events/2019/april23/spectrum-women.shtml The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Office of Autism Research Coordination (OARC) is pleased to invite you to attend our annual special event to recognize National Autism Awareness Month, A Woman’s Voice: Understanding Autistic Needs. We will be hosting a Panel Presentation featuring three authors of the book Spectrum Women: Walking to the Beat of Autism, Barb Cook, Liane Holliday-Willey, Ed.D., and Dena Gassner, M.S.W. The panel will also include Jennifer O’Toole, author of Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on […]

Autism April

Part 2: Awareness, Acceptance, and Action!- Awareness at the Key to Self by Dena Gassner

April 4, 2019 Spectrum Women

The second part of our series for Autism Awareness month features Dena Gassner with a clever twist on awareness and acceptance from a personal point of view. Awareness at the Key to Self When we think about Autism Awareness Month, we often think about Awareness as an outside force for assistance. But for me, the most impactful “awareness” has come with introspectively coming to “awareness” and “acceptance” of my own autistic identity. For most of us, we develop suspicious inklings about our identity in an isolated circumstance-we don’t know other autistics, we may not have heard about it or our […]

A Stark Reminder: Autistic in the Air by Dena Gassner MSW

July 6, 2016 Spectrum Women

A few weeks ago, I had a presentation in another state here in the U.S. Those who hear me speak about accommodations know that I always say, “We shouldn’t seek to outgrow our need for accommodations but instead, to grow into them.” I firmly believe that there is a huge bias in that individuals with more obvious conditions (using a cane, wheelchair, etc.) are empowered to maximize their accommodations, however, individuals with invisible differences are set on an early path to seeking the outward appearance of ‘normal’ which means not asking for or getting accommodations. This becomes extremely problematic when […]