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Jon Adams on Autism, Art, and the Flow Observatorium Autism Interview #113: Jon Adams on Autism, Art, and the Flow Observatorium Jon Adams is the founder of Flow Observatorium, a national project initially granted funding from Arts Council England and now a Charitable Incorporated Organization. If you want to see work that’s different, commission artists that see the world differently, but you have to work differently with them. We need arts organisations run by autistic people and for autistic people; then we can share our richness with society. We don’t need “autism friendly,” we need autistic-enabling, but we have to be the ones to write the rules.

I’d like say that I’m grateful for the many Autistic people I’ve corresponded with who have helped me to better understand autism, raise my son with a positive autistic identity, and shape my advocacy efforts for this community. Individuals on the spectrum who are graciously willing to donate their time and energy to sharing their stories and advice directly on this website. If we open our minds and hearts to listening to others and truly being open to change, we can experience the wonderful feeling of positive transformation. I’m also grateful for Autistic individuals who are willing to shed light on inclusive holiday gatherings and ways

This will allow our autistic children the environment they need in order to have more positive experiences in school—and is most fair to the many wonderful educators working in a system of support that doesn’t seem to have their backs. They are rarely provided within our school systems, and no one is telling parents of newly-diagnosed children just how important this assessment could be to understanding their child’s experience of their world. It is worth noting that the sensory differences of autistic children are not a sidebar to the diagnosis–up to 90% of autistic children have sensory and/or motor differences that can be the cause of, or contribute to, their behaviours or emotional responses. It stands to reason, then, that if we don’t have a professional understanding of how a child is experiencing his or her physical//sensory environment, we will fail to make connections between coping behaviours, school achievement, and the child’s experience of the school setting.

This week Drew shared some common autism misconceptions and how he learned to develop a positive autistic identity by connecting with the autistic community. The truth is, just like the autism spectrum they sit on, there’s also a spectrum of personalities and skills that vary widely amongst the autistic community. Many autistic people suffer in silence due to society’s lack of understanding or even willingness to help. The most important factor that helped me develop a positive autistic identity is the increased visibility of the topic, alongside the growing number of autistic voices who are doing a wonderful job at representing themselves.