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Barrier-Free is thrilled to announce we have been awarded a Community Arts Development Grant from the Carroll County Arts Council and Maryland Arts Council. This $4760 grant will serve as general operating support for Barrier-Free and will support the financial well-being and growth of our organization. We are grateful to have the talents and efforts of our participants, actors, and teaching team recognized by the Arts Council. Thank you Carroll County Arts Council for your support!! 
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By. Britt Burr, Creative Director In the Broadway musical FUN HOME, Alison Bechdel, the lesbian protagonist, tells a story about the discovery of her own sexuality and her relationship with her gay father. This storytelling, narrated by Alison, is done through a series of vignettes set in the past. In one vignette, a young Alison sits with her father at a diner while he drinks his coffee. A delivery woman enters. Described by Alison, the delivery woman is an “old-school butch”. This is Alison’s first experience seeing a lesbian outwardly expressing a style that she inwardly desires for herself. Alison sings “Ring of Keys”—a reference to the woman’s massive number of janitor-style keys strapped to her belt loop. In the song comes my favorite line: Do you feel my heart saying hi?  Photo from "Fun Home" Credit: Playbill (https://www.playbill.com/article/tony-winning-musical-fun-home-closes-on-broadway-today) There is an innate understanding I have when it comes to autistic people. I don’t mean this to toot my own horn, and I realize that everyone with autism is different. I say this humbly knowing that if you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism. However, my general understanding of this population is something I have tried to figure out for a long time. I have a deep level of intrinsic knowledge when it comes to interacting and engaging with people that are neurodiverse. I’ll be minding my own business shopping at Target and then, the next thing I know, I have managed to find the only autistic person in the store—or they find me. In the past, I have chalked this up to being in the field for a long time—able to point out certain indicators that others may have easily overlooked. Or, I chalked it up to having an autistic father and seeing similarities in him, that I see in others. And sure, these things have definitely helped me, but the understanding is still much deeper. But what exactly is it? Maybe it was my own neurodiversity? Not only am I gay, I have ADHD. At times, my ADHD can exhibit itself in ways that are similar to those on the spectrum. Sometimes I have abilities that feel like “super powers”—being able to knock out tasks in record speed, or writing a 15–20-page research paper in under an hour. I can observe, process, and retain information rapidly and can often figure out smarter, creative ways to do things to save more time; opposed to others that may work “harder” or longer only to exert more energy. These skill sets have made me great at what I do. In fact, as I write this right now, I am in my world of hyperfocus. I am on cloud nine. My mind is reeling. I am so into this. Nothing around me exists. It is me and this blog. And as I peel back the mask for you to see inside this wacky head of mine, I am both anxious not knowing how you will respond, and ecstatic because I finally get to talk about this. But I know the crash will come soon and the fatigue will set in. So, my hyperfocus comes at a cost. And, I am not without other struggles in my life.  Photo Credit @ADHD_couple on Instagram I succumb to time blindness—not being able to predict how long a task will take, or getting completely immersed in a task where hours have flown by in a blink of an eye. I have a high level of justice sensitivity where I feel the need to advocate for every inequity I come across. If not in constant check, I will likely voice my concerns uncensored should the opportunity present itself. This is paired with a low tolerance for bureaucracy and arbitrary rules of society. And info dumping —get me rolling on a topic I am passionate about and you’re likely to be sitting there for a while. Thank you for sitting here for a while. These things have made me who I am and have paved the way for Barrier-Free to succeed—because I get it. WE get it. My own neurodivergence paired with my lived experience acts as a translator between the neurodiverse and the neurotypical world. But still, there is a connection here that we’re missing… It wasn’t until I expressed this to my wife, Lauren, who indicated she felt the same way—that a correlation between neurodiversity and the LGBTQIA+ community exists. We began to name all the queer people we knew that were either autistic, or had a family member on the spectrum. WOAH. Hang onto your hats. ----------------- Intersectionality. A crossroads where two seemingly different things overlap. The two things: Neurodiversity and the LGBTQIA+ community. Of the 34+ queer people Lauren and I could name off of the top of our heads (people in our immediate orbit), 23 of them either had a sibling, parent, aunt, or uncle on the spectrum, were on the spectrum themselves, or personally identified as having some type of other neurodivergence (i.e., ADD/ADHD, or OCD). Interests peaked, we wanted to know, have other researchers recognized this yet? Is this even on people’s radar?!  Photo Credit: Open Doors Therapy (https://opendoorstherapy.com/the-double-minority-effect-identifying-as-autistic-and-lgbtq/) Knowing that there are variant genes surrounding sexual orientation (Ganna et al., 2019) and that autism runs in families (NIH, 2021), we “hit the books” and gathered some more empirical research. ----------------- In a recent study, 247 autistic women were interviewed regarding their sexual orientation (Bush et al., 2021). Among them, over half reported that they fell on the asexual spectrum—i.e., never or rarely experiencing sexual desire. The other half identified as either demi-sexual (experiencing sexual desire only after a deep personal connection), bisexual, or pansexual. Only 8% (approx. 20 people) of the entire sample of 247, identified as strictly heterosexual. There are also elevated rates of gender nonconformity among autistic populations (Warrier et al., 2020). The reasoning behind this is not entirely clear, but there is a prediction that it is attributed to the autistic trait of not conforming to social rules (Kallitsounaki et al., 2021). Because there is a divergence in interpreting certain social norms, autistic people are not bound by the conforms of society, thus they exhibit themselves how they want without social pressures weighing them down. It is predicted that some queer individuals with invisible neurodivergence may have gone undiagnosed due to the social stigma surrounding the LGBTQIA+ community (Moreno et al., 2017). Sometimes queer people are met with derision when it comes to routine examinations and check-ups as they are forced to answer uncomfortable questions from often uneducated (in terms of queer culture edification) and unempathetic healthcare providers. This has possibly led to a discrepancy in neurodiverse LGBTQIA+ individuals receiving diagnoses--a diagnosis which could permit helpful accommodations. There is more research that needs to be done, as these concepts are relatively new, hence the date of their publication. Nevertheless, the intersectionality between LGBTQIA+ individuals and neurodiversity cannot be overlooked. As always, there are outliers in research. Some people can be strictly gay, or strictly autistic—with no queer/neurodivergent markers, but all in all, a correlation is noticed here. Which leads me to my next thought… Maybe the autism spectrum and the spectrum of queerness are not spectrums at all—at least not separate spectrums. Or, perhaps these spectrums can overlap. They don’t have to, but they can. ----------------- So, when a queer person encounters a neurodivergent person, or a neurodivergent person encounters a queer person and you feel that pull in your gut… Maybe it’s just our hearts saying hi.  Britt, Lauren, Rosemary, & Mike at the Westminster Pride Festival representing Barrier-Free on July 9, 2021 References Bush, H. H., Williams, L. W., & Mendes, E. (2021). Brief Report: Asexuality and Young Women on the Autism Spectrum. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(2), 725–733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04565-6 Ganna, A., Verweij, K., Nivard, M., Maier, R., Wedow, R., Busch, A., Abdellaoui, A., Guo, S., Sathirapongsasuti, F., Lichtenstein, P., Lundström, S., Långström, N., Auton, A., Mullan, K., Harris, Beecham, G., Martin, E., Sanders, A., Perry, J., Neale, B., Zietsch, B. (2019). Large-scale GWAS reveals insights into the genetic architecture of same-sex sexual behavior. Science, 371 (6536), 1-9. https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.aat7693 Kallitsounaki, A., Williams, D. M., & Lind, S. E. (2021). Links Between Autistic Traits, Feelings of Gender Dysphoria, and Mentalising Ability: Replication and Extension of Previous Findings from the General Population. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(5), 1458–1465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04626-w Moreno, A., Laoch, A., & Zasler, N. D. (2017). Changing the culture of neurodisability through language and sensitivity of providers: Creating a safe place for LGBTQIA+ people. NeuroRehabilitation, 41(2), 375–393. https://doi.org/10.3233/NRE-172187 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (2021). Autism Spectrum Disorder Fact Sheet: What Roles to Genes Play? https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Autism-Spectrum-Disorder-Fact-Sheet#3082_6 Warrier, V., Greenberg, D. M., Weir, E., Buckingham, C., Smith, P., Lai, M.-C., Allison, C., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2020). Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals. Nature Communications, 11(1), 3959. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17794-1
By. Lauren Burr, Executive Director Barrier-Free had its first-ever Art Gallery on September 10th & 11th! Since The Studio opened, participants have worked tirelessly on canvas paintings, sketches, origami, poetry, clay sculpting, and more. After being selected to be featured in Make Studio’s Art Gallery in Baltimore, Barrier-Free had the inspiration to do the same—giving half the proceeds to the artists and half to Barrier-Free as a fundraising effort  A total of 22 participants from our Life Skills & Social Studio created pieces to sell at The Art Gallery. Every artist sold at least two pieces of their work! One artist sold over 44 pieces of origami! Other artists sold art depicting their favorite cartoons and landscapes, while some sold poetry and clay creations.   Every element of The Art Gallery was operated by our artists! We made frozen Oreo treats and mocktails which involved a lot of preparation—a wonderful life skill component when event planning! We also did “Gallery Rehearsals” where we practiced where/how each person would be stationed at The Art Gallery. This helped us ease any anxieties and pressures about public speaking or where to put our bodies in a space once guests arrive. The stations were made in rotations. There were greeters, check-out attendants, servers, and “minglers”. This ensured everyone had a role and each role worked on a certain task—like public speaking and social greetings, money management, or back and forth conversations. Apart from the artists’ families, The Art Gallery pulled in over 80+ community members. In total, our neurodiverse artists sold over $2,000 worth of art and merchandise! A neurodiverse, artist, is an artist who thinks, behaves, and learns differently than what is “typical” in society. Neurodiversity encompasses a variety of neurological differences that stray away from neurotypical standards. We were grateful to welcome Mayor Stacy Link of Sykesville, Dana Alonzi (Downtown Sykesville Connection Board President), and Julie Della-Maria (Downtown Sykesville Connection Executive Director). We appreciate the continued support from leaders in our town! A big thank you to friends at Anchor Counseling Centers for being such supportive Downtown Sykesville neighbors and attending our gallery. Also to Jim James from Barnesville School of Arts & Sciences for stopping by and showing your support. Finally, to our wonderful friends from Target Community & Educational Services, Inc. for bringing such joyful energy!  From left to right: Emma, Lauren (Barrier-Free's Executive Director), Alexander, Mayor Stacy Link, Rosemary  Front row left to right: Jim James (Assistant Head Barnesville School), Rosemary, Jenny, Lauren. Back row left to right: Geoffrey, Mike, Emily  Friends from Target Community with Barrier-Free"er" Jenny (front row in pink shirt) After all the sales were recorded and calculated it was time for... PAYDAY! Our artists were thrilled to receive their well-deserved earnings from their art sales. Check out those SMILES! 😊 Art sales were split 50% directly to the artist and 50% back to Barrier-Free to support our Studio and programming. Our first Art Gallery was a roaring success! Everyone was in high spirits and our artists owned the night! All guests happily engaged with each artist and were impressed with how each person had a role to play!
We thank all of our family members, friends, and our community for their unwavering support! This post is inspired by Tiffany Hammond of fidgets.and.fries on Instagram. Tiffany writes in her Instagram post, "I don't talk about identifiers. Most you will get out of me is, I am autistic, but I ain't gonna flip my lid cause you say I 'have autism.' I don't like the way the argument is presented on both sides. I wish people were allowed to use both interchangeably in certain settings (such as articles) or with those who aren't quite sure how they refer to themselves (such as Aiden). I wish that deeper conversations about other important issues could happen and not be derailed because someone said 'with autism,' or 'Autistic.' I wish there were spaces in the community for those like my son he doesn't wanna be *just* 'autistic.' He doesn't want to wear autism like a skin. He wants people to see him beyond his diagnosis and for him and so many others have an autism doesn't take away the fact the autism is an integration of part of his being it simply means he wants to be more than just his autism. That he is more than his autism."  Tiffany, owner of @fidgets.and.fries on Instagram (photo used with permission) In the disability community and between care professionals, there's a divide on the language used to describe a person with a disability. There are two types of identities used to describe. One is called person first and the other is called identity first. Person first language sounds like "person with a disability," "woman with cerebral palsy," or "student with an intellectual disability." Person-first language uses the disability as a secondary identifier. Identity first language is the opposite of person first language. Identity first language sounds like "a disabled person," "autistic person," or "deaf person," Identity-first language puts the disability before the person. For me personally, I don't like identity-first language. I don't like the word "autistic." I have autism and it does affects every part of my life. "Autistic" gives me the wrong connotation about autism. Autism is a part of me, but it's not the only part. What I want to be called depends on where in my social circle a person falls. If you're a stranger, researcher, doctor, or person in the community, I'm only comfortable with person-first language. I find it offensive if they use identity-first language. If you're an acquaintance, friend, or family I don't mind if they use identity-first language, but I still prefer person-first language. When we are talking about individuals with a disability, there are certain words that should never be used. These include "handicap," "impaired," "wheelchair bound," "confined to a wheelchair," "suffers from," and "retarded." When we are discussing language around disability we have to remember every person will have different preferences on how the prefer to be addressed. Some may only want person-first, some identity-first, both, or neither one. As care professionals, we have to respect each individual's choice on how they like to be identified. Sources: |
 | Written by Emily WachterEmily Wachter is the owner and entrepreneur of Photography through Autism. She is a lifelong writer and photographer with a passion for disability rights, social justice, and psychology. She is a college student at Carroll Community College with dreams of being a social worker. In addition to autism, Emily has a plethora of other physical and mental conditions, which include: Attention Deficit Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression, 3Q29 Deletion Syndrome, Non-classical Diamond Blackfan Anemia, and Deaf in my right ear. Emily has spoken on a number of disability panels on living with autism and experiences of bullying. She is involved with a number of disability groups in Maryland, including YoungLife Capernaum, Disability Express Group, and Special Olympics. In her free time, she likes spending time with family and friends, coloring, and shopping. |
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Website Design by Lauren Burr
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7520 Main Street #103 Sykesville, MD 21784 | Email: info@barrierfreemd.com | Phone: 301-799-8669 | EIN: 84-2964880
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We are proud to be funded in part by a Community Arts Development Grant from the Carroll County Arts Council and the Maryland State Arts Council
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We are proud to be funded in part by an Awesome Foundation grant from the Hey Westminster project
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Barrier-Free is committed to providing access to our web pages for individuals with disabilities. The content of this site has been tested for usability and accessibility using a combination of standards-based, automated procedures and accepted heuristic methods. We make every effort to comply with the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Compliance is an ongoing process and we encourage notification when information on our website is inaccessible. If for any reason you are having difficulty accessing any of our resources please contact Lauren Burr, Executive Director at laurenburr@barrierfreemd.com.