Archive of updates to Autistic in NYC, early 2020
Below are old updates that used to appear on the front page.
Below are updates that were made in early 2020. (There was a long hiatus during the remainder of 2020.)
- April 8, 2020: Another chatrooms update
- April 8, 2020: Free food resources in NYC
- April 1, 2020: Chatrooms update
- March 21, 2020: New chatrooms on (and off) this site
- Feb. 29, 2020: Ways to help autistic people find love?
- Jan. 25, 2020: NY State "Autism Council" bill
- Jan. 11, 2020: This website on your phone
- Jan. 10, 2020: Lists of local NYC-area resources
- Jan. 7, 2020: Queens group Meetup site: Next meeting Wed. Feb. 5
- Late Dec. 2019: Hello, world!
Another chatrooms update
April 8, 2020: Both our simple basic text-based chatroom (its current incarnation, at least) and Zulip have proven inadequate for our meetings. The simple basic chatroom crashed repeatedly, whereas Zulip was too complicated. Hopefully we will have a better chatroom by next week.
Soon we should also have a contact form to facilitate the formation of groups based on common interests, including both (1) general categories of professions / occupations / jobs / career goals, and (2) hobbies and entertainment.
Free food resources in NYC
April 8, 2020: For those in our community who have lost their jobs as a result of the CoViD-19 crisis, I've posted on my blog a preliminary list of some links to lists of food pantries, soup kitchens, and other sources of free food in NYC.
Chatrooms update
April 1, 2020: The Queens discussion group chat previously scheduled for April 1 has been re-scheduled for Tuesday, April 7, as announced a few days ago on our Meetup.com site. (Aspies for Social Success is no longer holding text-based chats here but is now doing Zoom video chats.)
The autistic peer-led local groups page has been updated with a list of links to chat schedules for each group.
New chatrooms on (and off) this site
March 21, 2020: So we can hold online text-based chat meetings during the CoViD-19 crisis, I've created both a Zulip chat site and my own bare-bones DIY chat web app. The latter will be used in chatrooms for both the Queens discussion group and Aspies for Social Success. The Zulip site will be used for online meetings of various hopefully-budding groups. Both these chat platforms are text-based, not audio/video.
The first online chat meeting of the Queens discussion group is on Wednesday, April 1. Please RSVP on Meetup.com.
Ways to help autistic people find love?
February 29, 2020: In the Longterm visions section, I've added a new page: Possible ways to help many autistic people find love? - about various possible ways that a bigger and better-developed autistic community could help autistic people find romantic relationships, either with each other or with NT's. I've also posted this article here on Wrong Planet to get feedback.
NY State "Autism Council" bill
January 25, 2020: There is now a bill that has been introduced in the New York State Senate, S04750, which would establish a New York State Autism Council. There are problems with this bill, about which I've posted on my Wordpress blog. Please pass this link along to anyone you know who is concerned about the rights of autistic people.
If you live in New York State and you wish to take further action, you may find your NY State senator here.
This website on your phone
January 11, 2020: Over the past two days, I've worked on improving the version of this site that appears on most mobile phones. At the dinner after the Aspies for Social Success meeting on Wednesday, January 8, several people told me that the PC (desktop/laptop/tablet) version of this site looked better on their phones than the phone version did! Obviously the phone version needed vast improvement.
If you know me in person, expect me to ask you for the privilege of seeing how this website looks on your phone. In the meantime, if we're in touch by email, please let me know if the phone version is at least decent looking on your phone, and hopefully better-looking than the PC version.
Ideally, this site should be easily readable without any need for zooming in, horizontal scrolling, or landscape mode. Also, the site menu is now near the top of the page, whereas the miscellaneous boilerplate links (at the top right corner in the PC version) are now near the bottom in the phone version.
Lists of local NYC-area resources
January 10, 2020: The following pages are still very incomplete and still very much under construction:
- Autistic peer-led support groups and social activities
- Professional-led support groups and social activities
- Where to get an ASD evaluation as an adult
If your group or service is listed on one of the above pages, please let me know if your listing is accurate or not. If your group or service is not yet listed and you want it to be listed, please contact me about that too.
Eventually I plan to add lists of various other kinds of resources to this site also, but I'll be fleshing out the above lists first. My longterm plans for this site are discussed on the About this website page and in the Longterm visions section.
Queens group Meetup site: Next meeting Wed. Feb. 5
January 7, 2020: I've created a Meetup site for the Queens discussion group.
Currently the Queens group is having a series of discussions about friendship. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, February 5, and the next meeting after that is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4. If you plan to attend, please RSVP, either via the Meetup site or via my contact info here.
Hello, world!
Late December 2019: This is the beginning of what hopefully will eventually become a very useful website. It's not yet ready for public consumption, but, if you're listed here, please let me know if your listing is accurate. Feedback on the physical appearance of this site is also welcome.
Featured pages:
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Various autistic peer-led groups including support groups, career-oriented groups, and hobby-oriented social groups, led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group. Our newest group is the Autistic Women's Support & Social Group. All groups currently meet via text-based chat. Some groups will hopefully meet in-person after the COVID crisis is finally over with.
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A list of Online forums and social media for autistic people.
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Where to get an ASD evaluation as an adult: This page will be expanded and updated sometime after the COVID crisis is over with.