TPGA at BlogHer11 Special Needs Minicon

BlogHer11 Special Needs Minicon panel: Your Truly,
Aurelia, Rob, and organizer/moderator Julia.

I'm on The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism today, with a cleaned-up version of the talk I gave at BlogHer11's Special Needs mini-con about awareness and community building, using TPGA as the example. Here's an excerpt:

Personally, I'm pretty pissy, just so you know. I'm grumpy. I'm easily irritated but I'm also able to prioritize and I think the community is more valuable than I am [all our editors do]. And as a result we've had amazing learning experiences, because we've made learning and listening more important than defensiveness. Even though it can be really hard, especially if people attack you personally -- it's hard to just say, really? Especially when they're talking about your son or your child or your parent or somebody you care about or something that's a really deep emotional experience, it's hard. It's hard to stay cool. This is something that took me a really long time to learn.
 
But it's so valuable. These are the communities that deepen into places where people really value their experiences. I can't tell you how amazing it's been at The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism -- it's an experience I never could have anticipated. 

More BlogHer coming! Including cooking with three star Michelin chefs!