The Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership In Research and Education (AASPIRE) brings together the academic community and the Autistic community to develop and perform research projects relevant to the needs of adults on the autistic spectrum. AASPIRE's partnership adheres to the principles of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR or PAR), whereby researchers and community members serve as equal partners throughout the research process. The special skills, expertise, and perspective that each community offers to the project as a whole is the strength of Community Based Participatory Research.

Elesia: Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE). Whew, what a mouthful! How was AASPIRE created and how did you decide upon a name for your organization?

Dora: In 2006, my friend Christina Nicolaidis and I, plus some other local parents and self-advocates, formed a "journal club" that met in my living room. Our plan was to review autism research and geek out like the science nerds we are.

But we found ourselves instead talking about larger issues with the research. A lot of it wasn't relevant to what the Autistic community cared about, nor was it likely to ultimately improve our lives. Some of it used degrading, dehumanizing, and offensive language. Some of it had questionable validity because the methods didn't take autistic thinking into account. Some of it reinforced false sterotypes.

Todd Drezner recently directed his first documentary film "Loving Lampposts: Living Autistic," (available on DVD, queue on Netflix) and he is also the father of Sam, an autistic child. The title of the film refers to the circuit of lampposts that Drezner’s son likes to visit in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Drezner received his MFA in Film from Columbia University and is the editor of several award-winning documentary films and commercials.

Annie W. lives in Oregon. She is on the autistic spectrum, as well as blind. Annie is actively involved in her local community, and serves on a community advisory board for a project designed to address violence against people with disabilities. She says she is learning how to play golf through a mobility-impaired golf organization and that she enjoys speaking at related events. Annie loves listening to different types of music, feeling fur and other soft materials, learning about new, different, or unusual things, and science.

Elesia: Synesthesia, wow! Wikipedia describes synesthesia as "a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway." Please give us a description of how you experience synesthesia.