Roadmap to Self-Empowerment for Autistic Adults

As autistic adults, you might face many small challenges in your everyday life. When these challenges combine, the impact on your daily functioning may be greater than it would be on others who are not autistic. Sometimes, the small things build up so much that it becomes overwhelming, making it hard to manage other parts of your life.

It is important to empower yourself by making a plan to try to overcome these challenges. This roadmap will help you identify your challenges and assess what triggers them, develop strategies to help you in difficult situations, and learn what you can do to support yourself and set yourself up for success.

In this Roadmap, you will find questions to ask yourself to help establish the supports you need in your everyday life across a variety of settings and roles. The Roadmap is broken up into seven areas of your life which you can focus on to help you overcome challenges you may face:

• Sensory issues: hearing, sight, smell, touch, space

• Social/communication: daily interactions, verbal and nonverbal messaging

• Executive function: planning, organizing, setting goals, managing time

• Relationships: friends, partners, family members

• Physical health: sleep, exercise, diet, chronic illness management

• Mental health: depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma

• Safety: financial scams, hazards at home, natural disasters

The Roadmap also includes a worksheet you can use to develop a plan that covers these seven areas so that you can reach a place of personal balance and empowerment.