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Move beyond “autism acceptance” and let your library become a place of autistic joy. We’ll learn how to evaluate books with autistic representation to decide if they add diverse, loving representation to your collection. We’ll expand our programming options beyond sensory storytime and learn how to connect with autistic families. And we’ll discuss real, complex situations affecting autistic families in the library and brainstorm ways we can offer our support and radical acceptance.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will have a greater knowledge of the needs and desires of the autistic families they serve.
• Participants will learn 7 key criteria to evaluate literature with autistic representation to determine whether the title supports autistic readers in their community.
• Participants will learn 8 strategies for adapting library programs to better support the autistic community and have opportunity to practice strategies for problem-solving complex support issues.

Anonymous feedback from the 2024 ALSC National Institute session of this presentation:

• “If there was a higher rating than 'excellent' for the presenter, they would deserve it. The material was useful and well-organized, the presentation excellently paced, and I was inspired to make a list of changes we could immediately implement in our library to improve service for our autistic youth.”
• “So much useful information! Best program that I attended.”