(as of October 2025)

Quotes from our members on AANYC’s impact on their lives, and the importance of Autistic-led community:

Autism is a diagnosis, but having a space for autistic people to build our own identity together has helped me understand myself and the people around me who I've come to relate to.

People with disabilities have only ever achieved things for themselves by working together. While there are lots of outsiders-doctors, educators, the government-trying to tell us what Autism is, AANYC is a space where we can work together to form an identity for ourselves.

- Evan

Thanks to this community, I’m [finding] other people who share my interests and who communicate about [them] in similar ways.

Groups like AANYC help create community in a city where it's easy to find ourselves isolated, especially with everything being constantly so overwhelming.

- Jules

The community is good and safe and travel is simple

- Sammy

I simply do not think that what Nicole [the founder of AANYC] has created could have been built by neurotypical people unless a neurodivergent person had already paved the way. Ideas can be shared, copied, and remixed, but not until they escape the mind through the hands. It is important to have groups like this because it saves lives. Human beings need each other. AANYC makes the expression of our basic humanity accessible to autistics.

- Manny Morales

I've finally gained a community where I belong as myself.

Autistic-led means you're never looked down on or treated different, you are among your peers and lead by your peers.

- A

This community gave me a sense of belonging, validation, and support during a difficult moment in my life. Navigating the process of a late diagnosis, I tried many different approaches to find my way forward, and this group was by far the most helpful. It’s been invaluable to talk to people who have overcome or developed strategies for challenges I’ve faced my whole life. More importantly, it’s a place where I finally felt comfortable exploring a side of myself that I’ve kept hidden for so long, and it’s given me the confidence to be more honest and stand up for myself in other parts of my life.

Because this is an autistic led and autistic-only space, it feels safe and welcoming. There’s no pressure to translate the way I think and communicate, and I can trust that I won’t be misinterpreted or judged. If I am misunderstood, I know that I will likely be able to respectfully resolve the situation. Having a space like this was a foreign concept for me, and allowed me learn to trust myself.

This group directly contradicts anyone who says that autistic people aren’t social; we’re just differently social. It let me fight back against ignorant voices and the voices in my own head that said autistic people are broken. Meeting these wonderful people as they are, realizing I am like them, and seeing what we’re capable of helped me to accept myself too.

- J