FAQ
The intended audience is autistic individuals who are interested in learning to drive. We are focused on getting autistic individuals safely behind the wheel, and that can only be done by working with the individuals directly! As an autistic individual and the founder of this organization alongside my mostly autistic team, we know what it means to thrive and succeed as autistic individuals. In fact, we have succeeded in this specific case ourselves as we each received our own licenses at varying ages. We are proof it can be done. At Driving with Autism, we welcome those who have had mixed successes in driving schools or are having difficulty with any part of the obtaining a license process, from the first written test for a learner's permit to the last road test for a driver’s license.
Parents are welcome to attend, but it is certainly not required or expected. A parent can only be so involved in a process as personal as learning to drive. Just know that a parent cannot take any driving tests, or sub in for their new driver. It does not work like that. This is especially important because we are working to empower attendees to self-advocate and build independence! Skills that will benefit them for a lifetime.
Absolutely! We have found that in addition to autism, many with anxiety, ADHD, and other disability have a lot to gain. than autism to attend as well, we particularly recommend this course for those in the ADHD community. ADHD often has similar characteristics to autism and similar challenges with executive functioning, which is a topic we touch on throughout the series. We are looking to help anyone who wants to get behind the wheel and achieve their goal. After all, this is all about making learning to drive accessible to new people, autistic individuals, and beyond!
Yes, each one is recorded, and we email the recording to attendees the day after the course. Life happens and if you pay for these courses, we will make sure you are able to view them. Those who join the webinar series midway through will gain access to the recordings of the sessions they missed, but we suggest waiting until the next series if one is already in progress.
We all get free multimillion-dollar cars and drive off into the sunset! Kidding of course. Everyone who attends the webinar series will receive handouts from the series with various strategies to help translate that knowledge onto road practice. After attending the series, we will also contact you to go over local resources including certified partners driving schools and more. We have connections with Driving Schools that we know have the expertise and understanding that is necessary to help our attendees succeed. They have earned our trust through dedicated and diligent thoughtful work. We will help you through every step of the process and towards success.
Yes, you can sign up regardless of schedule. We do accept late entries up to a point, though we do make exceptions. People who sign up after the end of the live series will automatically be added to the next series schedule. We will make sure that you are covered no matter what!
Yes, and help is an understatement, this is the main feature of our program. After you complete the webinar series, we will find a driving school in your area that works for your specific needs and preferences. There are many amazing driving schools out there, including drivers' education programs that have worked with autistic individuals before, and we will help you find them. We have done the work to find the best of the best driving schools across the country when it comes to working with neurodiverse individuals such as autistic drivers. We work with them so that we can connect you with each new step towards success.
While our services are more online-based, we will point you towards road lessons through our driving school partners exclusive to your state. With our certified and trusted driving school partners, we run a referral system where our partners send their students to us for our webinar series. After the series is completed, we send them back to our partners for road lessons and other services. We will also connect you with local resources that may not be driving schools but will still help build the bigger picture of learning to drive. Driving with Autism does not offer on-the-road lessons, but we know who does and if they are right for you. We know who you need to connect to for each piece of this journey, and we will make sure those connections are made and taken full advantage of.
My dream as the founder of Driving with Autism is to help autistic drivers achieve their license nationwide to achieve their path to success. Like with any task, one would need to prep to be ready to complete it. It is quite like the SATS in that way. A situation we often run into is individuals who may have trouble taking the first step because of a bad experience or two. Moving forward in those cases can be rough for any individual, including autistic individuals. Our webinar is fully designed to prepare drivers to achieve success and help those who needed a couple of retries as well. All those aspects were why I left a driving school I worked for to focus on making a bigger impact. The school was very big in my state, but I found myself limited in what I can do with working within a single state. I created Driving with Autism in order to create a nationwide impact. Now I am partnering with incredible driving schools throughout the country and can really find the best of the absolute best. Using my experience in this field I know how to connect drivers with the schools and resources that will work for them. I have found that when Driving with Autism is involved it becomes a core centerpiece of the learning-to-drive experience. Helping build the parts of the experience that exist outside of being behind the wheel. We do not replace driving schools; we are their partner in teaching individuals how to drive. We are both integral parts of the learning experience. And together we create a learning-to-drive journey that consistently leads to success. A path to success by autistic drivers, for autistic drivers.
For interested driving schools, check out our overview on our Resources & Partners page. It goes over the different options schools can pick for the partnership. Interested driving schools can also fill out our contact form to be contacted by our founder, Andrew Arboe. He will set up the day and time for the Zoom meeting.