Kari Sasportas on Advocating for Autistic Birders

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Kari Sasportas on Advocating for Autistic Birders

Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote. 

     [Northern Bobwhite call]
    [Massachusetts soundscape]

Kari Sasportas helps lead the Feminist Bird Club of Boston.

Kari Sasportas: For me, birding is being able to engage all of my senses and be present in the moment. I don't feel pressure to socialize or keep up the pace of a conversation.

For Kari, birding is a way to become absorbed in the sensations of the outside world, something that can be difficult for them to do elsewhere as an autistic person with an auditory processing disorder.

Kari Sasportas: I do think in images, I don't necessarily think in language. I do have to kind of translate pictures in my brain into words to either speak or to write down. But I think with birding, I’m really engaging my visual senses. And especially being able to notice patterns and distinctions, I can compare that very quickly in my mind to images I've seen in a field guide.

     [Northern Bobwhite call]

Kari advocates for making the birding world more accessible for neurodivergent people. While they have seen programs designed specifically for autistic children, Kari says it’s important to ask autistic adults what they want from birding, too. 

Kari Sasportas: Autism doesn't stop at age 18 when the services do, you know, and people are autistic throughout their entire lifespan. And so I think intentionally engaging with the neurodivergent community and autistic adults to help design more inclusive programming, more accessible sites and activities, more accessible and inclusive outings and birding organizations is really paramount. I think it's really important for us to be recognized as the experts on, you know, our own experience and our own access needs. 

For BirdNote, I’m Conor Gearin.

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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Bobwhite ML332854431 recorded by Ryan Johnson, and Northern Bobwhite ML63289481 recorded by Tom Johnson.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote April 2023
Narrator: Conor Gearin

ID# sasportask-01-2023-03-27    sasportask-01