Shifting gears: Teaching my autistic daughter to drive

Note: Every autistic person’s experience is different. This is my experience with my daughter and she read and approved of this before I posted it.

I can tell you the day I discovered freedom because I remember every intoxicating detail of the moment I drove alone for the first time after getting my driver’s license.

It was August. UB40’s song “Red Wine” was playing on the radio and the Alabama sky had just opened up and sprinkled that kind of Southern rain that makes everything — even the air — smell like…