Biography

Timotheus “T.J.” Gordon Jr., MFA, MS, is a research associate at the Institute on Disability and Human Development at University of Illinois at Chicago. Gordon uses his passion for self-advocacy, inclusion, racial equity, disability culture, and autism acceptance to create webinars, training sessions, and publications on autism and race, inclusion in communities of color, inclusion of people with disabilities in college (including sports and recreation), exploration of sexuality in the disability community, coping with COVID-19 pandemic, mental health emergency services, and more. Gordon is currently a student life liaison for the UIC Co-Op Certificate Program, helping Co-Op students explore and be included in student life activities on-campus.

He is also a co-founder of Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition (Chicagoland DPOCC), which is supported by the Institute on Disability and Human Development. Chicagoland DPOCC is a group of disabled people of color in the Chicagoland area that promote disability pride, self-advocacy, and inclusion in communities of color throughout the Chicagoland area.

In addition to his self-advocacy work, Gordon has also written essays and reviews related to disability and race. His writings appear in the Disability Studies Review, the “All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism” anthology, and ADA 30 in Color. He is one of the interviewees who appeared in the documentary, Code of the Freaks, where he discussed autism representation and intersections of disability and race in movies.