DALLAS, Ga. — Taylor Duncan grew up loving all sports, but especially baseball. Born and raised in Atlanta Braves country of Dallas, Georgia, he wanted to be the next Chipper Jones or Andruw Jones.
However, for Duncan, who is on the autism spectrum, the opportunity to play the game he loved was limited. He — like many on the spectrum — was often denied the opportunity, especially as he grew older, due to the commonly low perception of what someone with autism can and cannot accomplish. "I had a tough time finding those inclusive opportunities to play organized sports, either due to my developmental delays when I was much younger and just not being able to understand it at the same rate as, say, neurotypicals, or as I got older, facing a lot of those negative stigmas from some coaches who say, you're too much of an injury risk to participate," Duncan said.
"The biggest thing about that is as you get older, it seems that there's more of a competitive mindset and less opportunities to really focus on developing into the skills, and just enjoy America's pastime just for the sake of enjoying it." So in 2016 — two years after graduating high school — Duncan made it his mission to provide opportunities to other teens and adults just like him to play in a traditional baseball setting free of judgment. Just like that the Alternative Baseball Organization (ABO) was born.
ADVERTISEMENT The ABO is a non-profit developmental program that provides teens and adults with autism and.
