When lawyer Nicki Vander Meulen was sworn in as a Madison Metropolitan School District board member on Autism Awareness Day in 2017, a legislator told her she “must not be that disabled” if she had a law degree. “He meant it as a compliment,” she told the Cap Times. Vander Meulen, 44, has faced obstacles throughout her life because of a lack of awareness about and accommodations for her autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy and chronic fatigue syndrome.