When she was 11, the entirety of Sara Gardner’s fifth grade class wrote a letter to her teacher, listing the traits they didn’t like about her. Her teacher then gave her the letter and told her she should change so people would like her better.

The memory has stuck with Gardner, decades later. It would be many years before she was diagnosed as autistic, and many more before she became the director of one of the most unique autism support programs in the country.

Now, Gardner, 54, is leading the ever-growing Autism Spectrum Navigators program at Bellevue College and will be celebrating college’s fifth annual Autism Acceptance Video Game Tournament this weekend.

“It’s a way to show the community how having autism can actually be a positive thing and to give students in the community an opportunity to experience Bellevue College and Autism Spectrum Navigators program, so that they can feel comfortable coming to college. I’ve had many parents and students tell me that this is the first time they’ve ever been to college and that they can see themselves here in the future, so that feels really good to know we’re opening that door for them,” Gardner said of the annual tournament, which is held during Autism Acceptance Month in Washington.

The tournament originally started as a fundraiser for the Navigators program, which was then in its infancy.

The Autism Spectrum Navigators started as a pilot program five years ago.

The program has a four-pronged focus: executive functions so students can get things done; self-advocacy so they know how to ask for help; self-regulation so they can learn how to handle changes to schedules or plans and social interactions so they can interact with others.

Unlike almost every other autism support program in the nation, the program does not teach social skills and how to interact with “normal” people.

“We’re not trying to fix them. Social skills classes come from the view of students being deficient and needing to learn something that they don’t know. But, when you recognize that autistic people see the world in one way and neurotypical people — those without autism — see it in another way, all you need to do is show them that,” Gardner said. “Here’s the thing — neurotypical people have the same trouble communicating with autistic people that autistic people have with neurotypical people. It’s a two-way street. It’s just that there’s fewer autistic people, so they’re the ones that get labeled with the problem.”

High rates of anxiety, depression and suicide plague the autism community, she added. A study released last month shows that people on the autism spectrum found that autistic people are nine times more likely than neurotypical people to die by suicide.

That revelation didn’t surprise Gardner and her friends in the autism community one bit.

Since its conception in 2011, the Navigators program has grown from 26 to around 85 students annually.

It provides services beyond those covered by American Disabilities Act and does not charge students, so it needed to raise money. Originally, they were considering holding a walk or 5K to raise money, but Gardner scrapped the idea in favor of something that people with autism generally enjoy: playing video games.

“I said, ‘No, we don’t like to walk and run. Why don’t we play video games or something we like to do?’… Not all our students play video games, but a great number of them love to play video games, it’s almost a stereotypical vision of an autistic student,” she said.

For the past five years, a local company that wishes to remain anonymous has lent Bellevue College the gaming consoles, and hundreds of students and community members have competed in the day-long tournament.

Gardner has no idea what the break-down of autistic to neurotypical students at the tournament has been in the past. Each year, all types of students blend together in the flurry of people and activities.

“That’s one of the great things about the tournament — when you’re here, you don’t know who is autistic, who isn’t and even what kind of diagnosis they have,” she said.

While the tournament has evolved naturally since 2011, Gardner had no big plans for changes in the future.

“I’m pretty happy with it the way it is,” she said.

The fifth Annual Autism Acceptance Video Game Tournament will be held on Saturday, April 9 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.