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The Blue Envelope & Beyond: A Community Conversation on Autism, is an event to bring together the community and law enforcement to educate everyone on how a blue envelope can help law enforcement interact with autistic individuals. WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno has more.
The Blue Envelope is a tool that helps drivers with autism during traffic stops or accidents. It’s a visual cue for officers that shows the driver or passenger may communicate differently and gives instructions to make the interaction easier. The Blue Envelope program is a passion project of Tameka Paige.
“And I did a little bit of research and saw that there were a few states that have an envelope that normally is blue, that drivers or passengers that have autism can place their information inside of this envelope,” said Paige. “And then what happens is if by some chance they are stopped or they have an interaction, it allows them to give the law enforcement officer this envelope and it basically can speak for them.”
Paige is the Public Information Officer for the Roanoke City Sheriff’s Department. She worked with Delegate Sam Rasoul to pass laws to take the Blue Envelope Program statewide. She has also organized The Blue Envelope & Beyond: A Community Conversation on Autism.
“Let’s open up the floor. Let’s have some conversation. I just think that in order for any law enforcement and community interactions, it should never be one sided. And so to me, it just makes sense to have educational, conversational, and also the law enforcement interaction as well.”
The Blue Envelope & Beyond: A Community Conversation on Autism is Saturday October 24 from 9 to 1 at the Berglund Center. Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.
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A passion project has led to state laws enacting a program to help autistic drivers and passengers during interactions with law enforcement. WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno has more
Tameka Paige believes everyone deserves respect and to be understood. When she learned about the Blue Envelope Program, she wanted to make sure area law enforcement had access to this tool to reach a segment of the community, those with autism, that can have difficulty communicating.
“The one for Virginia has a registration card, your insurance card. It’ll tell you, you can put emergency contact information inside. I felt like once I heard about this, that it was very important to see if we could have it in our locality. And so then after speaking with the sheriff, I said, I thought about our locality only, but to me it made sense. Let’s not stop with us. Let’s actually make this statewide.”
Paige is the public information officer for the Roanoke City Sheriff’s Department. She worked with Delegate Sam Rasoul to pass laws to take The Blue Envelope Program statewide. The Program went into effect July 1, 2025. Her hope is it will prevent tragedies.
“Just unfortunately, sometimes just the reaction that someone with autism may have, not because they’ve done anything wrong, just being a heightened anxiety, then the inability, because I’m anxious to speak or to speak clearly, sometimes that displays the same actions of someone who’s doing something they shouldn’t be doing.”
To learn more about the program come to the Berglund Center October 24th from 9 to 1 for The Blue Envelope & Beyond: A Community Conversation on Autism. Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.
The post A program to help autistic drivers first appeared on News/Talk 960-AM & FM-107.3 WFIR.
