 As public awareness of synesthesia has grown, the number of members has increased.The American Synesthesia Association was created in 1995 by Carol Steen and Patricia Lynne Duffy after discovering, through correspondence with Simon Baron-Cohen, that there were other people in the New York metropolitan area who experienced synesthesia.The ASA was born out of a desire to meet other synesthetes, and to improve communication between synesthetes and researchers.