Flip the Power Dynamic

Experiential Understandings of Autism educational module

With support from “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Biological in Conversation with Basic Biology Textbooks through a Critical STS Lens,” an NSF grant.

This college-level online educational module teaches about autism by letting autistic people tell their own stories. Many adults find out they are autistic later in life. These adults have very different feelings about being diagnosed than kids who learn they are autistic when they are young. This module follows their journey through three steps: wondering if they might be autistic, learning what autism means for them, and figuring out how this changes their life.

The class has different paths for autistic students and allistic students (allistic means not autistic). Instead of focusing on what’s “wrong” with autistic people, it shows autism as a different way of thinking and being. Students read books, watch videos, and learn from autistic people themselves. The goal is to understand autism from the inside, not just from doctors or researchers looking from the outside. Scheduled for publication in Fall 2025.

Autism in Context Timeline

With support from “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Biological in Conversation with Basic Biology Textbooks through a Critical STS Lens,” an NSF grant.

This continually updated interactive digital timeline places important events in the history of autism as a diagnostic category and identity in their larger historical context. Users may search the timeline using tags (e.g. behaviorism, independent living, self-advocacy, etc.) or major historical events in the world or specific to the U.S. (e.g. world wars, activist movements, etc.). Each entry links to a curated source of background information as a starting point for learning more. Scheduled for publication in Fall 2025.

Self Advocates’ Glossary of Autism Research

Much of the peer-reviewed literature on autism is filled with stigmatizing language, making it hard for autistic people to read and apply to themselves. The Self Advocates’ Glossary of Autism Research is a project that aims to:

1. Identify the assumptions behind how English-language autism research has been done and put them in their historical and scientific context
2. Identify stigmatizing language and assumptions that make it hard for autistic people to be involved in this research.
3. Create an accurate, accessible resource that allows self-advocates to engage with existing research in meaningful ways.

The current version of the Self Advocates’ Glossary is an annotated bibliography explaining and analyzing different approaches to autism research and science. Our next step is to translate that bibliography into a plain language resource and publish it.

Work on The Self Advocates’ Glossary is underway in collaboration with Dr. Angie Willey, who teaches at University of Massachusetts Amherst.