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Autism is a profoundly contested idea. The focus of this book is not what autism is or what autistic people are, but rather, it grapples with the central question: what does it take for autistic people to participate in a shared world as equals with other people?Drawing from her close reading of a range of texts and narratives, by autistic authors, filmmakers, bloggers, and academics, Anna Stenning highlights the creativity and imagination in these accounts and also considers the possibilities that emerge when the unexpected and novel aspects of experience are attended to and afforded their due space. Approaching these narrative accounts in the context of both the Anthropocene and neoliberalism, Stenning unpacks and reframes understandings about autism and identity, agency and mattering, across sections exploring autistic intelligibility, autistic sensibility, and community-oriented collaboration and care.By moving away from the non-autistic stories about autism that have, over time, dominated public conception of the autistic experience and relationships, as well as the cognitive and psychoanalytic paradigms that have reduced autism and autistic people to a homogeneous group, the book instead reveals the multiplicity of autistic subjectivities and their subsequent understandings of well-being and vulnerability. It calls on readers to listen to what autistic people have to say about the possibilities of resistance and solidarity against intersecting currents and eddies of power, which endanger all who challenge the neoliberal conception of Life.A stirring and meaningful departure from atomized accounts of neurological difference, Narrating the Many Autisms ponders big questions about its topic and finds clarity and meaning in the sense-making practices of autistic individuals and groups. It will appeal to scholarly readers across the fields of disability studies, the medical humanities, cultural studies, critical psychology, sociology, anthropology, and literature.

Research suggests that about 1% of the world's population is on the autism spectrum. Discover the answers to common questions about living with neurodiversity.Part of the Q&A Health Guides series, this book offers a broad introduction to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The book's 47 questions cover what ASD is and its common characteristics, the biological and environmental factors that may lead to ASD, how autism is diagnosed and managed, and how those living with ASD can reach their full potential. Autism: Your Questions Answered addresses these and other topics in a way that both celebrates neurodiversity and acknowledges the many challenges that those with ASD face.Augmenting the main text, a collection of 5 case studies illustrate key concepts and issues through relatable stories and insightful recommendations. The common misconceptions section at the beginning of the volume dispels 5 long-standing and harmful myths about ASD, directing readers to additional information in the text. The glossary defines terms that may be unfamiliar to readers, while the directory of resources curates a list of the most useful books, websites, and other materials. Finally, whether they're looking for more information about this subject or any other health-related topic, readers can turn to the guide to health literacy section for practical tools and strategies for finding, evaluating, and using credible sources of health information both on and off the Internet.

An accessible and comprehensive look at autistic adults, written with an aim towards understanding and empathy. Most research and writing about autism is focused on children, although most autistic people are adults. In this book, Daniel Smeenk addresses this gap by looking at how autistic adults present and how they see themselves and offers insights on autistic adults, from an autistic writer. He provides information and practical advice to inspire neurotypicals to a greater empathy and understanding of the autistic adults in their lives. Unlike most books on autism, Autistic Adults: Exploring the Forgotten End of the Spectrum explores the subject from multiple points of view. Daniel Smeenk examines autism research, self-advocacy communities and the fundamental differences between groups that want to help autistic people but disagree on how to do so. Thoroughly researched yet accessible, Smeenk takes an even-handed approach to current debates such as how funding should be spent and what kind of supports are most beneficial. He also addresses topics such as employment, lack of research on autistic adults and issues with public perception.

This handbook provides an authoritative and up-to-date overview of Critical Autism Studies and explores the different kinds of knowledges and their articulations, similarities, and differences across cultural contexts and key tensions within this subdiscipline. Critical Autism Studies is a developing area occupying an exciting space of development within learning and teaching in higher education. It has a strong trajectory within the autistic academic and advocate community in resistance and response to the persistence of autism retaining an identity as a genetic disorder of the brain. Divided into four parts • Conceptualising autism • Autistic identity • Community and culture • Practice and comprising 24 newly commissioned chapters written by academics and activists, it explores areas of education, Critical Race Theory, domestic violence and abuse, sexuality, biopolitics, health, and social care practices. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, education, health, social care, and political science.

What might it look like for an Autistic, non-binary person who lives with mental illness to live well and with hope?In this book, author and advocate Yenn Purkis reflects on their experiences of life as an Autistic non-binary person who has a diagnosis of atypical schizophrenia. Exploring the intersecting areas of mental health and illness, neurodivergence and neurodiversity, and gender non-conformity, the narrative follows Yenn through experiences of incarceration, psychosis, employment, therapy both helpful and not, medication, diagnosis, stigma and anxiety.Illuminating reading for students of disability studies, Autism studies, queer studies, and related social sciences, this book will also bring important perspective to those in practice and in training: doctors, psychiatrists, policy makers, teachers, and social workers. Yenn will describe a life well-lived, with and alongside Autism and mental illness, that will provide a vital perspective to anyone studying or working people who share these social identities.

Disability or difference? How autism is understood varies from place to place.Drawn from lived experience, this book explores the question of what autism is, and how it is best viewed in society. Dr Jaime Hoerricks PhD – an academic and non-verbal autistic person – interrogates different models of disability, and considers how autism might be seen as a difference in human experience, in light of the need for accommodations and structural supports.Positioning autism as both a set of traits and an identity, No place for autism? asks what can be done to give place for autistic people and communities.

Dr. Temple Grandin gets to the REAL issues of autism―the ones parents, teachers, and individuals on the spectrum face every day. Temple offers helpful dos and don'ts, practical strategies, and try-it-now tips, all based on her insider perspective and a great deal of research. These are just some of the specific topics she delves into: how and why people with autism think differently, economical early intervention programs that work, how sensory sensitivities affect learning, behaviors caused by a disability vs. just bad behaviors, teaching people with autism to live in an unpredictable world, alternative vs. conventional medicine, and employment ideas for adults with autism.

In Authoring Autism M. Remi Yergeau defines neurodivergence as an identity—neuroqueerness—rather than an impairment. Using a queer theory framework, Yergeau notes the stereotypes that deny autistic people their humanity and the chance to define themselves while also challenging cognitive studies scholarship and its reification of the neurological passivity of autistics. They also critique early intensive behavioral interventions—which have much in common with gay conversion therapy—and questions the ableist privileging of intentionality and diplomacy in rhetorical traditions. Using storying as their method, they present an alternative view of autistic rhetoricity by foregrounding the cunning rhetorical abilities of autistics and by framing autism as a narrative condition wherein autistics are the best-equipped people to define their experience. Contending that autism represents a queer way of being that simultaneously embraces and rejects the rhetorical, Yergeau shows how autistic people queer the lines of rhetoric, humanity, and agency. In so doing, they demonstrate how an autistic rhetoric requires the reconceptualization of rhetoric's very essence.

In this wide-ranging and probing book Erin Manning extends her previous inquiries into the politics of movement to the concept of the minor gesture. The minor gesture, although it may pass almost unperceived, transforms the field of relations. More than a chance variation, less than a volition, it requires rethinking common assumptions about human agency and political action. To embrace the minor gesture's power to fashion relations, its capacity to open new modes of experience and manners of expression, is to challenge the ways in which the neurotypical image of the human devalues alternative ways of being moved by and moving through the world—in particular what Manning terms'autistic perception.'Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis and Whitehead's speculative pragmatism, Manning's far-reaching analyses range from fashion to depression to the writings of autistics, in each case affirming the neurodiversity of the minor and the alternative politics it gestures toward.

People with autism often find themselves excluded from working life. This practical handbook lays out reasonable, achievable ways in which working environments can be adapted and people with autism included as valuable members of the workforce.

Is there a gene for autism? Despite a billion-dollar, twenty-year effort to find out—and the more elusive the answer, the greater the search seems to become—no single autism gene has been identified. In Multiple Autisms, Jennifer S. Singh sets out to discover how autism emerged as a genetic disorder and how this affects those who study autism and those who live with it. This is the first sustained analysis of the practices, politics, and meaning of autism genetics from a scientific, cultural, and social perspective.In 2004, when Singh began her research, the prevalence of autism was reported as 1 in 150 children. Ten years later, the number had jumped to 1 in 100, with the disorder five times more common in boys than in girls. Meanwhile the diagnosis changed to “autistic spectrum disorders,” and investigations began to focus more on genomics than genetics, less on single genes than on hundreds of interacting genes. Multiple Autisms charts this shift and its consequences through nine years of ethnographic observations, analysis of scientific and related literatures, and morethan seventy interviews with autism scientists, parents of children with autism, and people on the autism spectrum. The book maps out the social history of parental activism in autism genetics, the scientific optimism about finding a gene for autism and the subsequent failure, and the cost in personal and social terms of viewing and translating autism through a genomic lens.How is genetic information useful to people living with autism? By considering this question alongside the scientific and social issues that autism research raises, Singh's work shows us the true reach and implications of a genomic gaze.

Since first being identified as a distinct psychiatric disorder in 1943, autism has been steeped in contestation and controversy. Present-day skirmishes over the potential causes of autism, how or even if it should be treated, and the place of Asperger's syndrome on the autism spectrum are the subjects of intense debate in the research community, in the media, and among those with autism and their families. Bringing together innovative work on autism by international scholars in the social sciences and humanities, Worlds of Autism boldly challenges the deficit narrative prevalent in both popular and scientific accounts of autism spectrum disorders, instead situating autism within an abilities framework that respects the complex personhood of individuals with autism. A major contribution to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of critical autism studies, this book is methodologically and conceptually broad. Its authors explore the philosophical questions raised by autism, such as how it complicates neurotypical understandings of personhood; grapple with the politics that inform autism research, treatment, and care; investigate the diagnosis of autism and the recognition of difference; and assess representations of autism and stories told by and about those with autism.From empathy, social circles, and Internet communities to biopolitics, genetics, and diagnoses, Worlds of Autism features a range of perspectives on autistic subjectivities and the politics of cognitive difference, confronting society's assumptions about those with autism and the characterization of autism as a disability. Contributors: Dana Lee Baker, Washington State U; Beatrice Bonniau, Paris Descartes U; Charlotte Brownlow, U of Southern Queensland, Australia; Kristin Bumiller, Amherst College; Brigitte Chamak, Paris Descartes U; Kristina Chew, Saint Peter's U, New Jersey; Patrick McDonagh, Concordia U, Montreal; Stuart Murray, U of Leeds; Majia Holmer Nadesan, Arizona State U; Christina Nicolaidis, Portland State U; Lindsay O'Dell, Open U, London; Francisco Ortega, State U of Rio de Janeiro; Mark Osteen, Loyola U, Maryland; Dawn Eddings Prince; Dora Raymaker; Sara Ryan, U of Oxford; Lila Walsh.

Many people on the spectrum never get “the talk” from their parents, and suffer from “information deficit.” This book goes a long way toward filling in the gaps in their knowledge. It takes a candid look at aspects of sex and relationships as they apply to people on the autism spectrum: building self-confidence, dating, personal grooming, cleanliness, explicit advice on how to initiate sex with a partner. Also covered: avoiding pregnancy and STDs, dealing with rejection, how to build a loving relationship that includes sexual intimacy. This is an Everything You Ever Wanted to Know kind of book! Helpful chapters include: Surviving the First Wave of Sexual Interest What Should Parents Say and When Should They Say It? The Best Way to Date Someone is to Be Yourself Male & Female Advantages and Challenges in the Sexual Arena Sensory Issues in Sex! When Desire Leads to a Bad Relationship What Do Men Really Want? What Do Women Really Want? Birth Control, Disease Prevention and Personal Responsibility Rape, Molestation, and Abuse

In lives where there is a new diagnosis or drama every day, the stories in this collection provide parents of “special needs” kids with a welcome chuckle, a rock to stand on, and a moment of reality held far enough from the heart to see clearly. Featuring works by “alternative” parents who have attempted to move away from mainstream thought—or remove its influence altogether—this anthology, taken as a whole, carefully considers the implications of parenting while raising children with disabilities. From professional writers to novice storytellers including Robert Rummel-Hudson, Ayun Halliday, and Kerry Cohen, this assortment of authentic, shared experiences from parents at the fringe of the fringes is a partial antidote to the stories that misrepresent, ridicule, and objectify disabled kids and their parents.

Autism, Discrimination and the Law outlines how the legal requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 might be met for students and employees with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).• What might discrimination against people with autism look like?• What can you do to prevent discrimination against people with autism?• What should you do if you have been discriminated against?The book includes an overview of current knowledge of autism, and details of the changes in legislation concerning disability discrimination. The main part of the book is devoted to case studies from further education and employment demonstrating how reasonable adjustments can be made successfully.This accessible book will be an essential reference for employers, policy makers, Local Education Authorities, Learning and Skills Councils, Training providers, schools and colleges, personnel officers, careers officers, charities, residential homes, parents, indeed anyone working with people with autistic spectrum disorders.

First published in 2001. This is Volume 2 in a series on the science of mental health and focuses on Autism. It begins with an overview presentation of a case and a recent consensus description of diagnostic instruments for autistic-spectrum disorders. This is followed by recent epidemiologic data. Epidemiology has an enhanced prominence in studies of autism because there is an unresolved controversy about the incidence of new cases of autism. In some surveys the incidence of autism appears to be increasing, and the controversy is over whether this is a true observation or whether greater diagnostic awareness is leading to the apparent increase. This volume attempt to resolve the conflicting data as if autism is indeed on the rise, there must be a new, significant environmental risk factor, which has to be identified with a view to prevention.