Session 6: Autism & Neurodiversity: Intersectionality and Social Justice

Presenters: Steven Kapp, PhD, and TC Waisman, EdD, with Christina Nicolaidis, MD, MPH

About the session:

This session highlighted the current state of the involvement and experiences of autistic people in the neurodiversity movement. The webinar focused on how a neurodiversity perspective can inform policies targeted at improving inclusivity and equitable opportunities for self-determination for autistic people with a wide range of skills, abilities, and disabilities.

About the presenters:

A developmental psychologist, I am a Lecturer in Psychology with expertise in autism and neurodiversity. After becoming aware of the neurodiversity and disability rights movements in 2007, I became involved in advocacy on developmental disabilities and speaking and research on autism. As director of science in the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, I substantially influenced the revision of autism's diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5. My research has consisted of attempts to understand autism and means of supporting autistic people. I feel passionate about the quality of life of autistic people, both in subjective well-being and practical life domains such as healthcare and employment. Autistic traits fall within my keen interests as well, including how behaviours such as stimming (repetitive movements and vocalisations) and averted eye contact may serve as functional coping mechanisms. Furthermore, identity, rights, and support needs of autistic people sit comfortably within my lines of research. As a Research Fellow on the Wellcome Trust-funded project Exploring Diagnosis: Autism and Neurodiversity at the University of Exeter, I published research on all dimensions of the project (diagnosis as a process and category, and the consequences of diagnosis). This included producing the edited collection Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline, the first history of the neurodiversity movement by first-hand accounts of advocates and activists.

Dr. TC Waisman was diagnosed at 48-years-old which resulted in her attaining her doctoral degree with a research focused on how higher education leaders, faculty members, and professional staff can enhance services and outcomes for autistic students in higher education. She is the co-founder of the Autistic Researchers Committee at INSAR and is currently co-leading a cross-institutional collaborative study with Dr. Kristen Gillespie-Lynch and 13 researchers evaluating autism and Universal Design training for faculty. TC is an editorial board member of the Autism in Adulthood journal, a grant review board member of the Autism Intervention Research for Physical Health and an advisory board member of the Sinneave Family Foundation's Autism College Prep program.TC is developing a series of e-badged online micro-trainings about autism for the Autism Training Academy.

Dr. Nicolaidis practices and teaches hospital-based internal medicine at Oregon Health and Science University and serves as a Professor in the School of Social Work at Portland State University. Most of her research uses participatory approaches to improve the health and healthcare of marginalized populations, including autistic adults, people with other disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, people with substance use disorders or chronic pain, and trauma survivors. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE), an international academic-community partnership that uses community based participatory research to address the priorities of autistic adults. She has led a series of National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded AASPIRE studies on healthcare for autistic adults and has created the AASPIRE Healthcare Toolkit for use in primary care settings. She is currently leading a large NIH-funded AASPIRE R01 project to develop the AutPROM Toolbox, a set of patient-reported outcome measures to evaluate services for autistic adults. She also is the founding Editor-in-Chief of a new peer-reviewed journal, Autism in Adulthood and directs the Social Determinants of Health Initiative at Portland State University.

Session 6 Materials PDF

Session 6 Slides

Recorded on July 22, 2021