Project
Flip the Power Dynamic
Our #FlipThePowerDynamic campaign aspires to change the focus of autism research and treatment projects to focus on autistic wellbeing.
With support from “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Biological in Conversation with Basic Biology Textbooks through a Critical STS Lens,” an NSF grant.
Details
Our #FlipThePowerDynamic campaign aspires to change the focus of autism research and treatment projects that receive funding to focus on autistic wellbeing. While the needs and goals of caregivers are important, autistic people need more autonomy over the policies and programs that affect them.
Self Advocates’ Glossary of Autism Research
The first part of this campaign is production of the Self Advocates’ Glossary of Autism Research, a project that aims to:
- Put the assumptions behind how autism research has been done in the United States in their historical and scientific context
- Identify what makes it hard for autistic people to be involved in this research.
The Self Advocates’s Guide is a first step towards creating a research center where autistic people lead the research about autism. This idea comes from a Japanese method called Tojisha-Kenkyu, which is a form of research conducted by people who have personal experience with a condition.
Work on The Self Advocates’s Guide is underway in collaboration with Dr. Angie Willey, who teaches at University of Massachusetts Amherst.