Open Society

*Illness Politics and Hashtag Activism* explores illness and disability in action on social media, analyzing several popular hashtags as examples of how illness figures in recent U.S. politics. Lisa Diedrich shows how illness- and disability-oriented hashtags serve as portals into how and why illness and disability are sites of political struggle and how illness politics is informed by, intersects with, and sometimes stands in for sexual, racial, and class politics. She argues that illness politics is central—and profoundly important—to both mainstream and radical politics, and she investigates the dynamic intersection of media and health and health-activist practices to show how their confluence affects our perception and understanding of illness.

[Open Access] A chronicle of ableism and disability activism in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemicHow to Be Disabled in a Pandemic documents the pivotal experiences of disabled people living in an early epicenter of COVID-19: New York City. Among those hardest hit by the pandemic, disability communities across the five boroughs have been disproportionately impacted by city and national policies, work and housing conditions, stigma, racism, and violence—as much as by the virus itself. Disabled and chronically-ill activists have protested plans for medical rationing and refuted the eugenic logic of mainstream politicians and journalists who “reassure” audiences that only older people and those with disabilities continue to die from COVID-19. At the same time, as exemplified by the viral hashtag #DisabledPeopleToldYou, disability expertise has become widely recognized in practices such as accessible remote work and education, quarantine, and distributed networks of support and mutual aid. This edited volume charts the legacies of this “mass disabling event” for uncertain viral futures, exploring the dialectic between disproportionate risk and the creativity of a disability justice response.How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic includes contributions by wide-ranging disability scholars, writers, and activists whose research and lived experiences chronicle the pandemic’s impacts in prisons, migrant detention centers, Chinatown senior centers, hospitals in Queens and the Bronx, subways, schools, housing shelters, social media, and other locations of public and private life. By focusing on New York City over the course of three years, the book reveals key themes of the pandemic, including hierarchies of disability "vulnerability," the deployment of disability as a tool of population management, and innovative crip pandemic cultural production. How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic honors those lost, as well as those who survived, by calling for just policies and caring infrastructures, not only in times of crisis but for the long haul.

Play is a central feature of childhood and a fundamental right of all children. Currently, our understanding of autistic play is based on a deficit perspective,...

Surviving Safeguarding writes about how social work language can create barriers between children, families and the system

“Language is the most powerful tool we have. Let’s use it well.”Surviving Safeguarding [1] Anyone who works with me knows that I care a lot about the words and phrases we use in social care. I firm…

Over the past few years, Brittany has noticed the resurgence the R-word - a word that otherwise left the cultural lexicon. And while that's troubling in and of itself, its return may also have larger implications that affect policy, culture, and how we treat each other. Disability advocate Imani Barbarin joins the show to break down how ableism can take root in casual conversation, and why words matter. Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.

Over the past few years, Brittany has noticed the resurgence the R-word - a word that otherwise left the cultural lexicon. And while that's troubling in and of itself, its return may also have larger implications that affect policy, culture, and how we treat each other. Disability advocate Imani Barbarin joins the show to break down how ableism can take root in casual conversation, and why words matter. Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.

Written by myself, Helen Edgar of @autisticrealms. I am delighted to work with Grove Neurodivergent Mentoring and Education as their Training, Education &am ...

River Marino with their chapter from 'On Being an Autistic Therapist', edited by Max Marnau and published by PCCS Books.

No description was included in this Dataset collected from the OSF

Background Traits and characteristics qualitatively similar to those seen in diagnosed autism spectrum disorder can be found to varying degrees in the general population. To measure these traits and facilitate their use in autism research, several questionnaires have been developed that provide broad measures of autistic traits [e.g. Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ)]. However, since their development, our understanding of autism has grown considerably, and it is arguable that existing measures do not provide an ideal representation of the trait dimensions currently associated with autism. Our aim was to create a new measure of autistic traits that reflects our current understanding of autism, the Comprehensive Autism Trait Inventory (CATI). Methods In Study 1, 107 pilot items were administered to 1166 individuals in the general population and exploratory factor analysis of responses used to create the 42-item CATI comprising six subscales: Social Interactions, Communication, Social Camouflage, Repetitive Behaviours, Cognitive Rigidity, and Sensory Sensitivity. In Study 2, the CATI was administered to 1119 new individuals and confirmatory factor analysis used to verify the factor structure. The AQ and BAPQ were administered to validate the CATI, and additional autistic participants were recruited to compare the predictive ability of the measures. In Study 3, to validate the CATI subscales, the CATI was administered to 202 new individuals along with existing valid measures qualitatively similar to each CATI subscale. Results The CATI showed convergent validity at both the total-scale (r ≥ .79) and subscale level (r ≥ .68). The CATI also showed superior internal reliability for total-scale scores (α = .95) relative to the AQ (α = .90) and BAPQ (α = .94), consistently high reliability for subscales (α  .81), greater predictive ability for classifying autism (Youden’s Index = .62 vs .56–.59), and demonstrated measurement invariance for sex. Limitations Analyses of predictive ability for classifying autism depended upon self-reported diagnosis or identification of autism. The autistic sample was not large enough to test measurement invariance of autism diagnosis. Conclusions The CATI is a reliable and economical new measure that provides observations across a wide range of trait dimensions associated with autism, potentially precluding the need to administer multiple measures, and to our knowledge, the CATI is also the first broad measure of autistic traits to have dedicated subscales for social camouflage and sensory sensitivity.

Background In this study, we revised the comprehensive autistic trait inventory (CATI)—a self-report inventory of autistic traits, in collaboration with autistic people and provided preliminary evidence for its validity as a self-report measure of autistic traits in the general population. An established strength of the CATI is its ability to capture female autistic traits. Our project aimed to extend this further, to increase the inventory’s accessibility, and to minimise stigma induced by deficit-based representations of autistic experience. Methods Together with 22 individuals from the autism and autistic communities, we created the Revised Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory (CATI-R). Revisions included rewording items to increase clarity or reduce stigma and expanding items to capture diverse autistic experiences. We also present a series of guidelines for developing self-report inventories of subclinical neurodivergent traits. We validated the CATI-R within a large sample (n = 1439), comprising people with a self-reported autism diagnosis (n = 331), people who self-identified as autistic (n = 44), and non-autistic participants (n = 1046). Results We successfully validated a revision of the CATI. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the six-subscale structure (two-factor bifactors model: Chi-squared = 2705.73, p .001, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .03, CFI = .95, TLI = .94). Spearman’s rank correlations showed positive relationships between all subscales (all rs .56, ps .001). Convergent validity was demonstrated by significant correlations between the CATI-R and two contemporary inventories of autistic traits: the AQ (rho = .86, p .01) and BAPQ (rho = .82, p .01). Finally, a measurement invariance analysis indicated that total-scale scores can be compared across genders. Limitations Our study presents only initial evidence for the validity of the CATI-R that should be enriched with further analyses and types of data, including a larger number of participants who do not identify as male or female. Conclusions This project provides a revised trait inventory that resonates with actual autistic experience, along with guidelines for creating self-report measures that are sensitive, accessible, and non-stigmatising.

Central sensitivity syndromes (CSSs) are a group of health conditions thought to include an underlying sensitisation of the central nervous system. Evidence suggests autistic adults experience poorer...

In this month’s research roundup, Ann Memmott picks out some of the current big debates on Autistic lives, and showcases new and important research from teams and academics working within the field.

Although autistic adults may establish better dyadic rapport with autistic relative to non-autistic partners, it is unclear whether this extends to group settin...

It's time Autism Awareness included awareness of the great parts of being autistic, like all-encompassing autistic joy!

This our first NDC in Conversation, a new long-form blog + video format where we bring together diverse voices from the Neurodivergent community to discuss key topics. You can also watch the the full video of this discussion. For this inaugural discussion, held to mark Autism Acceptance/Awareness Mo

The are many terms used to describe the various experiences of being autistic and recently, I’ve been hearing the term, ‘autistic joy.’ Sometimes I struggle to understand whether phrases like this are the title of a researched phenomenon or are being used colloquially, to describe a general state.

‘Autistic joy’ describes the all-encompassing, very intense feeling of joy and excitement that many autistic people experience. This may be over things which seem small to other people (but definitely aren’t small!). The joy completely absorbs us in that moment. It can feel…

AuDHD, a term combining "Autistic" and "ADHD" (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), describes individuals who exhibit traits of both autism and...

Have you ever heard the term AuDHD? Unless you're really into the online neurodiversity community, it might be new to you.

Sandhya Menon, Autistic/ADHDer developmental psychologist, on a revolution in our understanding of autism and ADHD.