About this guide
The purpose of this guide is to aid anyone who is interested in supporting, promoting, or simply learning more about autism acceptance and advocacy, whether for the purposes of formal research or for use in everyday interactions with autistic people and/or autistic advocacy efforts. This guide is designed to be used by both autistic people themselves and by non-autistic people who are interested in learning how to be supportive allies.
How this guide is organized
The resources in this guide have been categorized into eight general topics/areas of interest. Each topic has its own page, which can be accessed from the navigation menu above. Below is an explanation of what you can expect to find on each topic's page:
Autism definitions, descriptions, and diagnosis
- This page includes the current diagnostic criteria for autism, as well as criticisms of and/or supplements to the current diagnostic criteria. It also includes examples of how various organizations and individuals have defined and described autism. If you are looking for basic information about what autism is, or are wondering whether you or someone you know might be autistic, this page is a good place to start.
Different ways of viewing autism and disability
- This page contains explanations of the different theoretical and philosophical perspectives on disability in general and autism in particular.
Autism advocacy organizations
- This page contains links to the websites and social media accounts of a variety of organizations that support autism advocacy and autistic people.
Self-advocacy resources
- This page is aimed toward autistic people who want to learn how to advocate more effectively for their own needs. It contains a variety of books and handbooks on self-advocacy, as well as legal documents and other documents that can help autistic people advocate for their rights in institutional settings.
First person accounts from autistic people
- This page contains autobiographies, blogs, anthologies, and multimedia resources that show the first-person perspectives of autistic people themselves.
Professional perspectives on autism
- This page contains books and scholarly articles by people whose professional activity involves studying and/or working with autistic people. (Any works by autistic authors on this page are written from a professional and/or scholarly perspective rather than from an autobiographical perspective.)
Cultural and historical perspectives on autism
- This page contains resources that discuss the historical and cultural evolution of the concept of autism and autism advocacy movements.
Controversies
- This page describes current controversies that affect autistic people and autism advocacy efforts, and gives sources with more information about these controversies.
Research tips for searching a database or a library catalog:
- Typing autis* in the search field will return sources that use either the term "autism" or "autistic." This is important because some sources prefer to use identity-first language (i.e., "autistic person") and some sources prefer to use person-first language (i.e., "person with autism").
- If you want to learn more about the sociological and cultural aspects of autism, "autistic community" and "autistic culture" are good search terms to start with.
- Keep in mind that even if an article has been published in a peer reviewed journal, it might not be a reliable informational source for learning what autistic people are like and what their social and medical needs are. Consider the researchers' perspectives: How do they describe autism and autistic people? What kind of language do they use? What goals are they trying to accomplish? Do the researchers respect what actual autistic people have to say on matters that affect their own lives?
