4.0 Learning Outcomes and Introduction

Introduction

During the 1990s, autistic people were able to meet each other first by meeting at parent-run conferences on autism and then through the Internet (Tan, 2024). Tan used a sociological eye to illustrate the culture autistic people, their families, and practitioners create. Through interaction, individuals crafted a collective autistic identity that constructs autism as one form of human difference. In contrast experts and parents construct it as a disorder in need of a cure. Tan conducted observations at conferences, meetings, and other gatherings focused on autism. She also interviewed 71 participants, including autistic people, parents of autistic children, practitioners, and allies. Her research sought to understand how these different stakeholders understand and construct the condition.

Seeing autism as a form of human difference shows how social structure assumes that people are neurotypical. Neurotypical people meet expected intellectual and behavioral developmental milestones, which allows them to generally fit into society. In contrast, neurodivergent people, such as autistic people, have cognitive and behavioral characteristics that diverge. This difference can lead to negative outcomes for autistic people.

Tan’s (2024) research participants recounted how missing social cues as an autistic person had consequences like losing a job or not getting a job offer in the first place. Data from Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States shows that autistic adults have low employment rates compared to neurotypical adults (Bury et al., 2024). In Australia, for example, the unemployment rate for autistic adults is the highest among people with disabilities (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2024). Therefore, disability is another means by which social groups are stratified.

Tan (2024) reports that autism diagnoses and sociodemographic factors are linked. For example, autism is 3.8 times more prevalent among boys than girls (Maenner et al., 2023). Some argue that girls are underdiagnosed because their symptoms, like shyness, are gender-typical (UCLA Health, 2023). Higher-income households are more likely to have a child diagnosed (Tan, 2024). It is plausible that having a higher income means it is easier to get a formal diagnosis because a family has the resources to seek the evaluation of experts. Social stratification, therefore, is correlated with disability and diagnosis, including autism.

By conducting observational research at gatherings of autistic people, Tan (2024) was able to study socialization. Spaces set up by and for autistic people provided opportunities for them to interact with each other and create and enforce norms that reflected what they needed as autistic people. For example, Tan saw how attendees used color-coding on their name badges to show whether they wanted to talk only to others they knew or were open to strangers starting a conversation.

Studying gatherings of autistic people and their families allows researchers to understand how the cultural meanings of autism change over time. For instance, as autistic children become autistic adults, they can enact social change, affecting how autism and autistic people are socially constructed.