Critical autism studies

{{Short description|Interdisciplinary research field led by autistic people}}

Critical autism studies (CAS) is an interdisciplinary research field within autism studies led by autistic people.{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=Richard |title=Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders |last2=Waldock |first2=Krysia Emily |publisher=Springer |year=2021 |isbn=978-3-319-91280-6 |editor-last=Volkmar |editor-first=Fred R. |editor-link=Fred R. Volkmar |edition=2nd |location=Cham |pages=1240–1248 |language=en |chapter=Critical Autism Studies |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-91280-6_102297}}{{cite journal |last1=O’Dell |first1=Lindsay |last2=Bertilsdotter Rosqvist |first2=Hanna |last3=Ortega |first3=Francisco |last4=Brownlow |first4=Charlotte |last5=Orsini |first5=Michael |date=2016 |title=Critical autism studies: exploring epistemic dialogues and intersections, challenging dominant understandings of autism |journal=Disability & Society |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=166–179 |doi=10.1080/09687599.2016.1164026 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024}}{{Cite book |last1=Milton |first1=Damian |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003056577 |title=The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Autism Studies |last2=Ryan |first2=Sara |date=2022-10-21 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-05657-7 |edition=1 |location=London |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781003056577}} This field is related to both disability studies and neurodiversity studies.{{Cite journal |last=Freeman Loftis |first=Sonya |date=2023-12-13 |title=Critical Autism Studies: The State of the Field |url=https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/ought/vol5/iss1/5/ |journal=Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture |volume=5 |issue=1 |doi=10.9707/2833-1508.1147 |issn=2833-1508|doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal |last1=Woods |first1=Richard |last2=Milton |first2=Damian |last3=Arnold |first3=Larry |last4=Graby |first4=Steve |date=2018-07-03 |title=Redefining Critical Autism Studies: a more inclusive interpretation |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2018.1454380 |journal=Disability & Society |language=en |volume=33 |issue=6 |pages=974–979 |doi=10.1080/09687599.2018.1454380 |issn=0968-7599}}{{Cite journal |last1=Mallipeddi |first1=Nathan V. |last2=VanDaalen |first2=Rachel A. |date=2022-12-01 |title=Intersectionality Within Critical Autism Studies: A Narrative Review |journal=Autism in Adulthood |language=en |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=281–289 |doi=10.1089/aut.2021.0014 |issn=2573-9581 |pmc=9908281 |pmid=36777375}}

CAS as a discipline is led by autistic academics, and many autistic people engage with the discipline in nonacademic spaces. The point of this field's existence is to give power to the voices of autistic people in autism research, but there is critique of the field for failing to represent the depth of how intersectionality affects autistic people. The field of critical autism studies was created for the purpose of creating a better life for autistic individuals through the challenging of the medical model of disability, ableism against autistic individuals, and harmful stereotypes about autism. Many CAS scholars are from fields in the social sciences and humanities.

The primary components of this field of research are how autism as a label is impacted by power relations between autistic and non-autistic scholars, challenges against the medical model of disability and deficit narratives in relation to autism, and how autism as an identity is highly individualized. Two other components that have been proposed but have not been widely accepted within CAS are whether autism diagnoses are valid given the way that autism as a label has been created by non-autistic people and what the value of an autism diagnosis is.