Decolonizing Autism (open access)

Decolonizing Stories of Autism in Education (open access)

Patty Douglas and Sheryl Peters

Abstract

Decolonizing Stories of Autism in Education is a narrative interviewing and multimedia storymaking initiative that brought together Indigenous and settler researchers and activists from Canada, New Zealand and the UK to make space in educational research for alternatives to Western biomedical deficit stories of autism and research. The initiative, led by Patty Douglas, focused on decolonizing autism research in education by decentring Western Enlightenment understandings of autism as delayed or disordered development and of research as located in disinterested objectivity, and by holding space for Indigenous understandings of autism. The collaboration is also mobilizing videos made on the project in professional development forums and public talks with educators, family, and practitioners to shift Western deficit-oriented educational practice.