Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline

by Steven K. Kapp (Editor)

Overview

This open access book marks the first historical overview of the autism rights branch of the neurodiversity movement, describing the activities and rationales of key leaders in their own words since it organized into a unique community in 1992. Sandwiched by editorial chapters that include critical analysis, the book contains 19 chapters by 21 authors about the forming of the autistic community and neurodiversity movement, progress in their influence on the broader autism community and field, and their possible threshold of the advocacy establishment. The actions covered are legendary in the autistic community, including manifestos such as “Don’t Mourn for Us”, mailing lists, websites or webpages, conferences, issue campaigns, academic project and journal, a book, and advisory roles. These actions have shifted the landscape toward viewing autism in social terms of human rights and identity to accept, rather than as a medical collection of deficits and symptoms to cure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789811384363
Publisher:	Springer Nature Singapore
Publication date:	11/08/2019
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steven K. Kapp is a Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Exeter, UK, working on the Wellcome Trust-funded project Exploring Diagnosis: Autism and Neurodiversity. With backgrounds in public policy, education, psychology, and disability studies, he researches the lived experiences, support needs, and quality of life of autistic people.

Table of Contents

Foreword.- Introduction.- Part I: Gaining Community.- 1. Historicizing Jim Sinclair’s “Don’t Mourn for Us”: A Cultural and Intellectual History of Neurodiversity’s Origins.- 2. From Exclusion to Acceptance: Independent Living on the Autistic Spectrum.- 3. Autistic People Against Neuroleptic Abuse.- 4. Autistics.org and Finding our Voices as an Activist Movement.- 5. Losing.- Part II: Getting Heard.- 6. Neurodiversity.com: A Decade of Advocacy.- 7. Autscape.- 8. The Autistic Genocide Clock.- 9. Shifting the System: AASPIRE and the Loom of Science and Activism.- 10. Out of Searching Comes New Vibrance.- 11. Two Winding Parent Paths to Neurodiversity Advocacy.- 12. Lobbying Autism’s Diagnostic Revision in the DSM-5.- 13. Torture in the Name of Treatment: The Mission to Stop the Shocks in the Age of Deinstitutionalization.- 14. Autonomy, the Critical Journal of Interdisciplinary Autism Studies.- 15. My Time with Autism Speaks.- 16. Covering the Politics of Neurodiversity: And Myself.-17. “A Dream Deferred” No Longer: Backstory of the First Autism and Race Anthology.- Part III: Entering the Establishment?.- 18. Changing Paradigms: The Emergence of the Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto.- 19. From Protest to Taskforce.- Part IV.- 20. Critiques of the Neurodiversity Movement.- 21. Conclusion.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This book is a landmark, foundational text chronicling the birth and evolution of a new civil rights movement in the thoughts and words of the folks who made it happen. It should immediately be taught in any courses that touch upon autism, neurodiversity, and the history of the disability rights movement, and is destined to be regarded as a classic description of oppressed and marginalized people fighting their way toward autonomy and self-determination.” (Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity)

“This volume will be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the seismic shift in thinking about autism brought about by the neurodiversity movement. Embodying the disability rights motto, ‘nothing about us without us’, this collection of 19 chapters by autistic activists charts the formation, growth and influence of autistic self-advocacy and the neurodiversity movement. Steven Kapp has brilliantly edited and crafted a volume that challenges, informs and enlightens, while not shying away from controversies and debates.” (Professor Francesca Happé FBA FMedSci, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, King's College London, Past-President of International Society for Autism Research)

“Autistic advocates and the neurodiversity movement have radically changed understandings of autism across the world. In this outstanding collection, Steven Kapp brings together a collection of some of the most powerful campaigners to describe how they have achieved so much. Their accounts provide a vital reminder of the fundamental importance of their work and of the struggles that continue to this day. Everyone with an interest in autism and in justice should read it.” (Professor Liz Pellicano, Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University, Australia)