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Autism and the Stigmas of Living with an Invisible Disability
Autism, at least for the less severely impaired, has been called an “invisible disability.” This is because the challenges faced by autistics are not as readily evident as those of other disabilities. A visually impaired person, or one using a wheelchair, is immediately seen as someone facing...
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Studying Us to Death: The Lethal Cost of Autism Research Without Autistic Investigators
I was formally diagnosed with autism and ADHD at the age of 44. I finally had an explanation for why so many things in my life seemed so much harder for me than for others. There was a reason I often felt like the people around me were having two conversations – one with words that I had full...
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Becoming the Person I Once Needed
I often think to myself, “I do this so that no other autistic child has to go through what I went through.” As an autism researcher with a background in social psychology, I’ve developed a pretty good understanding of stigma over time. But it wasn’t any article, study, course, or the...
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Increasing Autism Awareness and Reducing the Stigma of Autism in China
Autism Awareness Month, mandated by the United Nations (UN), provides an opportunity for scholars, community service providers, and the broader public to come together to increase community knowledge of autism. These events may help to reduce the stigma that surrounds this complex...
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How Stigma Creates Invisible Barriers for Autistic Individuals in Healthcare
As more individuals are diagnosed with/identify as autistic, societal awareness continues to grow. With the neurodiversity perspective, which views neurological differences as natural variations rather than deficits, also gaining recognition (Pellicano & den Houting, 2022), the U.S. healthcare...
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Insights from Amy Gravino: Autism and Sexuality Awareness and Advocacy
For millennia, sexuality has remained one of the most stigmatized and overlooked topics in the autism community, particularly when it comes to autistic adults. This stigma largely stems from decades of misinformation and a lack of understanding. In this interview, I speak with leading autism...
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The Mental Health Effects of Autism Stigma
Autism, in itself, is not a disorder of mental health. Yet autistic people are disproportionately affected by depression, anxiety, and suicidality. The connection is not biological alone — it is social. Much of the psychological distress experienced by autistic individuals stems from how they are...
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Wellbeing as a Protective Factor: Reducing Stigma and Centering Joy
There’s a deeply ingrained belief in our society, rarely said aloud but often reinforced, that autistic people can’t be happy. It shows up in lowered expectations, social exclusion, and systems that treat disability as a barrier to flourishing. This message is at the core of stigma, and it’s...
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The Neurodiversity Movement: Promoting Acceptance and Understanding
Diversity is a cornerstone of human society, encompassing the range of identities, experiences, and backgrounds people bring to their communities. This includes differences in ability, race, gender, age, and more. For people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD), diversity also...
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A Two-Way Street: Society and the Neurodiverse Community
Over 50 years ago, there were several theories in the area of social psychology put forth that I have been thinking more about lately. Like vinyl records, Polaroid cameras, and fanny packs, they can be worth pulling out and reexamining in order to help illuminate the complicated process of how...
