How to Recognize Ableism in the Media
Journalists have the unique opportunity to potentially shift their reader’s perspective. Articles on autism can, if done well, lead their reader to a deeper understanding of autism. However, we live in a very imperfect world where there are frequently misconceptions about autism or stigma against autistic individuals. As such, it is all too common for articles to absorb (either overtly or subtly) harmful beliefs about autism.
How to write neurodiversity-affirming articles
A neurodiversity-affirming approach ideally starts before one actually begins writing the article. For example, a journal might choose which articles on autism to write about based on what their (predominantly non-autistic) reader base is interested in. It’s possible that, once these topics are chosen, the journal does an extraordinary job of covering the topics in an inclusive and balanced way– and that is wonderful!
But there’s a good chance that the topics may not be addressing issues that the autistic community would most like to see discussed, and in particular may not be addressing the most marginalised members of the autistic community. Before writing an article on autism, some guiding questions regarding topic choice might then be:
How did I choose to write on this topic? What am I hoping the impact is?
Have autistic people been involved in selecting topics?
(If you are writing for a journal or a place that frequently publishes articles on autism)-- Are some topics on autism frequently covered in this journal whilst others are overlooked? (For example, maybe the experience of autistic people with intellectual disabilities is overlooked despite good coverage of other autistic experiences. Or maybe the intersection of autism with other identities such as racial identity or financial privilege is overlooked.) If so, how does my article fit into this pattern?
Is my article likely to address issues related to quality of life for autistic/disabled people? (For example, access to healthcare, increased access to AAC devices, addressing high rates of abuse of autistic people in group homes, etc.)
There isn’t a unique right answer to the above questions and not every article needs to be a deep-dive into human rights issues. But I do think that keeping the above questions in mind and incorporating them (where possible) may be beneficial.
A neurodiversity-affirming approach ideally starts before one actually begins writing the article.
How to assess media I’m reading or watching:
For both readers and writers, I also have a brief checklist that ideally will help all in writing neurodiversity-affirming articles. Our checklist focuses on some of the more common (and often overlooked) signs that an article may have room for improvement. I’ve also provided two positive examples of neurodiversity-affirming journalism.
In general, the fewer signs that apply to your article, the better! Each element of the checklist represents an area where an article may not be neurodiversity affirming and could potentially have room for improvement. With that said, this checklist is meant to be a general guideline rather than a set of mandatory “must-haves”. For example, a non-autistic researcher studying sleep patterns in autism may write an excellent summary of their research– and in that case, the fact that no autistic people have been consulted for the summary doesn’t necessarily mean that it is not neurodiversity-affirming.
Items highlighted in red are points that we believe are particularly strong indications that an article may need improvement.
1.) The article is about autism, but it does not contain quotations or any form of input from any autistic people
Yes
No
Unsure
2.) The article attributes loss, pain, and suffering to autism. For example, some articles focus primarily on parents “grieving the loss of a normal child” or describe autism as something that autistic people “suffer from”.
Yes
No
Yes, but only in the context of an autistic person describing their own experiences this way (e.g. a nonspeaking autistic person feeling trapped before given access to AAC).
3.) The article does not take into account how other aspects of an autistic person’s identity may impact their experience. For example, an article may discuss police violence against autistic people but may omit the fact that autistic people who are additionally profiled on account of race or socioeconomic status are at much greater risk of police violence.
Yes
No
4.) All authors of the article are non-autistic.
Yes
No
Unsure
5.) The article attributes all challenges (e.g. sensory overload, apraxia) to autism itself, and does not discuss how external barriers, stigma, or discrimination that autistic people face contribute to these challenges
Yes
No
Unsure
6.) The article uses language that is not preferred by the autistic community (e.g. “person with autism”, “suffers from/is affected by/lives with autism”, functioning labels such as “high functioning” or “low functioning”, social impairments, etc)
Yes
No
Only in the context of someone describing themselves (e.g. calling someone a “person with autism” because that is how they identify). Throughout the rest of the article, neurodiversity-affirming terminology is used.
7.) The article portrays medical professionals or non-autistic parents of autistic children as the primary source of information about autism. This could be done by primarily or exclusively quoting parents or professionals instead of autistic individuals, or by referring only to organisations led primarily by parents or professionals (rather than autistic-led organisations.)
Yes
No
Unsure or somewhat
8.) The article features a few autistic people, but does not include any multiply marginalised autistic people or autistic people with higher support needs. For example, an article might feature three autistic people who are all white and financially privileged, and who do not have high support needs, do not use AAC to communicate, and do not have co-occurring physical disabilities.
Yes
No
Unsure
9.) The article focuses on a cure or treatment for autism designed to make autistic people (entirely or in part) more typical. An example of this could be a social skills training program with the goal of making the children “fit in with their peers” (rather than a goal of facilitating mutual understanding between the child and peers whilst respecting individual differences in communication.)
Yes
No
10.) There is no mention of neurodiversity or of the fact that autism can be a positive, fulfilling part of someone’s identity
Yes
No
No, but only because the article has a very narrow scope (e.g. the article is a technical article on sleep-wake cycles in autistic people)
11.) The article doesn’t contain perspectives from the relevant group of autistic people. Generally, this most often happens when articles about autistic people with higher support needs only include quotes from autistic people with lower support needs (for example, an article on treatment of autistic people living in group homes might only include quotes from autistic people who have never lived in a group home.)
Yes
No
Unsure
12.) The article infantilizes autistic people. Examples of infantilisation would be including parent/caregiver perspectives unnecessarily when interviewing an autistic adult. It could also include asking autistic people questions that would rarely be asked of a non-autistic adult. For example, one article briefly interviewed an autistic couple that had been living together for quite awhile and asked them if they had had sex yet. While not all romantic partnerships involve sex, it would be very unusual for the same question to be asked of a non-autistic, non-disabled couple that had been living together for years.
Yes
No
13.) The article portrays some autistic people positively at the expense of other autistic people. For example, articles may state something like: “while autism is sometimes associated with intellectual disability, many autistic people are highly intelligent and can go on to live independent, productive lives.”
Yes
No
14.) The article is newsworthy only because one or more of the people in it are autistic. For example, an article titled “teen asks autistic classmate to prom” would be unlikely to exist at all if the title was simply “teen asks classmate to prom.”
Yes
No
Yes, but the article does an excellent job of discussing why these ordinary events are perceived as notable when involving an autistic person. For the given example, it might discuss the stigma against autistic/disabled people finding a date.
Examples of Neurodiversity-Affirming Journalism:
“Meet the Autistic Scientists Redefining Autism Research”, SpectrumNews (excerpt)
“Involving the community in research goals is important because the types of autism research that get funded often differ from what autistic people want. For example, more than half of all autism research in the U.K. focuses on the underlying biology of autism — yet most of the 125 autistic people surveyed in a 2013 study said greater priority should go to research on public services, and almost half called for more research on improving life skills among autistic people. A 2015 survey of nearly 300 autistic individuals in the U.K. identified mental health as the most pressing research issue. And in a 2018 study conducted in the United States, 485 autistic individuals and their family members said they value research on health and well-being, the transition to adulthood and lifespan issues more than basic science research. “The outcomes that matter most [to people with autism] tie to improved quality of life,” Stewart says. Participatory research can give these preferences sway.
Autistic partners have been crucial to prioritizing research in these areas. They were essential, for example, in the development of an online healthcare tool kid for autistic adults and primary-care providers. Surveys and interviews with autistic adults revealed the main barriers to care. But the autistic partners were important for insuring that the tool kit would be as useful as possible for them and others like them. “As a physician and autism researcher, I certainly had plenty of ideas of my own, but I never would have been able to create a tool anywhere near as useful as we did as a team,” says Christina Nicolaidis, a health services researcher at Portland State University in Oregon who helped develop the tool kit. The contributions of one autistic partner in particular, the late Mel Baggs, “are infused through every aspect of the tool kit and are a big part of why it’s accessible, respectful and useful,” Nicolaidis says.”
What makes this article a positive example?
Firstly, the article focuses on an interesting topic (autistic autism researchers) that generally is under-discussed. The article features a few different autistic autism researchers at different stages in their career and appears to respect the language preferences of each researcher (switching between person-first and identity-first language accordingly.)
More generally, the article does an outstanding and thorough job of discussing barriers that autistic autism researchers often face (such as being perceived as “too autistic” to be a capable researcher, “not autistic enough” to relate to research subjects who may have higher support needs, or being viewed as biased due to their personal experiences with autism), highlighting the value that autistic autism researchers offer to the field, and what the future of autism research might look like.
REVIEW: The Reason I Jump – An Unusual Film With a Very Important Message
by Ben Breaux (excerpt)
“From the start of the production, Jerry Rothwell, the film’s director, wanted to give his audience a never before seen “sneak peek” into the inner workings of the autistic mind. That is, specifically, the minds of us nonspeaking, minimally speaking, or unreliably speaking autistics, as initially characterized in the book, The Reason I Jump. This is no easy task when we communicate in an entirely different method than standard vocal speech. We generally depend on one or more modalities of “Assisted Augmented Communication” (AAC) to be heard, but have a beautiful, intricate inner world to share. Jerry was intent on showing our world as we feel and see it. In our interview, he conveyed his aim to “take an audience into a different sensory experience so they were less reliant on the words people said and became more attentive to the nonspeaking characters and their environments.”
Unfortunately misrepresentation of us has been the norm. Too often film and media utilize harmful motifs and narratives when depicting autistics. These stereotypes are often outdated generalizations, or sometimes outright inaccurate, and based on years of misleading assumptions. Nonspeaking, minimally speaking, and unreliably speaking individuals are particularly vulnerable to these harmful misrepresentations since they require appropriate accommodations to speak for themselves. Too often our voice is disregarded or invalidated in the media and consequently, in society. The Reason I Jump provides a framework of how to correct these narratives.”
What makes this article a positive example?
This article is a film review for the film “The Reason I Jump”, which highlights the perspectives of nonspeaking or minimally speaking autistic people in several different countries. The film review shares many strengths already discussed in our previous example, such as highlighting an important topic (the experiences of nonspeaking or minimally speaking autistic people are all-too-often overlooked).
One additional strength of this film review is that the author is also a nonspeaking autistic person. All too often, autistic people are treated as a sort of monolith, where any autistic person is presumed to be knowledgeable about any topic related to autism. While it is true that autistic people often share common experiences, we are also a very diverse community and a nonspeaking autistic author is likely much more qualified to review this film (based on personal experience) than either a non-autistic author or a speaking autistic author.
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