Valuing autistic adolescents as epistemic agents and experts of their own lives

Abstract

Autistic individuals, in particular autistic adolescents are often seldom-heard and in turn can be denied personhood, across a range of social environments, including education and research. The field of autism research has often failed to attend to the views and voices of those with embodied experience, those who have specialist expertise, the voice of autistic people themselves. As such, autistic adolescents experience epistemic injustice, in which their capacity as a knower or epistemic agent who creates, uses, or conveys knowledge, including their lived experience, is rejected. This thesis seeks to amplify the voices of autistic adolescents by exploring their views and experiences in relation to pertinent aspects of identity. The systematic literature review in Chapter 2, explores how autistic adolescents conceptualise autism, whilst Chapter 3, an empirical paper, examines the effects of gender stereotypes on adolescents who identify as autistic and gender diverse. In turn, this thesis aims to re-examine narratives surrounding autism, ensuring that they are formed by those for whom they are concerned, those with lived experience and therefore value autistic adolescents as epistemic agents and experts of their own lives.

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ORCID for Henry Wood-Downie: orcid.org/0000-0003-4965-7778

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