Brief Report: Exploring Some Aspects of Social Activism in the Online Autistic Community

Abstract

The socio-political landscape surrounding autism, a set of neurological conditions existing on a spectrum and marked by difficulties in socializing, narrow interests, repetitive behaviors, and sensory sensitivities, has seen the neurodiversity social movement emerge with the perspective that neurological conditions represent normative differences rather than abnormality. Despite the movement, however, autistic people (we use both identity- and person-first language in our work, to respect the multiple language perspectives of people on the spectrum) still struggle with overt stigmatization. The present study tested the prediction that perceived discrimination–the extent to which individuals are aware of others’ negative views of their own group–would be related to higher levels of internalized stigma (the incorporation of stereotypes about one’s group into one’s identity), broad social activism, and autism/disability-related advocacy. Results partially supported hypotheses: Perceived discrimination and internalized stigma were negatively correlated, r(80) = -.55, p < .001; and general social-issues advocacy was negatively correlated with self-reported importance of disability, r(80) = -.22, p < .05 and autism-specific activism, r(80) = -.32, p < .01. In support, however, perceived discrimination correlated positively with the importance of autism-specific activism, r(80) = .38, p < .01, and with importance of general disability advocacy, r(80) =.28, p < .05. Hence, autistic people who valued activism reported engaging less in broad social-issues advocacy, but more in disability- and autism-related advocacy, and tended to perceive discrimination but not to internalize stigma. Implications for the activist online autistic community and future population-specific scale development are discussed.