Neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism inhibit the capacity for social interaction. Scientists are aware that adults living with autism are able to create communities and social networks, but we know little about how that happens. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous empirically-grounded scientific fieldwork, asks how individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities develop sociality. This project will significantly enhance our knowledge of how members of an underrepresented group use various techniques and technologies to develop social networks and communities. It will also increase our knowledge of autism in adulthood and the ways adults with autism engage with others about the nature of the diagnostic classification. Heather Thomas, supervised by Dr. Keith M. Murphy of the University of California at Irvine, will investigate how adults with autism living in the United States establish and maintain social networks using various kinds of communicative practices and technologies. Research will be conducted among groups for adults with autism, autistic adults' networks on online social media websites, and national and regional autism conferences to learn about the social dynamics of online and offline social groups and networks created and sustained by adults with autism. Preliminary data suggests that these are ideal sites for examining the formation and maintenance of social groups for adults with autism, autistic adults' self-advocacy practices, and challenges to the widely held belief that autism, a neurodevelopmental disability, necessarily restricts one's interest in and capacity for social connection and meaningful community participation. Data will be collected through interviews, participation in and observation of online and offline social interactions, and collection of significant autism-related media produced in the last decade. In various social groups distributed across Southern California, the researcher will collect audiovisual data and produce descriptive notes through her participation in and observation of recurring weekly events. In exploring digital media sites frequented by autistic adults, she will document the social practices and communication technologies that members of this population use to form social networks.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
