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Saturday, August 28, 2021

The Need for Lifespan Research

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee and research priorities.

 At Time, Eric Michael Garcia writes about the need for more research into lifespan issues:

And this is not for a lack of things to research about autistic people’s lifespans. Many autistic people still struggle to find employment—one study showed that autistic people in their early 20s had a lower employment rate than their disabled peers—and that is to say nothing of autistic people who go undiagnosed or diagnosed later, which is often the case for women, femme-presenting people and people of color. Similarly, it is divorced from the legitimate health needs such as how that biggest killer of autistic people with intellectual disabilities is epilepsy while those without intellectual disabilities are also at risk of dying from circulatory diseases like heart disease or suicide. Similarly, plenty of autistic people I interviewed for my book dealt with homelessness and poverty, while others are unable to access programs like Supplemental Security Income because they are not “disabled enough,” even while struggling to find employment.