Autism Journalism
Kristen Hwang at the Association of Health Care Journalists:In the face of government-sanctioned misinformation campaigns about autism, journalists must do more to include autistic voices in stories and recognize the nuance in each person’s disability experience, panelists at Health Journalism 2026 said.
Autism and other forms of neurodiversity are normal variations in brain function and should not be framed as a condition that needs to be “cured,” Milena Bates, speaker and co-founder of the Minnesota Autistic Alliance, said during the session.
“Neurodiversity is just a fact, same as diversity in general,” Bates said.
That means a universal autistic experience doesn’t exist and that reporters should seek out a variety of perspectives for their stories. People require varying levels of interventions and support, and a therapy that is helpful for one person may be harmful for another. Without neurodiverse voices, stories about the community are often “wrong about a lot of things,” Bates said.
Speaking with autistic people is particularly important, argued Bates and Julia Métraux, disability reporter for Mother Jones, at a time when Trump administration officials have pushed a narrative that erases the dignity of people with disabilities.
In 2025, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared the country would “eliminate” the “autism epidemic” within five months. Kennedy has supported policies casting doubt on vaccine safety and insisted, despite decades of evidence to the contrary, that vaccines cause autism.
The over-medicalization of autism, the implication that it is a disease that can spread, and the suggestion that autistic people need to change is harmful, disability advocates say.
