Autobiography on the Spectrum

Beth A. Myers is an assistant professor and director of the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education at Syracuse University.

• Acknowledgments viiPreface ix1. “I swam too far in the sea and drowned”: A Different View of Autism 1The Prevailing Deficit Model of Autism 2An Alternate View: Critical Disability Theory 4Autobiography and Autism 5Creating a Space for Inquiry 82. “The walls of my room”: Representations of Home and Family 16Opening Up: An Introduction to Billy 17Making Connections 22Exploring Relationships 25Expectations: The Way Things Are Supposed to Be 28Taking Risks: Telling Versus Not Telling 31Locating Self 36Claiming Ownership 393. “I hope school starts to calm down so I can too”: Enduring, Resisting, and Reframing School Experiences 41Imaging and Imagining: Looking Out at Others Looking In 43Charlie: Enduring Oppression 45Elizabeth: Resisting Oppression 50Cody: Reframing Oppression 55Making Space for Inquiry 604. “Nobody’s normal in a way”: Writing Ourselves into the Story of Autism 62(De)Constructing Autism 62Interrogating “Normal” 66Exploring the Potential of Narrative Works 68Disrupting the Autism Narrative 69Managing a Stigmatized Identity 70Autobiography as a Counternarrative 725. “I can do more than people think I can do”: On Discovering What We Seek 75Autobiographical Lives 76Creating for Agency 77Autobiography as a Counter-Practice 78Practitioner Inquiry: Making Meaning from Our Work 79How We Move Forward 81Multimodality and Access 88Considering My Own Place 90Notes 93References 95Index 101About the Author 107