Illuminating Autism: How the Neurotypical Bias Hurts Autistic Individuals and the Acknowledgment of the Undiagnosed Many
Illuminating Autism: How the Neurotypical Bias Hurts Autistic Individuals and the Acknowledgment of the Undiagnosed Many
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Issue Date
2024-09-30
Authors
Yeung, Ashley
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
The focus of this capstone is to better understand the late diagnosed and undiagnosed autistic adult experience. I lay out how society came to the understanding of autism we have today - starting in 1911 from a deficit medical model point of view, which society still largely holds, but is being challenged by the neurodiversity movement. The diagnosed prevalence of autism has gone from 1% to about 3.4%, due to an increased understanding of autism, and with the "lost generation" of late diagnosed and undiagnosed adults. I delve into autistic traits, and explore beyond the surface understanding of them, which highlight the presence of the neurotypical bias in society at large as well as in the helping professions. I go over the ways in which autistic people may have been harmed by this neurotypical bias, such as through misdiagnosis, a life of camouflaging, and very significantly, the female autism phenotype that has been unrecognized until recently, leaving so many autistic females ignored and unseen. I discuss autism in the context of ableism — how our world is designed for the neurotypical majority. Finally, presented in chapter three is an article I have written for RCCs about autism, in which I will illuminate some misconceptions about autism - expanding on the assumptions society has made about autism, and sharing how the neurotypical bias has blinded us to seeing autism clearly.
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Keywords
late diagnosed autism , undiagnosed autism , neurotypical bias
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess