A Call for Expanding the Diversity of Voices in Autism Research Engagement

Abstract

Recently, there has been a push to increase research engagement within the autism community. Historically, research engagement has largely focused on childhood disability research and participatory autism research remains rare (den Houting et al., 2021). This gap in the literature can often result in the substitution of parents’ voices for those of their Autistic children within the framework of family-centred services. This article argues that research engagement should be conducted in a way that can represent the wider autism community and cautions against allowing voices of one element of the autism community to speak for the whole.