Empowering a Disabled Identity: An Examination of Goals and Antecedents of Autism Activism on Twitter

Abstract

Online activism is an emergent form of collective action. We examined collective action strategies employed by neurodiversity activists on Twitter (now known as X) to create counternarratives to mainstream narratives that frame autism as a deficit. Tweets from #ActuallyAutistic and #Autism—two hashtags with differing narratives about autism—were coded for goals of collective action (information dissemination, influence, support giving and experience sharing) and antecedents of collective action (social identity, injustice, positive efficacy and negative efficacy). #ActuallyAutistic tweets featured more instances of social identity, negative efficacy and information dissemination themes than #Autism tweets, whereas #Autism tweets included more instances of support giving themes. Regression analyses indicate that, among #ActuallyAutistic tweets, experience sharing was positively predicted by the presence of user's self-efficacy themes but negatively predicted by themes of identity and injustice. Injustice predicted information dissemination themes, whereas social identity predicted support giving/seeking themes. Among #Autism tweets, only perceived injustice predicted information dissemination themes. We discuss implications for understanding how the autistic community uses online networks and narratives for empowerment, social change and collective action. Please refer to the Supporting Information section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.