Autism and Decolonial Perspectives

• In Event: Interdisciplinary Provocations: Knowledge Production and Counter-Discourses

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has received worldwide attention and is increasingly considered to be a “global” condition. The dominant discourse on autism nests within a biomedical model where autism is viewed as a universal construct. The last few decades have witnessed the rise of counternarratives that challenge the traditional understandings of autism. This paper draws on the findings of a recent empirical study, decolonial theory, and the literature on the disability experience in the Global South to present another counternarrative. It elaborates on how the seemingly global discourse on autism represents a Eurocentric view on autism. The dynamics of power inherent in this dominant discourse are examined as are the ways in which indigenous knowledges of autism are obscured.

Author

• Shridevi Rao, The College of New Jersey