Neuro-Typicals and Us: Identity and Disability in the Digital Ethnography of Autism in Second Life

• In Event: 422 - Regular Session. Ethnography/Ethnographic Studies 1

Abstract

Adult autism is often associated with social isolation due to inadequate cognitive and social skills. However, a view of autism as an inherent cultural identity holds that as only one side of the story. Based on digital ethnography, we attempted to examine the voices of adult members with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) regarding their identity, disability and pain in social life, through in-depth study of a mutual help group organized by people with ASD in virtual worlds. This paper examines the utility potential of virtual worlds such as Second Life (SL) in the establishment and easement of social interactivity for adult members of the ASD community. Of particular interest are the specific formation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships among those with ASD as well as others without. By means of these relationships, it is demonstrably within the reach of the members of the ASD community to effect a general enhancement of quality of life brought about by the existence of such a social environment in the medium of a virtual world.

Author

• Eiko Ikegami, New School for Social Research