Decolonizing Stories of Autism

Patty Douglas (Project Director and Lead Researcher) and Sheryl Peters (Project Coordinator)

Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba (Patty is now at Queen’s University, as of July 1, 2023.)

Recent Publications on this Project:

Douglas, P., & Peters, S. (2022). Decolonizing stories of autism in education. Brandon University Research Connection. https://www.brandonu.ca/research-connection/article/decolonizing-stories-of-autism-in-education/

Douglas, P., Rice, C., Gibson, M., Hastie, J., & Shields, R. (2026). Beyond ‘inclusionism’: Unmaking and remaking autism and inclusion through creative research. In C. Rice, N. Changfoot & E. Chandler (Eds.). Practicing the Social. Wilfred Laurier Press.

Abstract

Decolonizing Stories of Autism in Education is a narrative interviewing and multimedia storymaking intitiative that brought together Indigenous and settler researchers and activists from Canada (Brandon University, Univeristy of Guelph, Renison College at University of Waterloo), Aotearoa (Massey University and Takiwātanga Trust, New Zealand) and the UK (University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University) to make space in educational research for alternatives to western biomedical deficit stories of autism and research. The initiative focused on decolonizing autism research in education by decentring western Enlightenment understandings of autism as delayed or disordered development (Gibson & Douglas, 2018) and of research as located in disinterested objectivity, and by holding space for Indigenous understandings of autism (see, for example Bevan-Brown, 2013). The collaboration is also mobilizing first-person videos made on the project in professional development forums and public talks with educators, family and practitioners to shift western deficit oriented educational practice. To read this issue of Research Connection, go to https://www.brandonu.ca/research-connection/

Keywords: decolonizing autism research, multimedia storymaking, arts methods, critical autism studies, disability studies in education