This research proposal has raised a lot of issues and concerns from autistic people. Identity first language is really important that seems to have been missed. There are many issues for Black people within the context of diagnosis, mainly lack of access. Black boys in my experience are often labelled as badly behaved or diagnosed with conduct disorder. Black girls and women are under-represented and adult diagnosis is often impossible to get and seems to depend on where you live.
What seems to be missing in the text is the impact of racism and intersectionality issues of racism, sexism and abelism.
In the The Office of the Children’s Commissioner, report, ironically titled, ‘They Never Give Up on You’ – School Exclusion Inquiry (2012), identified:
‘A black Caribbean boy eligible for free school meals who also has special educational needs (SEN) is 168 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a white British girl without SEN and not eligible for free school meals’.