Zoe Collier is a member of the ARC North East and North Cumbria’s Young People’s Advisory Network.
As part of our week-long series of blogs to mark International Women’s Day, Zoe shares her experiences as an autistic woman in academia.
Breaking the bias in autism research
While researching the latest campaign theme for 2022 – #BreakTheBias – I found that this phrase particularly resonated with me and my journey into autistic-led autism research.
I was first introduced to autism academia during A-Level Psychology through Wing and Gould’s Triad of Impairments, categorising autistic people by deficits in our communication, social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour.
Ostracised by my peers because of my otherness, I became well-acquainted with the Sally-Anne test as evidence of my deficiency. During this time in my life, I felt unable to express my own experiences as an autistic young person as I ‘lacked objectivity’ and was simply ‘not qualified enough’ to challenge it.
It wasn’t until my second year of university that I discovered the neurodiversity paradigm and was introduced to autistic academics – people just like myself – that have helped to dismantle these two-dimensional, non-autistic based autism theories and improve the lives of autistic people.
Since joining the ARC, I am able to be unapologetically myself and showcase the real-life experiences of my community through collaborating with like-minded, autistic scholars and peers. Now that I am 20-years old, I am continuing to help and encourage other young people to #breakthebias in autism research so that we can help create a better future for autistic people.
By Zoe Collier, Young People’s Advisory Network member