02/26/2024
In celebration of Black History Month, we wanted to highlight the experiences of the Black Autistic people within our community.
Given that Autistics @ UW is a very small community with no serving Black officers, we have not created any of our own educational materials, but instead have tried to highlight the voices of Black Autistics and advocates. For those looking to learn about the experiences of Black Autistics, The Color of Autism Foundation works to support Black Autistic people and their families (thecolorofautism.org, ). For leaders and educators with extra money to spend on an admission ticket, Autism in Black will host their annual virtual conference this April 19-24th (autisminblack.org, ). The University of Washington Libraries offers access to educational materials including Elizabeth Drame’s book The Resistance, Persistence and Resilience of Black Families Raising Children with Autism and All the weight of our dreams: on living racialized autism, edited by Lydia X.Z. Brown, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, and E. Ashkenazy.
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Image 1: Maire Diemer. from Katherine Gilyard’s article, “How Black autistic women and girls are excluded from conversations on resources and research,” published June 7, 2023 at The 19th.
Image 2: Bria Herbert. from Katherine Gilyard’s article, “How Black autistic women and girls are excluded from conversations on resources and research,” published June 7, 2023 at The 19th.
Image 3: Shanter Alexander. from Amber D. Dodd’s article, “Diagnosing Autism in Black Children,” published 2023 in Howard Magazine.