ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the importance of adopting an autistic rights framework, embracing heterogeneity and recognising diversity in the autistic community. Psychology in the future needs to work harder to ask questions and employ methods that can increase translation of research into practical impacts on autistic people and their allies. Psychology is a hub discipline, at the interface of biology, medicine, education and social sciences. Public awareness of autism has increased enormously, resulting in better understanding in the community. Autistic people experience profound disadvantage as a result of commonly co-occurring conditions, including epilepsy, learning disability and language disorder. Setting aside for a moment the continuum from autistic to autistic traits, heterogeneity within the constellation remains a profound challenge. Regarding the influence of intersectionality in autism, psychology may play a role to characterise lived experiences and make informative comparisons between groups.
