Only a minute of Dr Farahar’s interview could be included in the BBC Newsnight piece: “Tensions build between autism researchers and the Autistic community”. They also discussed during the 45 minutes not aired:
- The need for intersectional research to represent Black Autistics and Autistics of Colour
- Research methods that afford non-speaking Autistics to have their perspectives included in research
- How they hear from families with Autistic young people with high support needs, and how families’ priorities are also at odds with non-autistic “autism” researchers, where families want:
- better services;
- better/adapted therapies;
- medical support, and research for co-occurs like epilepsy and apraxia (difficulty or inability to speak)
- Dr Farahar also talked about how no research that is about human beings can be knowledge/science for science’s sake – no researcher or human phenomena under study exists in a vacuum with no macro consequences/implications
- Dr Farahar explained how they can perspective take with the difficulties non-autistic “autism” researchers are experiencing following scrutiny from Autistic people, families, and allies, but that they will always prioritise the needs and emotions of families and Autistic people themselves who are struggling to survive (where the greatest cause of death for Autistic people without a learning disability is suicide and is epilepsy for Autistic people with a learning disability)
Sadly, with the limited representation of Dr Farahar’s key points, the YouTube comments are distressing, ableist, and reactionary. We recommend avoiding the comments section.
