Seminar: Autism-based discrimination in online groups: young people’s experiences of illegitimation

Research and policy narratives about autism and the Internet overwhelmingly focus on risks such as cyberbullying and addiction, emphasizing the portrayal of autistic young people as "victims" and contributing to pathologization. Since current research often assumes that bullying is the only form of autism-based discrimination and rarely explores how it functions in practice, a more nuanced analysis of online discrimination is needed. This talk focuses on autistic young people’s experiences of participating in online groups centered around their focused interests (e.g., fanfiction, wrestling, as well as autism itself). I use the applied linguistics framework of tactics of intersubjectivity (Bucholz and Hall, 2004) to analyze open-ended survey responses, focusing on illegitimation (withholding or revoking certain identities) as it emerged as a key linguistic means through which young people constructed their experiences. The results help explicate how young people’s identities were perceived to be illegitimated not only explicitly (being treated differently) but also implicitly (linguistic absences around neurodiversity or constructions contributing to unintelligibility and stereotypical portrayals of autism). I discuss how these exclusionary discursive practices can be challenged with positive language that accounts for a wider range of identities (e.g., centering narratives of joy and autistic passions) in order to create more inclusive spaces organized around shared interests.

 Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7(4–5):585–614

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