My Infectious Encounters as an Autistic Epidemic

Abstract

In contrast to understanding of Autism as an ugly1 disease requiring a cure, I position myself as autistic epidemic - a repulsively yet beautifully contagious activism and blend my story through a crip’d, queer’d temporality2. Intentionally opaque, I resist a naive economism that disabled bodies must perform normatively, legible labor to be valued. In this age of austerity, autistic peer supports can only partially compensate for the lack of available, affordable services.