Autism (eBook)

This expanded second edition of Mitzi Waltz's Autism: A Social and Medical History offers an in-depth examination of how the condition was perceived before it became a separate area of investigation, and how autism has been conceptualised and treated since. As well as strengthening the existing text, Waltz has added material on a number of topics that have received increased attention since the first edition, including the rise of the anti-vaccination movement, the shift towards genetic and genomic research, and the progress of the autism self-advocacy movement.

The author examines these issues through the perspective of what they mean for autistic people, clinicians and society, and looks at the challenges still faced by autistic people. Waltz also looks at the increased autism diagnosis among girls and women, and how autism has been represented in traditional media and social media. The book includes information from interviews with key researchers, parents of autistic children and people with autism.

Mitzi Waltz is a disability historian and media and cultural studies researcher with a long-term involvement with autism research and disability studies. Currently a docent/researcher at Vrije Universteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, she was formerly programme leader in Autism Studies at the Autism Centre of Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom, a senior lecturer in Autism Studies at the Autism Centre for Education and Research (ACER) at the University of Birmingham, and a senior lecturer at the University of Sunderland. She is the author of many research articles, book chapters and books, including Alternative and Activist Media (2005) and Autistic Spectrum Disorders (2002).