 In other words, since autism is perceived as a special education issue, and since white  wealthy parents, communities, and schools disproportionately embrace special education programs, far more children are diagnosed with autism in those communities.

How Cultural Biases For and Against Special Education effect Autism as Rhetoric

In a recent study of New York City suburbs it was found that "affluent school districts" have more than five times the number of students who they classify as autistic when compared to school districts on the opposite end of the economic spectrum.

The same report noted that many white parents actively sought out diagnosis and placements in special-education classes for the children out of the belief that the accommodations offered would positively improve their children's academic experience. Whereas Black and Hispanic parents tended to be warier of special-education placements since the education system's institutional racism which often leads to placement of Black and Hispanic students in classes beneath their ability level.

Cultural Differences in Attitudes about Special Education and  Attitudes about Autism Diagnosis

- Difference in attitudes on race and socio-economic class lines.
- How these differences shape autism as rhetoric.


University of Wisconsin - Madison

Cultural Forces and Autism as Rhetoric

Heilker, P. (2012). Autism, rhetoric, and Whiteness. Disability Studies Quarterly, 32(4). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v32i4.1756 

Autism, Rhetoric, and Whiteness

Cultural Biases Surrounding Special Education

In the report about New York City suburbs, it was found that toddlers in poor families who aren't taken on regular visits to pediatricians are less likely to have their autism diagnosed when it first appears.

A recent study in California by Cone also showed that in the large clusters of autism in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where children are twice as likely to be diagnosed with autism, families in these clusters used to have higher rates of parents who were college graduates, and parents who had better access to medical experts who specialize in autism.

This difference is noticeable along socio-economic lines but also works to shape autism as a white phenomenon since African-American children are more likely to not have access to healthcare, experience greater discontinuity in healthcare, and/or are more likely to see multiple primary care physicians, the opportunity for a provider to make an accurate and timely diagnosis of autism is greatly jeopardized. 

The difference in access to care also widens for families who don't have access to help from state or federal agencies because of previous experiences with institutional raicsm or because of citizenship documentation status.

Access to Health Care and Autism as Rhetoric

Since many clinicians have a prevailing notion of what autism is based on stereotypes of its appearance in white cis males even when minority children with autism do get access to health care, there are diagnostic biases in place that delay if not prevent their being diagnosed with autism.

 Black children with autism-spectrum disorders are often misdiagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

Black children on average required three times the number of visits over a period three times as long as Caucasian children before receiving an autistic disorder diagnosis. While it usually takes three or four doctor's visits for a white family to get an accurate diagnosis for their autistic child, for Latino families it takes more than eight.

Diagnosis Biases and Autism as Rhetoric

 There is an association between the education level of an autistic children's parents and the likelihood of that child receiving services. Meaning the more educated a child's parents are, the more likely they are to seek educational and medical services if they suspect their child is autistic, and thus the more likely their children are to be diagnosed as autistic. 

This being the case, the current situation in American education, at least, which continues to have racially disproportionate results favoring greater degrees of achievement by white students, is thus heavily weighted toward perpetuating autism as a white phenomenon. According to the Civil Society Institute, 75% of white students graduate from U.S. high schools, but only 50% of black students, 51% of Native American students, and 53% of Hispanic students do.

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