ERIC Number: EJ1479948
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Sep
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1362-3613
EISSN: EISSN-1461-7005
Available Date: 0000-00-00
'Building Our Own House' as an Insider-Only Community-Partnered Participatory Research Council: Co-Creating a Safe Space for Autistic Knowledge Production
Gemma L. Williams1; Rebecca Ellis1; Willow Holloway1,2,3; Selena Caemawr1,4; Monique Craine1,5; Kathryn Williams1,2,6; Aimee Grant1
Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, v29 n9 p2205-2215 2025
This article describes and reflects on the first six meetings of a newly established Autistic community council, founded to steer a participatory, longitudinal qualitative study investigating the reproductive health of Autistic people with wombs. The two key aims of these initial six meetings -- involving four Autistic community leader members and three Autistic researchers -- was to (1) guide the start of the project and the development of accessible recruitment materials for the future eight lay members and (2) establish a safe space and a model of accessible communication. We draw on extracts from transcripts made during meetings, member 'field' notes and a reflexive co-writing practice to identify the ways in which a sense of safety was built during these first community council meetings. We explore what it means to be an "insider"-only Community Partnered Participatory Research Council and reflect on the praxis we developed to facilitate Autistic knowledge production.
Descriptors: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Community Organizations, Community Study, Community Leaders, Researchers, Participatory Research, Safety, Cooperation
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Swansea University, UK; 2Autistic UK, UK; 3Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales, UK; 4Aubergine Café, UK; 5NeuroDivergent Matters, UK; 6Cardiff University, UK